Baz Luhrmann has been doing the rounds this week appearing on the various chat show sofas promoting his latest film, EPiC: Elvis Presley in Concert. I love Baz Luhrmann films and have written about three around here, most recently the Elvis biopic, filmed in his usual sumptuous style. The new film is a documentary and concert film, featuring long-lost footage from his Las Vegas residency (1969 into the 1970s), as well as previously unseen footage from Elvis: That’s the Way It Is and Elvis on Tour, all uncovered during production of the biopic. I can’t currently see it on any local listings but I hope it comes to a cinema near me soon.
It was inevitable that when Baz was interviewed on the radio they would play his 1999 UK No. 1 spoken-word song, “Everybody’s Free (To Wear Sunscreen)“. I listened to it and was surprised that so much of it is still relevant to us today. No mention of social media or reality tv shows back then of course (both very bad for your health), and I think the sunscreen message has been fully embraced by now, but many other worthy bits of advice.
But before we listen to it again, here is its background, none of which I knew before. First of all, Wear Sunscreen (as it came to be known) was an essay written as a hypothetical commencement speech (when students graduate from High School) by American columnist Mary Schmich, originally published in 1997. The essay gave various pieces of advice on how to live a happier life and it spread massively via viral email.
Baz used the speech in its entirety for his “song” and although I thought he had narrated the lyrics it seems they were recorded by an Australian voice actor called Lee Perry.
The lyrics are quite lengthy but I’ve gone through them and added my own thoughts on whether they still hold up today (in bold below). In my humble opinion, most of them do. What do you think?
Until next time…
Everybody’s Free (To Wear Sunscreen) Lyrics
(Song by Nigel Andrew Swanston / Tim Cox)
Ladies and gentlemen of the class of ’99
Wear sunscreen
Think we’re all well aware of the dangers of the sun nowadays but back in the day we Scots suffered greatly to get that golden tan. Sunscreen didn’t even exist when I was young, only calamine lotion for after you’d got burnt. I myself have paid the price and even had to have a chunk of my scalp removed a couple of years ago down to skin cancer. Fortunately the youth of today don’t really sunbathe but go on travel adventures to unusual places and use fake tan instead! I now worry that my daughter and her pals will discover in a few years time that the tanning spray contains a cancerogenic property. Would be ironic but not unlikely.
If I could offer you only one tip for the future, sunscreen would be it
A long-term benefits of sunscreen have been proved by scientists
Whereas the rest of my advice has no basis more reliable
Than my own meandering experience, I will dispense this advice now
Enjoy the power and beauty of your youth, oh, never mind
You will not understand the power and beauty of your youth
Until they’ve faded, but trust me, in 20 years, you’ll look back
At photos of yourself and recall in a way you can’t grasp now
How much possibility lay before you and how fabulous you really looked
You are not as fat as you imagine
Funnily enough, when I look back, we Scottish girls were quite plain with our short mousey hair and spotty white faces. It wasn’t until we got into the 1980s that we started to get adventurous with our hair, perming and colouring it. That was also the decade of sunbed tans (see previous response), and bright coloured clothes and make-up, so the photos of myself as a teen are not my favourites but rather ones of my older self. Teens today are very glamourous and many will carry it through to adulthood what with Botox, lip-fillers, hair extensions and a dose of Mounjaro. Again I worry about the long-term side-effects of these treatments. Talking of which…
Don’t worry about the future
Or worry, but know that worrying
Is as effective as trying to solve an algebra equation by chewing Bubble gum
The real troubles in your life
Are apt to be things that never crossed your worried mind
The kind that blindsides you at 4 p.m. on some idle Tuesday
Do one thing every day that scares you
Still true. I had a discussion with a colleague at work about how we worry about deadlines all the time, but in reality we will be blindsided at 4pm on a Tuesday. The following Tuesday she was diagnosed with breast cancer.
Saying, don’t be reckless with other people’s hearts
Don’t put up with people who are reckless with yours
Still true. Be kind to those who no longer fit the bill but also don’t put up with nonsense from those who used to fit the bill, but no longer do.
Floss
Definitely – twice a day if possible otherwise you’ll get gum disease and lose all your teeth. Just sayin’.
Don’t waste your time on jealousy
Sometimes you’re ahead, sometimes you’re behind
The race is long and in the end, it’s only with yourself
Remember compliments you receive, forget the insults
If you succeed in doing this, tell me how
Keep your old love letters, throw away your old bank statements
All still true. The race is indeed long and it’s only with yourself. Surround yourself with like-minded people and you can’t go wrong. Try to remember the compliments and challenge the criticism – it probably comes from people who don’t even know you.
Stretch
Yeeeesssss……
Don’t feel guilty if you don’t know what you want to do with your life
The most interesting people I know
Didn’t know at 22 what they wanted to do with their lives
Some of the most interesting 40-year-olds I know still don’t
Get plenty of calcium
Be kind to your knees
You’ll miss them when they’re gone
I didn’t know what I wanted to do with my life at 17, when in Scotland you have to make all those career choices for the future. Somehow however, it all falls into place, and remember that hobbies done in your spare time are sometimes exactly what you wanted to do with your life. Enjoy them.
Maybe you’ll marry, maybe you won’t
Maybe you’ll have children, maybe you won’t
Maybe you’ll divorce at 40, maybe you’ll dance the ‘Funky Chicken’
On your 75th wedding anniversary
Whatever you do, don’t congratulate yourself too much
Or berate yourself either
Your choices are half chance, so are everybody else’s
The thought of having children when you are 17 might make you go eurgh… , but your body clock will let you know when the time is right, if ever. If you divorce at 40 it must be the right thing for you. If you have a 75th wedding anniversary it must also have been the right thing for you.
Enjoy your body, use it every way you can
Don’t be afraid of it or what other people think of it
It’s the greatest instrument you’ll ever own
Dance, even if you have nowhere to do it but your own living room
Read the directions even if you don’t follow them
Do not read beauty magazines, they will only make you feel ugly
Walk, climb, dance and don’t believe all the images on social media. They are filtered or created by AI.
Get to know your parents, you never know when they’ll be gone for good
Be nice to your siblings, they’re your best link to your past
And the people most likely to stick with you in the future
Try not to burn any bridges as hard to come back from. Get those stories and anecdotes on record before it’s too late and…, collect the family recipes.
Understand that friends come and go
But a precious few, who should hold on
Work hard to bridge the gaps in geography and lifestyle
For as the older you get
The more you need the people you knew when you were young
Make the effort to hold on to the special ones. They don’t come along often in life.
Live in New York City once but leave before it makes you hard
Live in northern California once but leave before it makes you soft
Travel
Travel if you can, it broadens the mind, but not to a resort where they serve British food and only speak English.
Accept certain inalienable truths
Prices will rise, politicians will philander, you too, will get old
And when you do, you’ll fantasize that when you were young
Prices were reasonable, politicians were noble
And children respected their elders
Still true.
Respect your elders
If they are worthy (I can think of a few in public office who aren’t).
Don’t expect anyone else to support you
Maybe you have a trust fund, maybe you’ll have a wealthy spouse
But you never know when either one might run out
Still true. Important to be able to stand on your own two feet if need be.
Don’t mess too much with your hair
Or by the time you’re 40 it will look 85
I think that ship has sailed for most women irrespective of age. We can’t resist messing about with our hair – always have, always will.
Be careful whose advice you buy but be patient with those who supply it
Advice is a form of nostalgia, dispensing it is a way of fishing the past
From the disposal, wiping it off, painting over the ugly parts
And recycling it for more than it’s worth
All still true.
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