I wrote this post a while back with no greater motive than love of the song. But in light of recent events, let’s dedicate this to the Brits who remain, as ever, strong and resilient.

On his album, The Interpreter: Live at Largo, singer Rhett Miller says, “This is only the greatest song ever written by any human being. God, I wish I’d written this song.”

I don’t know that “Waterloo Sunset” – released in 1967 – is the greatest song ever written by any human being. But I wanted to put that quote in the post it as it shows the impact it had on some singers and songwriters. Ray Davies – who has been inducted into every songwriters’ hall you can think of – wrote it. Rolling Stone lists it as #42 on the 500 Greatest songs of All Time.

The song is, I think, the perfect marriage of music and lyrics. The beautiful Beach Boys-like “sha-la-las” and harmonies add to the whole effect. Davies has said that when he crafts a song, he always writes the music first and then the lyrics just fall into place.

“Although I’m an observer in the song,” Davies told The Guardian, “in many ways, it is about me. I’d had a breakdown and though I wasn’t a gibbering wreck, I was feeling vulnerable. The river is depicted as a protective force. The song is about how innocence will prevail over adversity. It starts out delicate, but by the end has become awesome in its power. Those triumphant chords come in – and the angels tell you everything is going to be OK.”

In the song, the unnamed narrator looks out at the world from his window. The world is a teeming mass of people. But as long as he can gaze on the sunset over Waterloo station, he is “in paradise.”

Dirty old river, must you keep rolling

Flowing into the night

People so busy, makes me feel dizzy

Taxi light shines so bright

But I don’t need no friends

As long as I gaze on Waterloo sunset

I am in paradise

Every day I look at the world from my window

But chilly, chilly is the evening time

Waterloo sunset’s fine

Into this tight poetic world, enter two lovers whom he names Terry and Julie.** They meet every Friday night at Waterloo Station where the crowd bustles around them. But, despite the bustling crowd “swarming like flies,” the world drops away and they only see each other.

Terry meets Julie, Waterloo Station

Every Friday night

But I am so lazy, don’t want to wander

I stay at home at night

But I don’t feel afraid

As long as I gaze on Waterloo sunset

I am in paradise

Every day I look at the world from my window

But chilly, chilly is the evening time

Waterloo sunset’s fine

The last, and for me the most poignant, verse ties it all together. Terry and Julie cross over the river where “they feel safe and sound.” They gaze on Waterloo Sunset and, like the guy looking out his window, they don’t “need no friends.” They’ve got each other and – I think this is the moving part – there’s a bond between the guy in the window and them. Despite the madness of the world, the sunset makes everything ok. They are “in paradise.” Even if only for that moment.

Millions of people swarming like flies ’round Waterloo underground

But Terry and Julie cross over the river

Where they feel safe and sound

And they don’t need no friends

As long as they gaze on Waterloo sunset

They are in paradise

Waterloo sunset’s fine

Spotify link

There’s some speculation about whether Terry and Julie really exist or if the singer is just imagining them. Does it matter?

Davies loves Liverpool and originally wanted to call the song “Liverpool Sunset.”

**Rumor has always had it for years that he gave the two lovers these names in tribute to Terence Stamp and Julie Christie who were then starring in the movie Far From the Madding Crowd. In his autobiography, he denies this. “It was a fantasy about my sister going off with her boyfriend to a new world and they were going to emigrate and go to another country.” And yet in a contemporary interview, he says this:

“If you look at the song as a kind of film I suppose ‘Terry’ would be Terence Stamp and ‘Julie’ would be Julie Christie.”