Colin Hay “Beautiful World”

This week's posts are written by Scott Lajoie, editor of Cape Cod Magazine. In creating a publication that reflects the look and feel of the region, Scott is particularly attuned to the stories, sights and general nostalgia of summer. So I asked him to write about some of the songs that have touched him personally over the years, particularly the ones that connect to iconic memories or feelings of Cape Cod.

Many people speak about the restorative powers of the ocean. Swimming in a vast body of water connects us all in some primordial way. The feeling is at times spiritual. I recall Jill Nelson’s recent book, in which she talks about that first plunge of the season into the icy waters off Oak Bluffs on Martha’s Vineyard with her fellow Polar Bears:

Who, once fear is overcome, is not seduced by buoyancy, the weightlessness of floating, the gravity-defying, almost out-of-body experience of being in water? I have swum here for almost fifty summers and yet each time is like the first time: the shock of the cold water, the forced immersion, the seduction and surety of buoyancy, however heavy my body, mind, or spirit might feel on dry land. I cannot recall a time when the water did not make me smile, feel better.

The song that makes me think of this phenomenon is a recent one, by a guy named Colin Hay. Perhaps you remember him as lead singer of the Australian ‘80s group Men At Work, with hits such as “Who Can It Be Now,” and “Overkill.” He’s apparently carved out a little niche for himself, playing all acoustic songs that have the same melodic pop sound that Men At Work offered, but with a slightly more mature tone.

I stumbled upon him accidentally. I am a big fan of actor extraordinaire Zach Braff. In his underappreciated and now defunct sitcom Scrubs and his acclaimed movie Garden State, they featured Hay’s “Waiting for My Real Life to Begin” and “I Just Don't Think I'll Ever Get Over You” respectively. (Hay even had a cameo on one Scrubs episode where he is a cadaver come to life singing an acoustic version of “Overkill.”)

His album, Going Somewhere, leads off with a song “Beautiful World,” which opens like this:

My, my, my, it’s a beautiful world
I like swimming in the sea
I like to go out beyond the white breakers
Where a man can still be free, or a woman if you are one
I like swimming in the sea

Later in the song he sings “All around is anger/Automatic guns/There’s death in large numbers/No respect for women or our little ones.” Some of us perceive the water to protect us from the realities of this often cruel world. Who hasn’t dunked under to hear nothing at all, alone under the surface, letting our troubles wash away?

Every time I hear that distinct voice sing the lyrics of that song, I think of people bobbing in the surf, enjoying the salt water, where they can still be free.


See the video on Youtube.