Een verzoeknummer van onze zieke collega Arnold. All The Children Sing hangt ergens tussen prog en pop in, dus trek je niet teveel aan van de titel van dit stuk: in tegenstelling tot de gemiddelde progrock – nou vooruit – “song” is All The Children Sing meezingbaar. Het latere werk van Todd Rundgren kan m.i. niet in de schaduw staan van de meesterwerken Something/Anything en A Wizard/A True Star, maar met Hermit of Mink Hollow, waarvan dit de openingstrack is, deed Rudgren in elk geval een dappere poging de oude glorie te doen herleven.
Catchy progrock: je komt het niet vaak tegen.
She spends another quiet evening alone
Sits in her study and stares at the phone
And a bell in her head will ringAll the children sing
All the dancers start to sway in time
The orchestra begins to play
Somebody pours the wine
The sun and moon collide
Isn’t gravity a funny thing
The universe explodes apart
All the children sing
Of Mr. Malloy
He’s always seen himself as one of the boys
He thinks that men are tough and women are toys
But a bell in his head will ring
All the children sing
All the birds are chirping harmony
The scent of love is in the air
Sunset on the sea
The angel of the lord
Just declared we aren’t worth a thing
The galaxy is null and void
All the children sing
Crawled across a thousand miles of desert sand
Looking from an answer from a holy man
And this is what he told me with a wave of his hand
He said, “A bell in your head will ring”
Here’s to the Chinaman, wise and old
Here’s to the Eskimo, brave and cold
Here’s to the Jew in the holy land
Here’s to the Arab in his caravan
Here’s to the African, strong and proud
Here’s to the redneck, good and loud
Here’s one to you and there’s one more thing
A bell in your head will ring
Uitgelichte afbeelding: By Ian Muttoo from Mississauga, Canada – Tony Levin and Todd Rundgren in Toronto, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=9789145
