Trebay writes: "In his 20s, when he sought a life beyond the straitened circumstances of his upbringing, he became a favorite of the London tabloids that relentlessly chronicled his relationships with the model Jean Shrimpton and the actress Julie Christie. His romantic life was at one point so well known that he and Ms. Christie inspired the 'Terry and Julie' in the Kinks song 'Waterloo Sunset,' released at the height of the mid-1960s music and fashion scene known as Swinging London."
If we go over to Genius.com to find the lyrics, we see: "Terry meets Julie, Waterloo station/Every Friday night/But I am so lazy, don't want to wander/I stay at home at night/... Millions of people swarming like flies 'round/Waterloo underground/But Terry and Julie cross over the river/Where they feel safe and sound."
We don't get the sense that we're hearing about beautiful celebrities, and in fact, there's an annotation:
It has been speculated that this line is about the relationship between actor Terence Stamp and actress Julie Christie, who starred together in Far From The Madding Crowd the year the song was released, but Davies has denied this on several occasions.
"It was a fantasy about my sister going off with her boyfriend to a new world and they were going to emigrate and go to another country."
Who are you going to believe — The New York Times or some random annotator at Genius? Can't I presume the Times checked the assertion? Or is this an example of that old journalistic adage: Too good to check.
I decide to do my own checking and Google "It was a fantasy about my sister going off with her boyfriend to a new world and they were going to emigrate and go to another country." Now, Google doesn't google like it used to. It intrudes on the old searcher/search-results relationship with its "AI Overview." In this case, the intrusion is unusually up in my business:
My dream! Isekai?! Google, back off. And don't put that "dream" in that psychological profile of me you might be assembling. I'm not dreaming about my sister. I'm checking this Ray Davies quote.
I switch to Grok, but it's hard to tell what it's done with the many repetitions of the original idea and the Davies denial: "Davies has repeatedly dismissed the Stamp/Christie interpretation. In his 1994 autobiography X-Ray, he explicitly denied it. He reiterated this in a 2008 interview, describing the song as 'a fantasy about my sister going off with her boyfriend to a new world and they were going to emigrate and go to another country.' In other accounts, Davies has elaborated that the characters represent the aspirations of his sisters' generation, drawing from personal family memories—such as his sister Rene and her husband emigrating to Australia, or time spent with his nephew Terry Davies during his teenage years.... There are hints of possible conflicting statements from Davies over time. Some sources and fan recollections suggest he may have playfully acknowledged or not corrected the rumor in the past, leading to speculation that he changed his story. For instance, in a 2015 interview, Davies reflected on the song as 'a kind of film,' where 'Terry would be Terence Stamp and Julie would be Julie Christie,' but this seems more like a hypothetical musing than a confirmation. Overall, his consistent public stance since the 1990s has been a denial, emphasizing the song's roots in personal, non-celebrity nostalgia."
I'm going to take the position — based on the text, not on what Davies has said or not said over the years — that the Terry and Julie in the song are not Terence Stamp and Julie Christie. The Terry and Julie in the song are an ordinary couple that ride the subway. Terence Stamp and Julie Christie must have had far more glamorous modes of transportation. It's just a coincidence that the names are the same. But it's such a good story. No, it's not. It undermines the meaning of the song.
But weren't they beautiful?
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43 comments:
Stamp on Brando
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zOXTeJAyOaM
He comes off as a very charming smart guy.
One of my favorite old songs. Stamp was in great form in “The Hit” and “The Limey”, the two films that stand out for me.
Not a lot films that I saw. As for Julie Christie, she's one of those actresses that looks very beautiful from one camera angle and then looks sorta odd from another.
Why would Stamp and Christie meet at Waterloo Station? They odn’t
Now do Brenda and Eddie?
Jack and Diane?
Candy and Ronnie?
Young Terence gives off a Robert Shaw vibe...
I never understood the Julie Christie mystique.
AI Overview: Terence Stamp, the British actor known for his "brooding silence".
Lazarus said...
“Now do Brenda and Eddie?
Jack and Diane?
Candy and Ronnie?”
I was just at a wedding over the weekend. If you go by their middle names (which neither one does), the bride and groom were William and Kate.
“But weren't they beautiful?”
Julie certainly was. I kept hoping the bees would get to Terry. But he was pretty good as Clark Kent’s father.
"Girls will be boys and boys will be girls,
It's a mixed-up, muddled-up, shook-up world, except for Gina Lollobrigida."
Great scene from The Limey, where Stamp lays out a criminal scheme to a black American gangsta, in his full East End accent. There's a pause, and the gangsta replies, "The only part of that I don't understand is every fucking thing you just said."
RR
JSM
one of those actresses that looks very beautiful from one camera angle and then looks sorta odd from another
So, even odds.
General Zod was probably my introduction, he was only 30 then
"General Zod was probably my introduction, he was only 30 then."
Huh? Superman II was released in 1980. If Stamp was 30 in 1980, he was born in 1950. However, Terrance Stamp was the eponymous hero of Billy Budd, costaring with Peter Ustinov and Robert Ryan. Stamp was quite young then, but he wasn't 12.
in the original (1978) he had a brief segment with Sarah Douglas and the other guy, who played his henchman,
"Billy Budd" is an unaccountably obscure film. It's based on an unfinished story by Herman Melville, Billy Budd, Foretopman and quite shocking in its treatment of justice in practice rather than theory.
Great scene, Mr. Mosby. Another actor from The Limey passed away in April ‘25… Nicky Katt.
you can kind of see the subtlely of Stamp's performance, vs Sheehan playing the same character by screaming his lines,
stupid Zach Snyder, of course Mario Puzo worked on the first script,
Is Billy Budd the film as unaccountably obscure as Billy Budd the opera by Britten?
Come to think of it, did you mean obscure in the sense of little known, or in the sense of hard to follow? Or both?
The "other guy" was Jack O'Halloran. The script called for him grunt rather than speak, which was another weakness of a generally weak movie, IMAO. O'Halloran did an effective job in Farewell, My Lovely as Raymond Chandler's hulking and lovestruck ex-con, Moose Malloy, playing opposite Robert Mitchum as the rusty knight-errant, Philip Marlowe, and Charlotte Rampling as la femme fatale. Great movie. I recommend it highly. (Bonus: Sly Stallone has a bit part as a wheelman for some rather colorful gangsters.)
"Is Billy Budd the film as unaccountably obscure as Billy Budd the opera by Britten?"
Obscure only in the sense of being little known and difficult to obtain for viewing. It's available through Amazon Prime, but you'll be lucky to find it by browsing rather than searching by title.
Many years ago, I watched a VHS of a Met production of Billy Budd. In the immortal words of Damon Wayans and David Allen Grier, hated it!
well its a sentimental favorite or two, yes the first half hour of opening could have been trimmed, the suggestion, was they formed a trio of brain, deception and brawn, Zod as the strategist, Ursa as the seductress assasin and the muscle,
Mike Mazurki was a far better Moose Malloy, but Dick Powell was no Philip Marlowe.
Robert Montgomery's version from Lady in the Lake was promising, although Bogarts was the first version,
Marlowe not the other character, kind of like Clive Owen's latter day Spade
Elliot Gould, on the other hand, is the anti-Marlowe.
"Robert Montgomery's version from Lady in the Lake was promising..."
That one seems looney tunes to me. The Christmas-themed opening credits are just crazy. "Lady in the Lake" premiered January 23, 1947, long after the decorations had been boxed and stuffed in the attic, the trees burnt or chipped into mulch, and the longed-for toys busted. Imagine the confusion in the audience. Then we have the first first-person shooter with the pacing of molasses in January. Instead, look for the BBC radio series, Classic Chandler, starring Toby Stevens. That's a worthwhile adaptation.
there were some other elements, that barely slipped under the Hayes code if you know what I mean,
narciso said...
Robert Montgomery's version from Lady in the Lake was promising, although Bogarts was the first version,
Bogart was in "The Big Sleep". Montgomery did the only version of "The Lady In The Lake".
version of marlowe, montgomery and powell had more polish than you would think
Charlotte Rampling was in one of Besson's last projects as well as the terribly ill considered Assasin's Creed, if memory serves,
The NYT should have credited the quote they used about Terrence Stamp. Lady Caroline Lamb, writing of her lover, the poet Lord Byron: "Mad, bad, and dangerous to know."
Doctor Zhivago made Julie Christie's career internationally (Billy Liar and Darling may have been big in Britain before that). After McCabe and Mrs. Miller (and I guess, Shampoo) her era wound down. She even left movies entirely in the late 80s to mid 90s. Zhivago gave her the mystique. You could see it in Far From the Madding Crowd (though for the director, Alan Bates was the one with the mystique). When she was just another of Warren Beatty's girlfriends, the world began to lose interest.
Had a girlfriend back at State U who fancied she looked like Julie Christie.
Lucky for her, and me, she kinda did.
Julie Christie was one of the all time best actresses playing Lara in Doctor Zhivago. She was perfect for that role.
Those were the good old days…the 1960s.
The lyrics may not be about them, but it wouldn't be strange if he used those names because people were talking about the couple. It may not have been intentional.
James Garner did a very creditable updated Marlowe in the only film adaptation of "The Little Sister".
Christie was the only good thing about "McCabe". Warren Beatty fits in the "old West" about as well as Cary Grant. I agree her highpoint was Zhivago.
As for Movie Marlowe's Bogart was the best. Montgomery might have done better if the movie had been written/directed better. Chandler liked Bogart - "He can be tough without a gun".
The Long Goodbye get worse everytime I watch it. Last time, I just skipped around and watched the funny bits. Henry Gibson was an embarrassment. At least Altman didn't cast Ruth Buzzi.
I'd forgotten about Garner and The Little Sister. What we really need is a good, modern noir treatment of The High Window, which really has never been made. Maybe they could use a rare bitcoin Brashear Doubloon.
I watched Hamlet (1996) last night without the courtesy of this Althouse news prompt. It’s me, and not Hamlet, that makes me hate Gertrude, and pathetic Julie Christie effectively wound-sears my hatred with a hot cauterizing iron, making me beg Gertrude to grab a dagger, grab her son, just murder Claudius, and get over the infinite tediousness her pathetic part. Then Gertrude and Hamlet can kill each other and end this miserable howl-at-the-moon of a play. More cheer in the graveyard with Billy Crystal. I am better informed by Orson Welles and Peter O’Toole that for Hamlet to end thus, abruptly, could never be (nor not to be), because there remained 4 more tedious acts yet ahead to slow-kill us, and there would simply be no play. I say that not even a gratuitous sex scene between Christie with a subbed-in Stamp (maybe Stamp instead of Rufus Sewell as Fortinbras? - come early, at least in a wet “dream,” to “take” Christie too?) - not even that could save the movie for me. I have a terminal infection of Hamlet Derangement Syndrome, my great hatred is my Love. "The drink, the drink – O my dear Hamlet – The drink, the drink! I am poisoned," could not have happened, sans aphrodisiac, too soon.
"Who are you going to believe — The New York Times or some random annotator at Genius?"
You believe whoever makes the most convincing case. I am going to go with "impossible to know," and that the names "Terry and Julie" were were wafting about in the culture, and possibly the artist himself doesn't know the real truth, and since it doesn't matter, I am done thinking about it.
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