Let the River Run
Soul Music
BBC
4.7 • 831 Ratings
🗓️ 23 January 2019
⏱️ 28 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The story of how a song from a classic 1980’s movie became an inspirational anthem for a 21st Century generation.
Carly Simon’s ‘Let the River Run’ was originally conceived as the title track for the 1988 movie ‘Working Girl. It went on to win the Academy Award for Best Original Song. It also went on to win the affection of people around the world.
Initially thought of as a ‘hymn for New York’, ‘Let the River Run’ encapsulates the spirit of striving for a better life.
As Carly Simon puts it herself, “I wanted it to be large, I wanted it to be vast – it’s about bringing forth a common desire into the world”.
In more recent years it has become an anthem for Woman's Rights Movements and global initiatives aimed at making a better life for all.
Featuring interviews with:
* Carly Simon * Ginny Suss - music producer and part of the team who organised the Women’s March on Washington * Elisabet Barnes - Ultra Marathon Runner * Nina Ritzen
Music from The Resistance Revival Chorus.
Series about pieces of music with a powerful emotional impact.
Producer: Nicola Humphries
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in January 2019.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Before you listen to this BBC podcast, I'd like to quickly tell you about some others. |
| 0:05.2 | My name's Andy Martin and I'm the editor of a team of podcast producers at the BBC in Northern Ireland. |
| 0:11.3 | It's a job I really love because we get to tell the stories that really matter to people here, |
| 0:16.3 | but which also resonate and apply to listeners around the world. |
| 0:19.6 | And because the team is such a diverse |
| 0:21.2 | range of skills and strengths, we have trained journalists, people who love digging through |
| 0:26.0 | archives, we've got drama and even comedy experts. We really can do those stories justice. So if |
| 0:31.8 | you like this podcast, head to BBC Sounds where you'll find plenty more fascinating stories |
| 0:37.1 | from all around the UK. BBC Sounds where you'll find plenty more fascinating stories from all around the UK. |
| 0:40.3 | BBC Sounds, music, radio, podcasts. |
| 0:48.3 | Well, it's still very early in the morning here, but I've been speaking with commuters, and the reaction has been mixed. |
| 0:56.8 | Of course, I've heard from a lot of people who've expressed quite a bit of disappointment. |
| 1:01.6 | They were naturally Hillary Clinton supporters. |
| 1:03.9 | They woke up to the news and were very surprised and shocked. |
| 1:07.9 | But what they said... |
| 1:09.5 | It was 2016. The election had just happened. |
| 1:14.6 | I, like many people I know, you know, I was just devastated and I wanted to turn all of my anger and |
| 1:21.5 | rage and devastation into action. And I wasn't sure what that was going to look like. |
| 1:26.9 | But a good friend of mine, |
| 1:28.9 | Vanessa Rubel, reached out to me and said, there's this thing brewing online. It's being called |
| 1:33.8 | the Women's March. And it was very early days. It was before it even really had a cohesive name. |
| 1:38.8 | And she asked me if I wanted to be involved. And I said, yeah, I'm down for anything. Let's go. |
... |
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