A Special Song Lyric Friday – July 18 2008

Twenty-seven years ago on this date was a hot day in July, the very opposite of a cold day in December (sorry, that’s an inside joke).  It was the day that Shelley and I were married in a civil ceremony at her Grandma’s farm in Valhalla, Alberta in the company of family and friends.

Although we had been “living in sin” for almost two years, we spent our respective “last night of freedom” apart.  She and her bridesmaids spent the night at the farm and I was supposed to be at our place in town (um, it didn’t exactly work out that way…).

Shelley’s bridesmaids, Terry and Bev, were also her best friends.  And they were all equipped with the ability to party.  Despite all best efforts for one last girls’ night on the town, I heard later that all efforts fizzled and they wound up spending a less than spectacular evening in a comedy of errors.  The whole celebration never got off the ground, I gather.

I fared a little better I suppose, if you can put it that way.  I wound up hanging out with John, the boyfriend (and soon to be husband and then ex-husband) of bridesmaid Bev, my soon to be sister-in-law and another gal.  I think we managed to close down the local drinking establishment and then toured every after-hours bush party hot spot in the area.  Once we’d exhausted all of those places we found ourselves at John’s place.  The sun was coming up when we all crashed.

Needless to say, I overslept.  By the time I got back to our place, the phone was ringing off the hook.  (This was the “olden days”, before cell phones and answering machines.) Shelley had been calling all over to find either me or her sister with no luck and was worried sick.  I don’t really recall how that conversation went, but I knew I was supposed to go out to the farm to mow the yard and get everything set up for our wedding later that day.

The day went by (imagine riding a mower around in the blistering sun with a significant hangover) and all the planned preparations were completed.  The ceremony came off with only a couple of hiccups including the Justice of the Peace getting lost on the way out and arriving about 30 minutes late.

Later it was off to the reception/wedding dance at a community hall in town.  This is where the lyrics part comes in.  Shelley had contacted a band out of Dawson Creek, BC through a newspaper ad and booked them.  For our first dance song she wanted “Years From Now” by Dr. Hook.

“Did they know it?”

“No.”

“If I send you a cassette tape, can you learn it?”

“Sure.”

So she got a mailing address, dutifully recorded the song onto a cassette tape and mailed it to them.

At the hall, the band arrives and begins to set up.  Shelley and I meet with the band to discuss last minute arrangements and the musical line up for the evening.

She asks, “So, you’ve got ‘Years From Now’ down for the opening dance, right?”

“What?  No, we don’t know that one.”

“But I sent you a tape so you could learn it!”

“Tape?”

“You didn’t get it?”

“No.”

Observing her distress, the band guy says, “Well, we could do Ann Murray’s ‘Could I Have This Dance?’ for you.  Everyone’s using that one this year.”

“?!?!”

It’s not that she didn’t like that song (she didn’t exactly love it either), it’s just that, well, everyone was using it that year.  And she had her heart set on ‘Years From Now’.

Finally, seeing no other option, she agreed to have ‘Could I Have This Dance’ as our first dance number.  And that’s what we had.

For today, in commemoration of what would have been our 27th wedding anniversary, I’m posting the lyrics to Dr. Hook’s “Years From Now”:

Years From Now

Written by: Roger F. Cook & Charles Cochran
Performed by: Dr. Hook

Years from now, I’ll want you years from now.
And I’ll hold you years from now, as I love you tonight.
You are my one true friend, always my one true friend.
And I’ll love you till life’s end, as I love you tonight.

I know this world that we live in can be hard now and then.
And it will be again, many times we’ve been down.
Still love has kept us together, the flame never dies,
When I look in your eyes the future I see.

Wanting you years from now, and holding you years from now,
And loving you years from now, as I love you tonight.

[ Instrumental break. ]

I know this world that we live in can be hard now and then.
And it will be again, many times we’ve been down.
Still love has kept us together, the flame never dies.
When I look in your eyes the future I see.

Wanting you years from now, and holding you years from now,
And loving you years from now, as I love you tonight.

(Years from now.)
(Years from now.)
(Years from now.)
[ Fade. ]
(Years from now.)
(Years from now.)

There are no videos of Dr. Hook performing this song on youtube, but if you do a youtube search you’ll come up with a cover or two that you can listen to if you like.

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