Where will you go to (My Lovely)…?
Pub quiz question: who remembers this 1969 hit by Peter Sarsted, a #1 hit in the UK charts back in the days in the summer of ’69? Back then, it was a song about a song about a girl named Marie-Claire who grows up to become a member of the jet-set.
The lyrics describe her from the perspective of a childhood friend and the listener never learns if they stayed in touch. The rhetorical question of the title suggests that her glamorous lifestyle may not have brought Marie-Claire happiness or contentment. In his song, Sarsted references many famous people and places being part of Marie-Claire’s life: Marlene Dietrich, Pierre Balmain, The Rolling Stones, Juan-les-Pins and Saint Moritz.
Now, next pub quiz question: what the hell am I talking about and what has this to do with Asset Management? Bare with me, here is an excerpt of the unofficial 2012 version of the song in Asset Management Speech. And now you might understand.
You talk like Angela Merkel
And you look rather distressed
Your Euros are getting devalued
And there`s no diamonds and pearls in your hair
You lived in a bubble called Europe
Of the Boulevard of broken dreams
Where you kept your old Francs and Marks
And a friend of Helmut Kohl
But where do you go to my lovely
When you’re alone in your bed
Tell me the thoughts that surround you
I want to look inside your head.
Ah well, if Peter Sarsted’s song adaptation didn’t work for you, then I have another one for you. Let’s try Richard Harris, the man they called horse, and see if that gets you. Again, a slight 2012 adaptation follows below:
Europe is melting in the dark
All the sweet, green icing flowing down…
Someone left Greece out in the rain
I don’t think that we can take it
’cause it took so long to bail it
And we’ll never have that money again
Oh, no!
So. The bottom line. The big question. Where will we go to (my lovely)? What will happen to Europe? What will happen to Greece? To the Euro? Will the next weeks show, or months? I suppose for today, Friday before the bank holiday diamond jubilee weekend, we just have to sit back and watch this space. Or you can use the time to think about Europe’s future and play some scenarios. But don’t necessarily play Abba’s Waterloo, that would be too easy.