Guiding Light Discussion Thread

[P.J.]

I like the melody. I must have forgotten there were lyrics to it. It's not very deep, that's for sure.

[Sapounopera]

I feel that it was better than the 80s theme. I couldn't stand the visuals (still, better than the 80s visuals) but I prefered Paul Rauch's shortened version. The late 70s theme was just fine. 

[Mitch64]

I loved Hold on to Love...I am such a dork when I hear it in that slow version I kinda get..."verklempt" Whatever you say about JFP she knew music and there are some great scenes of Hold being played over a montage...a great one with Hamp on horn playing it...I just think it's GL...hold on to love is not just romantic love but for family or community or whatever. My second is whatever the theme is over the iconic Van/Nola coming down the stairs opening..but I HATED the cheap them and opening they replaced it with. The late 70s theme was so damn depressing!

[DRW50]

I think that's My Guiding Light.

I have a lot of sentimental memories of Hold On to Love, but I think the first set of opening visuals and song to My Guiding Light is the best GL gets. If only the show had lived up to that theme...

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Edited March 15, 2024 by DRW50

[P.J.]

LOL...the '83 intro reminds me that the Lewises' showed up and existed before REVA. 

[vetsoapfan]

@DRW50 My favorite theme was Ritounelle, but the version of My Guiding Light in the video you linked was lovely.

There's one Christmas episode in which the Bauers were remembering Bert (Johnny gave Ed a blanket she had made many years before), and when My Guiding Light began playing in the background, I got seriously choked up.

I also like Hold on to Love.

Unfortunately, TGL had some real stinker openings in the later years too.

[DeliaIrisFan]

 

I agree 200% with both takes on Hold Onto Love.  I will always associate the opening as well as the melancholy (instrumental) background score with the best soaps can be.  That said, the lyrics were very superficial, and didn't add anything.  In fact, at times they cheapened great scenes: like in the courtroom when David was exonerated.

How many soap themes have had lyrics?  These are the ones I'm aware of, ranked in terms of quality of the lyrics:

1) Edge

2) Search for Tomorrow (We'll...)

2) One Life to Live, (We Only Have...) - admittedly I may be downgrading this one or two rungs because of Paul Rauch

4) Another World (You Take Me Away to...) - this is tough because I have so many happy memories of it, but the lyrics are mediocre at best

5) Hold on to Love

6) Didn't Loving have not one but two lyrical openings?  Both were atrocious IMO.

[Khan]

IMO, the lyrics for the one that Johnny Mathis performed reminded me of something that an eight-year-old girl would have made up while sitting in the backseat of her parents' car during a long drive to her grandparents' house.  They just went on and on with no point whatsoever.

[j swift]

Does anyone share the experience that once you've heard the lyrics, that's all you hear when they play the instrumental theme?  Although it often seems like the lyrics were an afterthought. 

I recall the first time that I heard Anita Dobson sing the Eastenders theme, and now every time it plays I hear, “anyone can fall in love, that′s the easy part, you must keep it going”. (although there's some controversy about if the lyrics were official)

It is the same with EON, "half dark, half light, the edge of night.."

Edited March 16, 2024 by j swift

[DeliaIrisFan]

Ah, my bad - I was thinking only of U.S. soaps.  Sorry about that.  But to answer your question, I was (and still am, on YouTube) able to forget the HOTL lyrics altogether whenever the instrumental background score comes on.  It was great at Hamp and Gilly's wedding, when Roberta Flack appeared to sing it, and the lyrics were appropriate if not groundbreaking.  After that, though...

[P.J.]

Well, since I had completely forgotten there were lyrics, no. But even after hearing them, all I can remember is "hold on to love"..

JFC...is Maureen's death is like two solid weeks of misery. I mean, it's great misery. But I can't recall any soap ever wallowing like that before or after. And they damn sure never ran pictures of the character during the entire credits crawl. I don't know if that's respect for the actress or making sure all the doors are locked and bolted.

[Mitch64]

God..I love that theme and the cheesy lyrics..I have a weird friend who if I ask how she is is will say..."Fine.....just living circles of ending strife..." and if I don't shut her up with go on with the whole song..then I have the damn theme in my head for the rest of the day.

 

Ha...Zombie Mo breaking in the kitchen door to eat Lillian! It is weird...when other soap characters die its a "Oh, I will never recover " and next week everyone, including their lover has moved on...even when real people die their characters like Bert, Henry, H.B. its an episode or two and then move on, but this one was like real life...Nadine tells Bridget that the mayor was their, etc... So yea, I think they made it so intense that they were screaming "This is permanent, like in real life." 

I was watching a few scenes after the funeral...Blake telling Holly to get her ass together for this, Van forcing Lillian to get her ass inside so people won't talk and it would be all about the scandal and not Mo...and Bridget and Nadine in the attic...everyone had a brain and a heart (even Nadine is not acting as goofy as she did when Buzz returned...) and I forgot GL was so damn good at that time...plus I love Bridge's line to Nadine in her funeral dress "Nadine, my God, what happened to you, did you get hit on the head and suddenly get taste?"

[P.J.]

LOL...I LOVE Vanessa giving Lillian those marching orders. It's no wonder that Ellen Parker won the emmy that year. Between reading Ed and Lillian for filth, and telling Vanessa she was done with listening to Ed's litany of excuses after the third affair in their marriage, I doubt anyone else came close.

[Contessa Donatella]

https://chng.it/9s22wzb7rF

This is Beverlee McKinsey in Mar. 1985 outside the studio. If you have not yet signed my petition for her please do so because this week I am sending it to NATAS.

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[Khan]

This one, in particular!

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Every time I heard/saw this opening, I halfway expected Montel Williams or Sally Jessy Raphael to pop up and say, "On today's show....".

Edited March 17, 2024 by Khan