Famed British singer Petula Clark said she feels “shock and disbelief” that her timeless hit “Downtown” was played by the Nashville bomber just before his 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 this violent act — leaving behind it such devastation?” Clark wrote on her Facebook page on Tuesday.
“A few hours later — I was told that the music in the background of that strange announcement — was me — singing “Downtown”! Of all the thousands of songs — why this one?”
Suicide bomber Anthony Quinn Warner, a 63-year-old IT worker from nearby Antioch, Tennessee, died in the blast that injured several people and damaged dozens of buildings in Nashville’s historic downtown district.
Warner’s RV blared a warning that a bomb would detonate in 15 minutes and then switched to a recording of Clark’s famed 1964 tune “Downtown” before the blast.
Clark said that song should be associated with joy and celebration.
“Of course, the opening lyric is ‘When you’re alone and life is making you lonely you can always go Downtown,’” she wrote. “But millions of people all over the world have been uplifted by this joyful song. Perhaps you can read something else into these words — depending on your state of mind. It’s possible.”
She voiced her support for Nashville and used an old British catch phrase for keeping calm under pressure.
“I would like to wrap my arms around Nashville — give you all a hug — and wish you Love, a Happy and Healthy New Year — and, as we sometimes say in the U.K., steady the Buffs! (Look it up!),” the 88-year-old Clark wrote.
Clark won a 1964 Grammy for Best Rock & Roll Recording with “Downtown.” The song peaked at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 Chart on Jan. 23, 1965.
Matteo Moschella contributed.
Source: | This article originally belongs to Nbcnews.com
