The Beat Goes ON

From 1967 The Beat Goes On sung by Sonny and Cher is one of those songs I loved to listen to but never really looked at the words, until I was looking for songs to sing for a duet for a Karaoke night. Although we didn't choose it (we sang John Prine - In Spite of Ourselves in case you're wondering) the music and the lyrics stick with me. I can visualize each poignant image and although the images from the sixties have morphed over the years human actions and emotions haven't. Now that I'm a grandma, when I reminisce I get tears thinking about how people still go off to war and check the baseball score and there are more and more of us are homeless and not able to feed our children while those of us who can consume on a larger scale and vehicles are still going faster and faster Everything accelerates but nothing really changes... 

The beat goes on, the beat goes on
Drums keep pounding a rhythm to the brain
La de da de de, la de da de da

Charleston was once the rage, uh huh
History has turned the page, uh huh
The mini skirts, the current thing, uh huh
Teenybopper is our newborn king, uh huh

And the beat goes on, the beat goes on
Drums keep pounding a rhythm to the brain
La de da de de, la de da de da

The grocery store's the super mart, uh huh
Little girls still break their hearts, uh huh
And men still keep on marching off to war
Electrically they keep a baseball score

And the beat goes on, the beat goes on
Drums keep pounding a rhythm to the brain
La de da de de, la de da de da

Boys keep chasing girls to get a kiss
The cars keep going faster all the time
Bums still cry, "Hey buddy, have you got a dime?"

And the beat goes on, the beat goes on
Drums keep pounding a rhythm to the brain
La de da de de, la de da de da

And the beat goes on, yes, the beat goes on
And the beat goes on, and the beat goes on
The beat goes on, and the beat goes onWriter/s: Sonny Bono