I see that Tim's recent post about commitment and gay marriage attracted quite a lot of adverse comment, and Ridley Grove's bit of whimsical imaginings irritated many of our serious-minded readers. So I thought I'd write a whimsical piece about commitment.
The process was actually even neater than that – as I read the comments on those posts, I was also mid-discussion about the merits of the album Pet Sounds with some (non-Tory) friends.
From that album, the song Wouldn't it be Nice? is on my mind. To me, it is a song for everyone on the right. To semi-fisk:
Wouldn't it be nice if we were older,
Then we wouldn't have to wait so long?
See? Right there, there's something for our pro-abstinence friends.
And wouldn't it be nice to live together
In the kind of world where we belong?
Take it as you find it – given the state of much of modern Britain, from which many on our side of politics feel alienated, and “the kind of world where we belong” sounds pretty appealing.
You know it's gonna make it that much better
When we can say “goodnight” and stay together
Because at present, “we” don't: our hero and his love are observing traditional modes of moral behaviour. And skipping ahead,
Happy times together we'd be spending
And wishing every kiss was never-ending
A slightly ugly form used to artificially produce the rhyme, but still – if a kiss were never-ending, why, then this is the very embodiment of fidelity!
Maybe if we think and wish and hope and pray
It might come true
The desire for a better future and a brighter world, reached through prayer - need I even say it..? And anyway, here comes the best bit for the theory:
We could be married
And then we'd be happy
Bin-GO!
And if that weren't enough, there's the overarching theme of delayed gratification for future pleasure, the absence of swear words or even double entendre, a traditional view of romance, etcetera. It's too saccharine for some, I know, but surely with all this it's an anthem for our cause! Our clever friends at the New Culture Forum could probably add stuff about the form and structure of the music, too.
My friend Peter Cuthbertson reminds me that in his great book The Abolition of Britain, Peter Hitchens talks about the surprisingly traditional nature of mainstream popular music even into the later part of the 1960s. I suppose in one way, either almost no pop songs are “conservative”, or, with a very old-fashioned sense of romantic fidelity and love and commitment, almost all of them are.
Anyway. If you think there's a more conservative pop song (not counting Christian rock, obviously) then let me know.
