Friday, May 01, 2015

"Look through any window" ... . Really?

This was one of my favourite tracks, back in the day.


Look through any window yeah, what do you see?
Smilin' faces all around rushin' through the busy town

(Where do they go) movin' on their way
Walkin' down the highways and the by-ways
(Where do they go) movin' on their way
People with their shy ways and their sly ways

Oh you can see the little children all around
Oh you can see the little ladies in their gowns when you

Look through any window yeah, any time of day

---
Don't know where to start really: voyeurism, paedophilia, ... and this record wasn't even banned in 1965. Truly a more innocent age ... though perhaps their (somewhat feeble) defence might have been that they were looking out of the window?

Back in the present day, Janice Turner writes in The Times (Thursday, April 30th 2015).
"Within moments of arriving at my mother’s house, we had our usual argument about curtains. Dusk was approaching, but the street still glowed; my favourite time of day. But, no, the curtains must be drawn immediately because “people can see in”."
That was, and is, the working class way. But not, apparently, for the posh people in North London.
"But she is right, people will look in. Because whenever I walk in the posher curtainless London suburbs after dark, I stare in unseen to admire Poggenpohl units or Scandi lighting. But mainly to observe unselfconscious tableaux of ordinary life: man reading newspaper; weary mother staring into space while child plays; piano practice. Subjects for a modern Vermeer."
So now it's OK to look out and look in? Who knew?

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