This is the location that inspired Mark Gane of Martha and the Muffins to write the 1980 hit song “Echo Beach.” The photo was taken at Sunnyside Beach, Toronto, in 1984.
On a silent summer evening/The sky’s alive with lights/A building in the distance/Surrealistic sight
From Wikipedia: “Echo Beach, as mentioned in the song, does not refer to a real beach, but rather a symbolic notion of somewhere the narrator would rather be, somewhere ‘far away in time.’ The song was created while Gane was working checking wallpaper for printing faults. He found the work rather dull and his mind drifted to times he would like to live over again. One such time was an evening spent at Sunnyside Beach on the shoreline of Lake Ontario in Toronto in summer. It was only the third song that Gane had written.”
When I took the photo, I had no notion of the connection with the song. I did, however, think that the lone building was quite surreal, appearing like a non sequitor on the blank shoreline.
The song that comes to mind when I look at the photo is “You Never Give Me Your Money” and the line “Oh, that magic feeling, nowhere to go.” I had just graduated from Ryerson, and was uncertain about my future in the recession of the 1980s. Little did I know that three years later I’d be living in Japan.
When I reflect on the photo now, that stage of my life does seem “faraway in time.” I was in my twenties then, and I’m in my sixties now. I have a different perspective, looking back at those years. Some may call it wisdom, but I prefer the term “road tested.”
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