The Most Beautiful Song in the English Language?

Ep11.

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[00:00:05.740] - Oliver (Host)

We often think of language mainly as a way to communicate, to pass a message from one person to another, to make ourselves understood. And of course, it is that. But language often also serves a quieter, more personal purpose, something that isn't about communication with others at all. Sometimes we use language not to speak to others, but to make sense of things for ourselves, to understand what we are feeling in songs, in poetry, in little sections or fragments of stories that we may never show to anyone else. And even when we do share them, the act of creating them stays something deeply introspective, something very personal and private. Language isn't only about speaking clearly, it's also about reflection, about memory, about giving shape to emotions that otherwise might not have any words.

[00:01:12.520] - Oliver (Host)

Hello and welcome back to English and Beyond: Intermediate English Podcast. My name is Oliver and I am a language teacher. Please remember that there is a transcript and flashcards available online at www.morethanalanguage.com. I'm often asked by listeners of this podcast, and Spanish for False Beginners, the podcast that I do with César, about what songs I can recommend in English or in Spanish to help people learn the language. So I thought I would consider that in more detail today.

[00:01:48.630] - Oliver (Host)

Often in language lessons, we focus on the technical parts of English, the grammar, the vocabulary, the structure. I personally think those parts are very important. But today, I want to talk about the side of language that goes deeper, the side that carries emotion, memory, and all the hidden parts of a life you've lived and the life you're still hoping for. Today's episode isn't about textbook rules. It's about a particular song, a song about a place, and a song about a feeling. Today, we're talking about Waterloo Sunset by the Kinks. And about how music, memory, and emotion can make a language feel truly alive. Waterloo Sunset was released in 1967 by the Kinks, a British band who were part of the same world as the Beatles and the Rolling Stones, but who never really fit into one easy category. They could be loud and energetic. You might know Lola or You Really Got Me, but they also had a quieter side, a side that was more about introspection, about looking inwards. Waterloo Sunset is a perfect example of this side.

[00:03:11.670] - Oliver (Host)

It's a simple song, but it captures, it expresses a feeling that is very difficult to describe clearly - that feeling of watching the world move around you and feeling both close to it but separated from it at the same time. The music critic, Robert Christgau, once called it the Most Beautiful Song in the English Language, and it's not hard to see why. It's a song about standing back and watching, about finding a quiet and maybe slightly melancholic affection for the world without needing to be the centre of it. And for me, Waterloo isn't just a word in a song. It's tied to real memories. When I was training to be a lawyer, and later, when I became a teacher, my campus was near Waterloo. After long days of lectures, I often walked down the Thames, and during those walks, there was always a mixture of feelings. A hope that all the hard work I was putting in would eventually lead somewhere better, but also a loneliness, a sadness that is quite hard to put words. The bridge, the river, the crowds, they were all there, solid and real, like in the song. But it often felt like I was caught somewhere in between the life that I had and the future that I was working towards.

[00:04:46.150] - Oliver (Host)

Listening to Waterloo Sunset now brings all of that back to me, not sharply, not with a dramatic pain or torment, but with a soft melancholy, a familiar kind of sadness. I don't think this song is unique in this way. In fact, we can see that songs often tie themselves to real places: Strawberry Fields Forever, Hotel California, Take Me Home, Country Roads. But these places aren't just locations on a map. They become emotional places, emotional landscapes, places tied to memory, longing, regret. Notice how in all of these songs, the places that are mentioned carry a sense of wistfulness, a quiet sadness, a sense of missing something. Strawberry Fields, for example, isn't really just about Liverpool. It's about childhood, about a time that can never be recovered. Hotel California isn't just about a hotel, or maybe not about a hotel at all. It's about disillusionment, about the feeling of being trapped by dreams that have gone wrong. Country roads isn't just about West Virginia. It's about belonging, about the deep human need for a place to call home. And so, just like those other songs, Waterloo Sunset isn't just about Waterloo. It's about the act of watching life happen around you and finding beauty, even comfort, in the distance that you feel from other people living their lives.

[00:06:27.650] - Oliver (Host)

The songs that stay with us, that become that's a part of our lives, aren't always complicated. Often, they're the simplest songs, but they touch on emotions that are deep and complicated. Emotions like nostalgia, that bitter sweet pull of the past; wistfulness, the longing for something just out of reach; limerence, the dizzy feeling of falling in love; saudade, that Portuguese word describing a special longing, full of sadness and sweetness together; and melancholy, the soft sadness that accompanies some of us through life. Waterloo Sunset touches upon all of these emotions, but it does so in a really subtle way without ever needing to explain them in too much detail. So language isn't just about ordering coffee or booking a train ticket. It's about expressing the things that sit deeper inside us, the feelings we struggle to explain even in our first language. When you learn a new language, you aren't just learning new grammar rules. You are shaping your emotions into new forms and new words and finding new ways to express nostalgia, yearning, learning, regret, hope. Listening to songs like Waterloo Sunset isn't just about improving your English. It can also be about understanding how English and languages in general carry emotion, how it shapes who we are through the memories that we keep.

[00:08:06.500] - Oliver (Host)

When you hear English used in this way, it becomes not just a language, but a new home for emotions that you already recognise. As I said at the beginning, many listeners have asked me over the years for recommendations of favourite songs, favourite films, favourite books in English and in Spanish. Waterloo Sunset is always one of my answers, not because it's technically complex, not because it's advanced, but because it shows how English can carry the soft and difficult emotions that we all live with. Many people often say that English is a relatively ugly language in comparison to many of its European competitors like French and Italian. But songs like Waterloo Sunset show that real English, the English of real lives, can be beautiful. So after this episode, I really encourage you, find a quiet place, put on Waterloo sunset, and listen. Not just for new vocabulary, not just to practise your grammar rules, but for the feeling underneath it all, because sometimes that's the best part of learning and really understanding a new language.

[00:09:24.700] - Oliver (Host)

Thank you very much for listening. As I said before, you'll find a free transcript and vocabulary at www.morethanalanguage.com. Until next time, take care. And thank you, goodbye, and see you next week.