Song Lyric Sunday: Sun – ‘Fat Old Sun’

Seeing this week’s theme of ‘Sun’ took me straight to this song by Pink Floyd, and also straight back to June 1973. I had finished my final exams and was occupying the peculiar status known – at British universities any way – as ‘graduand’. That’s the strange no-man’s land between being an undergraduate and a graduating. In other words, I was waiting for the results.

But meanwhile, your time is your own: no more revision, no lectures, no essays to write. So, taking advantage of a lovely sunny week, armed with my little cassette player and tape of ‘Atom Heart Mother’ I took myself down to the riverside just by the Westgate in Canterbury, lay flat on my back, feeling the waarm sun on my face and listening to this:

When that fat old sun in the sky is falling,
Summer evening birds are calling.
Summer’s thunder time of year,
The sound of music in my ears.
Distant bells,
New mown grass smells so sweet.
By the river holding hands,
Roll me up and lay me down.
And if you sit,
Don’t make a sound.
Pick your feet up off the ground.
And if you hear as the warm night falls
The silver sound from a time so strange,
Sing to me, sing to me.
When that fat old sun in the sky is falling,
Summer evening birds are calling.
Children’s laughter in my ears,
The last sunlight disappears.
And if you sit,
Don’t make a sound.
Pick your feet up off the ground.
And if you hear as the warm night falls
The silver sound from a time so strange,
Sing to me, sing to me.
When that fat old sun in the sky is falling,
Summer evening birds are calling.
Children’s laughter in my ears,
The last sunlight disappears.

Music and Lyrics by David Gilmour

Time to sit back and pretend that summer’s here.

Song Lyric Sunday: ‘Sun’

 

4 thoughts on “Song Lyric Sunday: Sun – ‘Fat Old Sun’

  1. Good Lord Deaders! I almost set the controls for the heart of the sun after reading that piece! Fortunately, I don’t live too far from Granchester Meadows where I laid me down ’til the madness passed. Phew!

  2. Your story invoked images of summer and warmth and I wanted to be right there. The song only enhanced that feeling. Thanks so much for sharing it. I was never a huge Pink Floyd fan, but I enjoyed this song a lot! 🙂

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