For the last forty years, Colin Hay has enjoyed a very successful musical career.
Videos by American Songwriter
Known primarily for his work with the chart topping / groundbreaking band Men at Work in the early 1980’s, it’s hard to say if Hay and his Australian brethren helped make MTV or if the fledgling music channel helped make them. Either way, that success laid the foundation for a lifelong career that includes work as a solo artist, an actor, and membership in Ringo Starr’s All-Starr Band.
These days, Hay is still creating new music; pandemic and stay-at-home lockdown be damned.
Enter “Now And The Evermore,” written by Hay to remind us all to live in the present moment and fill it with compassion and kindness. Though the song was written quite recently, Hay had to reach back all the way to his childhood for the actual song itself.
“When I was a child walking home from school, I would sometimes cut through the graveyard,” remembers Hay. “It was a little foreboding, and if it was getting dark, I always ran as fast as I could, and imagined there were witches chasing me, not sure why. At some point I realized that there were people under the gravestones and that had a big impact on me.”
A morbid visual perhaps, but not something all of us haven’t experienced. The eerie setting of a cemetery cloaked in darkness can pierce the innocent mind of a child with scary illusions of the unknown beneath. However the graduation from the mere knowledge of bodies lying under your feet to the realization that those bodies were, in reality, just people is a maturity milestone event for anyone.
“From that cemetery I got a sense of the evermore, other worldly, mysterious, scary, yet strangely comforting. I would read the names on the headstones and imagine their lives. And here they were, speaking to me, amongst the grass overgrown, the wildflowers, and the birdsong, forever.”
“The Dance Macabre laughs in the face of death, and why not, it is a fate that awaits us all, regardless of wealth or so-called status. I receive so much love and warmth from all over the world, that I am both nourished and buoyed by it. In this spirit, the present moment is all powerful. And, in this life, I am constantly reminded to endeavor to fill it with compassion and kindness, right now, for tomorrow is not guaranteed. Hope you enjoy the tune.”
The video, made at Hay’s California, Topanga Canyon home, also features his wife, Peruvian musician Cecilia Noël and his guitarist San Miguel Perez. Hay is currently working on a new solo album for Compass Records penciled in for an early 2021 release.
