Yesterday when I was young - Roy Clark

 

h pain my dazzled eyes 
    Yesterday when I was young - Roy Clark     It seems the love
I've known has always been
the most destructive kind
Yes, that's why
now I feel so old
before my time

Yesterday
when I was young
The taste of life was sweet
As rain upon my tounge

I teased that life
as if it were a foolish game
The way the evening breeze
may tease a candle flame

The thousand dreams I dreamed
the splendid things I planned
I always built to last
on weak and shifting sand

I lived by night
shun the naked light of day
And only now I see
how the years ran away

Yesterday when I was young
so many happy songs
were waiting to be sung

So many wild pleasures
lay in store for me
And so much pain
my dazzled eyes refused to see

I ran so fast that time
and knew the last ran out
I never stopped to think
what life was all about

And every conversation
I can now recall
concerned itself with me
and nothing else at all

Yesterday
the moon was blue
And every crazy day
brought something new to do

I used my magic age
as if it were a wand
And never saw the waste
and emptiness beyond

The game of love I played
with arrogance and pride
And every flame
I lit too quickly quickly die

The friends I made
all seem somehow to drift away
And only I am left
on stage to end the play

There are so many songs
that needed and wanted to be sung
I feel the bitter taste
of tears upon my tongue
The time has come for me to pay
for yesterday when I was young

Roy Clark
1939년에 미국에서 태어나 아버지에게 벤조 연주법을 배우며
10대 때부터 탁월한 벤조 연주실력을 보였다고 합니다.
벤조로 유명해진 로이클락은 텔레비전 드라마의 주연을 맡기도 하는등
여러 방면에서 활동을 하다가

1969년 첫번째 레코드로 발표한
Yesterday when I was young이 컨트리 웨스턴 분야에서
정상의 자리를 차지했을 뿐 아니라,
팝 차트에도 상위권에 진입하는 인기를 얻었다.

Yesterday When I Was Young의 원곡은
1965년에 발표된 샹송 가수 Charles Aznavour의 Hier Encore이며
1966년 Herbert Kretzmer가 불어가사를 영어가사로 옮겼고,
몇년 후 Roy Clark이 불러 널리 알려지게 됩니다.

노래 가사를 보면 인생의 내리막에서 지난날을 회상한다는 점에서
Frank Sinatra의 My Way를 연상케 하는 곡이기도 하지만
'난 내 방식으로 이만큼 이뤘어'라고 잘난척하는 'My Way'보다
지난날의 회한과 쓸쓸함을 얘기하는
Yesterday When I Was Young가 더욱 친근하게 느껴집니다.

국내에선 '그해 여름'의 O.S.T로 알려졌지만,
Mickey Mantle이 죽기 직전
자신의 장례식장에서 틀어달라고 유언해 유명해진 곡이기도합니다.