I Remember Sky (Music Video; Stephen Sondheim and John Collier)

By Nicholas Stix

Imagine growing up in a country in which virtually everyone lies to you, all the time, especially the people who are supposedly experts about the truth?

Yes, I know that whoever is reading this experiences this daily, but I’m talking about young people who can’t “remember sky.”

Most of my readers (who are not young) can recall a time when the powers that be did not have such a vise grip on the reporting on contemporary reality and history that one could not find reliable, name writers through whom they could understand the world.

In 1940, John Collier wrote a horror story called “Evening Primrose,” published in the 1941 collection, Presenting Moonshine, and re-published by Doubleday in a 1951 collection of his short fiction, Fancies and Goodnights. A young Stephen Sondheim (1930-2021), may he rest in peace, and James Goldman turned it into a TV drama with music in 1966.

In the story, a sensitive young man, Charles Snell, who wishes to be a poet, flees the world for a luxurious department store, where he becomes trapped. During the day he hides out in the store, but at night, he learns that he is not alone. Other people are also hiding out in the store, some of whom have been there for many years.

A dowager “queen” rules the roost, and sees to it that no one may escape. Should she learn that someone wishes to escape, she alerts shadowy beings, “Dark Men,” who “disappear” the would-be escapees. The “disappeared” store denizens then re-appear in the store window display, as lifeless, display mannequins.

Charles falls in love with Ella, who serves as the dowager queen’s maid, and wants to escape with her.

In Sondheim’s version, Ella sings, “I Remember Sky.” She remembers what life was like as a young girl, before she became a prisoner in the store. And yet, her memories are fading, as recollections of nature are increasingly supplanted by metaphors of man-made materials.

Children, teenagers, and young adults today don’t even remember “sky,” because they never knew it, to begin with.

Charmian Carr Sings “I Remember Sky” to Anthony Perkins in Evening Primrose, ABC Stage 67, on November 16, 1966.

“I Remember Sky”
Music and Lyrics
By Stephen Sondheim

I remember sky,
It was blue as ink,
Or at least I think,
I remember sky.

I remember snow,
Soft as feathers,
Sharp as thumb tacks,
Coming down like lint,
And it made you squint,
When the wind would blow.

And ice like vinyl,
On the streets,
Cold as silver,
White as sheets.

Rain like strings,
And changing things,
Like leaves.

I remember leaves,
Green as spearmint,
Crisp as paper.

I remember trees,
Bare as coat racks,
Spread like broken umbrellas.

And parks and bridges,
Ponds and zoos,
Ruddy faces,
Muddy shoes,
Light and noise and
Bees and boys,
And days.

I remember days,
Or at least I try,
But as years go by,
They’re sort of haze.

And the bluest ink,
Isn’t really sky,
And at times I think,
I would gladly die,
For a day of sky.

(Thanks to Gabriella, for the transcription.)