‘The Sun Rising’ is one of the songs from the album ‘Happiness’ by The Beloved.
I have to admit that they were a band I had knew very little about until the mid 90s but my wife Kerry (she was my girlfriend at the time) had ‘Happiness’ on a cassette and I came to love this album and this song during a road trip we undertook from Leicester (via Essex) to the French Alps!
Some friends had decided to set up a skiing business in the French Alps and moved out there but as the costs of moving were so massive they asked Kerry and I if we would drive over from England in a van and bring some of their furniture. We loaded up the van in Leicester and drove back to Essex (where we were living at the time) and got up early to catch the ferry from Dover. Armed with a few hundred Francs for road tolls we arrived in Calais at night and began the long drive to Grenoble. This was the first time we had ever driven in France and we were both surprised to discover that there were no motorway lights on the motorways and to make matters worse as it was December it was totally freezing. Before long we discovered another shocking problem – The whole of France was on strike and whilst this was a good thing as no one was collecting any tolls on the motorways and the gates were open for us to drive through unchallenged, none of the motorway service stations were open and before long we were cold, hungry, tired and miserable and there was nowhere to stop and have a coffee or get something to eat!
We had a number of tapes to play however and so Kerry put ‘Happiness’ on and we played the album from start to finish a number of times as we drove the several hundred miles to the Les 2 Alps!
We drove through the night and into the morning and decided to try and get some sleep, however it was so cold that the moment we turned off the engine the temperature dropped in the cab and before ten minutes it was unbearable. In the end we decided to press on, and with the windows open (yes OPEN!!!!) we continued to listen to ‘Happiness’ until we finally arrived.
I love this album because it reminds me of this adventure (and we also had fun on the way back…but that’s another story……) and every time I hear ‘The Sun Rising’ I am reminded of the actual sun rising as the dawn broke as we drove across France in the cold on our way to the Alps….
Now listen to the song….
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