Auld Lang What?

Sidedoor

Smithsonian Institution

African American History And Culture, American History, Exhibits, Dc, History, Science, Sidedoor, History Of The World, Society & Culture, The Smithsonian, Washington, Natural History, Pop Culture, Smithsonian, Exhibit, Tony Cohn, Zoo, National Museum, Air And Space, National Zoo, Art19, Museum, Postal Museum

4.6 • 2.3K Ratings

🗓️ 20 December 2023

⏱️ 22 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

It’s a song we often hear at the start of the new year. But what does “auld lang syne” even mean? And how did it come to be associated with New Year's Eve? With a little musical sleuthing, we find Charlie Chaplin might have something to do with it…

Guests:

James Deutsch, curator of folklife and popular culture at the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	This is Side Door, a podcast from the Smithsonian with support from PRX.
0:13.4	I'm Lizzie P.Bibouti.
0:17.0	Every year on December 31st, many of us gather with loved ones to watch a clock, a phone, or, you know, some time-keeping device, and count down to the new year.
0:33.4	And as the clock strikes midnight, countless parties across the country
0:37.8	sing together this song. Old acquaintance be forgot,
0:50.0	and is a-old-engined and is a-old've come to associate with the new year. But...
1:00.0	Wait a second, wait a second. What the heck is all the things I do you have any idea what this song is about
1:06.7	that's funny you ask that question because that's exactly what Harry asks Sally in the 1989 film when Harry met Sally.
1:16.4	This is curator Jim Deutsch.
1:18.2	He says, what does this song mean?
1:20.9	My whole life, I don't know what this song means.
1:23.6	I mean, should old acquaintance be forgotten?
1:25.5	Does that mean that we should forget all the acquaintances?
1:27.3	It doesn't mean that if we haven't to forget them, we should remember them,
1:29.8	which is not possible because we already forgot them. To which Sally, played by Meg Ryan, replies,
1:35.0	well, maybe it just means we should remember that we forgot them or something.
1:39.0	Anyway, it's about old friends.
1:42.0	And I think that's the key is that... it's about all friends.
1:43.0	And I think that's the key is that what's important is,
1:46.3	are not so much the actual words,
1:48.3	or rather the emotions that the song conjures,
1:51.6	especially at this moment of transitioning from one year to the next.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Smithsonian Institution, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Smithsonian Institution and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.