Beach Boys “Wouldn’t it be nice”
A change of pace this week as we celebrate the life and times of Andy Lippincott inspired by the Beach Boys track “Wouldn’t it be nice”.
I am a great fan of Garry Trudeau’s Doonesbury cartoon strip. I followed it every day in the Guardian Newspaper, it was something I always looked forward to reading.
Of all the characters Gary Trudeau created the one that touched me the most was Andy Lippincott. This was 1990, a time when the spread of HIV AIDS was beginning its relentless march across the world and the press in the UK was full of homophobic rants and religious fundamentalists were calling it the gay plague. Trudeau’s voice was the voice of compassion and understanding and he helped humanise the victims of this terrible illness.
The strip below is the one I read that morning in 1990 and shows Andy’s last moment as he passes away listening to the Beach Boys track “Wouldn’t it be nice”.
Falling under the wheels
I cried when I opened the Guardian and read about the last moments of your life,
I had followed the last tragic weeks as AIDS overwhelmed you
Even though you fought back, the disease just got stronger
Still you faced it with a stoicism I couldn’t understand.
I would have been angry and railed against the injustice of it all
You quietly passed away listening to the Beach Boys “Wouldn’t it be Nice”.
A lot of real people that I know have died since that day in 1990
Some I expected to lose, like my parents and aged aunties and uncles
Others, I thought too young to die, fell under the wheels of life
Death surprises us even though we know it is as unstoppable as the tide
As unforgiving as a jilted lover and as predictable as a footballer’s glib commentary cliche
©Jeff Price January 2018