Terry Jacks - "Seasons in the Sun": were it good or bad?

The Terry Jacks rendition was my first favorite song. It’s not technically good, but maybe something of Brel comes across in it

I don't really hate it, but I definitely don't like it. A thousand times better: the Poppy Family's "Where Evil Goes."

Like “Beyond the Clouds.”

anyway, going with Purgatorio.

Jacks released his version as a single in 1973 on his own label, Goldfish Records. "Put the Bone In", an original composition about burying a deceased pet dog, was included as the B-side.

we had dog, we had fun
now it's dead so we have none

The woman with the dead dog is at the butcher buying meat. "'Put the bone in', she cried out once more!"

Ha, deliberately didn’t mention that right away.

8th grade me totally did not get the joke. I was also learning guitar, memorized and worked out the chords for it and sang a blistering heart-felt rendition.

Anyway, carry on. It's all joy and fun on the a-side 😂

Remember discussing that song whilst on crossing guard duty in elementary school.

- attemped Gallicisms: "now that the Spring is in the air"; "pretty girls are everyHWHERE"

Huh? Why is that a Gallicism? Had to google...

It is now most commonly pronounced /w/, the same as a plain initial ⟨w⟩, although some dialects, particularly those of Scotland, Ireland, and the Southern United States, retain the traditional pronunciation /hw/, generally realized as [ʍ], a voiceless "w" sound.

... though Terry Jacks is from Canada tbf.

Pro: a song about death topping the charts is always a welcome imo.

Con: Terry's whiny wheedling voice.

On balance though I'm more for than against.

There was a DJ in Manchester in the 80s I remember would drop this in at the end of the night...may've been Dave Haslam, idk. Anyway it always struck a chord with the party people of a certain age.

we had joy we had fun
we had Villa on the run

Terrible song but still better than 'Streets Of London'.

Later covered by Boyd Rice! Not sure if that should go in the pro or con category, although the presence of Rose McDowall might tip it towards pro.

Terry Jacks ephemera from his Wikipedia entry: he later produced records for both DOA and Chilliwack.

Other: the Too Much Joy version fucking rules

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9lMRmOCax9M

horrible earworm that afflicted 70s radio.

OTM

imagine a world where your only source of music is an FM radio, which, if you dare to turn it on for an hour or two, is going to play this Terry Jacks song and equally soul-composting tracks at least twice for every time it plays something as tolerable as "Boogie Down" or "Rock On"

Feelings
nothing more than

(screams into the void)

Another other:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=heIog9Rv7Qw

downsized to one season

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As much as I love 70s fluff, this one is a miss. It's like a poor cousin of "Alone Again (Naturally)." Pugatory.

As several folks have already said, the Brel version rocks, although it sounds weirdly martial.

haha it really does

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I need to be alone

Point of order, "If You Go Away" is line by line a worse Brel translation than "Seasons In The Sun".

OTM

This song sucks.

well, Terry jacks, it’s not a mystery