Well-known British singer Petula Clark said she felt ‘shock and disbelief’ that her timeless hit “Downtown” was played by the Nashville bomber just before her RV exploded on Christmas Day.
“I feel the need to express my shock and disbelief at the Christmas Day explosion in our beloved Music City. I love Nashville and its people. Why is this violent act – leaving such a devastation behind?” Clark wrote on her Facebook page on Tuesday.
” A few hours later – I was told that the music was singing ‘Downtown’ in the background of the strange announcement – I was! Of all the thousands of songs – why this one? ‘
Suicide bomber Anthony Quinn Warner, a 63-year-old IT worker from nearby Antioch, Tennessee, was killed in an explosion that injured several people and damaged dozens of buildings in Nashville’s historic district.
Warner’s RV issued a warning that a bomb would explode within 15 minutes, and then switched to a recording of Clark’s famous tune “Downtown” from 1964 before the explosion.
Clark said the song should be associated with joy and celebration.
“Of course the first lyric is’ If you’re alone and life makes you lonely, you can always go downtown, ‘she wrote.’ But millions of people around the world have been raised by this joyful song. Maybe you can read something else in these words – depending on your state of mind. It is possible. “
She expressed her support for Nashville and used an old British expression to stay calm under pressure.
“I would like to wrap my arms around Nashville – give everyone a hug – and wish you love, a happy and healthy new year – and, as we sometimes say in the UK, the buffs steady! (Look up!), wrote the 88-year-old Clark.
Clark won a Grammy in 1964 for best Rock & Roll recording with ‘Downtown’. The song reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 on January 23, 1965.
Matteo Moschella contributed.