Dave Brubeck Quartet: Once When I Was Very Young

Once When I was Very Young, Dave Brubeck Quartet liner notes

One Christmas my son Michael gave me a collection of his poems, edited by his friend, John Jenney, and illustrated by John's wife, Julie. As I read one of the poems, a melody came to me that suggested the feeling of choral music I had heard as a youngster. It seemed to fit the reflective mood of Once When I Was Very Young. The first time you hear the title song it is a piano and clarinet duo. On the closing track, you will hear the Gregg Smith Singers and the words: Once when I was very young, with a twinkling in my eye, I looked at life with a curious view, as the days rolled slowly by. I listened with the ear of a child to the sounds of birds in flight, And shivered 'neath my covers when the dark snuffed out the light. But in the lazy days of summer, when the daylight lingered on, We played our games of hide-and-seek and daydreamed on the lawn. The summer nights were spent with friends, when we tried with all our might To fight away the webs of sleep and wait for dawn's first light. These golden days are long past now. I've grown into a man. But the memories of childhood I still hold in my hand. I've given up the things of youth, like toys and dolls and trains And traded them for others, like work and aches and pains. But in my mind I wonder if I could go back still And live those days of misspent youth on summer's peaceful hills. Once when I was so very young with a twinkling in my eye, I looked at life with a curious view as the days rolled slowly by.