Playlist 19: Reach Out I'll Be There (subtitle: Saving Artax!)
A year ago, I confessed to someone that I have a love of good cover versions of songs, and they gave me a list of twenty song covers they thought I would enjoy. Back in September of last year, I looked at that list again, and thought, wouldn't it be fun to make a picture for every song on that list?
Song number 19 on the playlist is Reach Out I'll Be There, as covered by Jonathan Wilson.
When I thought about how to express this song as a picture, I read through its lyrics. The song is about reaching out to someone who is feeling like they are sad and hopeless and can't go on, to help them, and that reminded me of that movie scene that traumatised so many of our childhoods, the one from The NeverEnding Story where Atreyu's wonderful white horse, Artax, is killed by his despair causing him to sink into the murky depths of The Swamp of Sadness. Atreyu was trying to pull Artax out of his misery and motivate him, but failed, because, as sometimes happens (including to people), the sadness was simply too great for Artax to overcome. In my mind, I began to picture a similar situation with a less traumatic outcome, where reaching out to Artax actually worked, and friendship and love did win out over despair.
And thus, the concept for this photo was born.
Playlist 19: Reach Out I'll Be There (subtitle: Saving Artax!)
A year ago, I confessed to someone that I have a love of good cover versions of songs, and they gave me a list of twenty song covers they thought I would enjoy. Back in September of last year, I looked at that list again, and thought, wouldn't it be fun to make a picture for every song on that list?
Song number 19 on the playlist is Reach Out I'll Be There, as covered by Jonathan Wilson.
When I thought about how to express this song as a picture, I read through its lyrics. The song is about reaching out to someone who is feeling like they are sad and hopeless and can't go on, to help them, and that reminded me of that movie scene that traumatised so many of our childhoods, the one from The NeverEnding Story where Atreyu's wonderful white horse, Artax, is killed by his despair causing him to sink into the murky depths of The Swamp of Sadness. Atreyu was trying to pull Artax out of his misery and motivate him, but failed, because, as sometimes happens (including to people), the sadness was simply too great for Artax to overcome. In my mind, I began to picture a similar situation with a less traumatic outcome, where reaching out to Artax actually worked, and friendship and love did win out over despair.
And thus, the concept for this photo was born.