ALRIGHT :) So. I want to talk about two uses of this song that have really moved me. One in film and one in podcast/radio. On both occasions it has left me with a sensation of almost religious awe, fear and longing, a mysticism, a promise, a charm.
My first notable encounter with The Aquarium was in Terrence Malick's epic Days of Heaven.
The tingling, magical tune, so reminiscent of the prelude to Disney's Beauty & The Beast, is steeped in childlike wonder but intertwined with an unmistakable malice, lurking quietly, beautifully, under the surface. So to experience this delicate melody merged with the sweeping imagery crafted by Malick was a truly awe-inspiring thing. The fairy tale tones fuse with the vast fields and the isolated characters to create an alien world: a familiar American beauty but with the all the bewitchment of a day dream.
Next and more recently, the track was used on This American Life a scintillating & engrossing story-based podcast. Every one should be regular listeners of this, it kicks ALL THE ASS.
If you already are a regular podcast listener you'll know of TAL & perhaps what I'm about to go onto, if not then I would really encourage you to listen to the 7 minute prologue of the episode in question to get the full force of the story before reading on (due to SPOILERS).
7 Minutes of your life, and I can promise, they will be well spent - listen.
The podcast in question: Secret Identity's prologue deals with a familiar tale, a character in costume, whose true identity is protected. Paul Bunyan, a giant statue at the Tress of Mystery park, talks. How? Who is his voice? We know this is not magic, that there is nothing supernatural about this situation, and yet, all the park employees, from the family owners down to the gift shop workers maintain the masquerade that Paul Bunyan is real. So what happens when a park employee casually let's slip that sometimes... he 'does Paul Bunyan'? Ira, our narrator, is taken round the back of Paul Bunyan, to a door in his shoe.. And up inside him.
There he discovers the truth. This is the real Paul Bunyan. It has all the morbid fascination of a decaying corpse, rotting innards and all. It is a grit & grim reality.
The pace of the story telling, in its purest form (verbal narration) is perfect, the suspense, the anticipation engrossing.
And there is it, that haunting, enticing, spellbinding melody.
Indeed, the detailed vocal description of this moment, rising up the ladders, and entering this chamber where park employees sit for hours, 'doing Paul''s voice is set to The Aquarium.
Once again we are confronted with this incredibly powerful merger of magic and malice. The fairy tale melody contrasts strikingly to this description of the death of magic.
The illusion is broken. The truth is out. We know its secrets.
And yet, as we listen, as we reside in Paul Bunyan's decaying chest, we ourselves are part of that magic now.
And there is something spellbinding about that.
[Days of Heaven (1978), T Malick]
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