Mike Batt / Art Garfunkel - Bright Eyes | The Story Behind The Song | Top 2000 a gogo

Songwriter Mike Batt tells the story behind the song 'Bright Eyes' for the film Watership Down, song by Art Garfunkel.
A short documentary by Top 2000 a gogo from 2021 (Dutch Public Television).

[@deFruitberg]

He really picked the right voice for this song...

[@vellbariaofficial]

and also the singer Art Gafunkel did amazing word painting especially on the chorus lines of which it was emotional if you can deeply reflect into that

[@jpr1845]

Yes Indeed 💯 Agreed. I'm Glad Art Excepted & Sang the Song. He got the #1 Artist that Topped his list & Yes I myself Can't Imagine anyone researching singing this Epic Classic Song🎵🎶💙💗🩵😁

[@mikecroaker3024]

One of the most beautiful songs ever recorded.

[@johndoyle486]

Maximum respect to Mike Batt and Art Garfunkel. A true gem of a song.

[@originalindiechick7999]

Anyone else sobbing watching this?! 😭 Childhood ptsd crying at the end credits of watership down coupled with losing my dad this year. ❤

[@Flippin-mad]

😭 my mum still tells me of how much I cried as a child when I heard this song. Still makes me cry at 46.

[@michaelairley2015]

Haha! I cry too. But i'm only 42.

[@tommyboyce]

My parents took me to see it as a kid and I cried uncontrollably when this song came on. I'm 47 now.

[@tommyboyce]

@@Andy-mj6td Hilarious! Your surname?

[@quagsnake]

Ditto. I'm 44. I think people in their 40s were hit pretty hard by that film as we were at the best/worst age when it was first shown on TV in the early 80s.

[@captaincid6488]

I first heard this song in Watership Down as a child. To this day, it brings tears to my eyes every single time I hear it. Easily one of the most beautiful songs ever recorded.

[@odetteswann7694]

The most beautiful song of all time. Not about love, but about death.

[@voiceinthenoise3357]

Very true. Yet it is also infused with love, the deepest kind of love, because where does the question "Bright eyes, how can you close and fail? How can the light that burned so brightly suddenly burn so pale?" come from if not love.

[@briarrose29]

This song makes me cry without fail. My best friend’s mother introduced me to this song, then she died in a car accident a few years later. It always makes me think of her. 😭

[@michaelairley2015]

Saw that film as a kid. Swore to myself I'd never watch it again. 35 years and I still can't.

[@zaltmanbleroze]

Yeah same here. Movies like this and Graveyard of the Fireflies or Schindler's List I have only watched once.

[@pammetje1]

I have a similar memory...I wil never forget that sunday.

[@mandybradley3079]

What is the name of the film?

[@pammetje1]

@@mandybradley3079 watershipdown

[@pammetje1]

Still remember everything

[@kcvfr400]

Mike is a big part of my childhood. What a talent. He writes a beautiful song and can pick the right singer.

[@almaflores4757]

I know that the song is about death and as a mother I dedicate this song to my US army son who died in Afghanistan, it always bring tears in my eyes…

[@Dennis-ud2nh]

I’m sorry for your loss. I’m sure that losing a child is a wound that can never heal completely.

[@0rangecray0n]

What makes it even worse is how unjustified the war was and how many innocent people died on both sides a parent should never have be in a world without their child

[@abu7073]

This song will forever be linked with the black rabbit it was one of the only VHS tapes I had as a kid ....this song just goes deep and will forever give me a beautiful melancholy sadness

[@michaelfranklin4276]

Blackavar!

[@mv11000]

Art really had the voice of an angel.

[@rob1tnt]

This song is so hauntingly beautiful, gives me chills. Fond and lasting memories of Watership Down. Arts ethereal voice was simply perfect for this song.

[@dobindave]

Tried to put this on my playlist so many times but I just can’t listen to it reduces me to tears Beautiful song.

[@lizziecutajar4679]

Awesome....makes me sad but nostalgic...such beautiful voices❣️❣️❣️

[@GregPappasJr]

What a remarkably beautiful song. I loved Watership Down and have always felt a deep love of this song.

[@azapro911]

What a film and what a song to go with it. Art Garfunkel has often done 'Bright Eyes' at S&G reunion concerts.

[@Farlig69]

This song still makes me burst into tears some 45 years later after seeing the film... I haven't seen the film since I was a kid, it still torments me... And I'll never watch it again either, a bit like Marley & me.... I have no idea how AG sings this without bursting into tears either...

[@originalindiechick7999]

Same ❤x

[@knoophouse]

Such a beautiful voice…

[@lifeson90]

utterly beautiful

[@kirbymarchbarcena]

Ah, yeah, Watershipdown...it has such fascinating animation.

[@krishendrix4924]

I had no idea this was the meaning. Now I like it even more

[@fromagenoir7220]

Mike Batt is SEVERELY underrated!!

[@parastararts]

One of the songs of my life. I’ve always told people that when I die it would be this & that one Warren Zevon song (Keep me in your Heart) that should be played. And now I learn that the man who asked him to write about death died during the process during heart surgery. My own living with a heart condition makes this even all the more poignant to me. Also, Art Garfunkel & his music has always had great sentimental value because my love of music stems from my dad & is always the thing that bonds us. The only time he’d let me really sing along to songs when he’d play guitar was to Simon & Garfunkel, to Dust in The Wind & most of Eagles’ discography.

[@walkingTVwithadog]

Thank you,Mr Batt

[@michelledunstan9952]

Most beautiful song ever

[@michaelbailey427]

has to one of the most saddest songs ever written... If You can listen to this and not shed a tear, you have no soul.. 😉

[@douglasfreeman3229]

One can have a "soul" without bursting into tears when listening to "Bright Eyes". Mr. Garfunkel's recording IS beautiful and haunting, though. An absolute Mike Batt classic.

[@leviromani3475]

During that weird adolescence phase I used to wake up to this song conveniently playing. I had lost a lot of important family and totally disassociated but this song always felt like life being breathed into me. It reminds me of the sun in the morning, the dew on the grass, the cool winter air on the cheek as you leave for school. I love this song, it will always be uplifting.

[@Jacquelinevanharen]

Nog steeds wordt ik er emotioneel van...

[@patrickbeintema9184]

Breathtaking. Thank you for this video. I love your channel.

[@marionwalkerjr.7394]

I remember the movie but not the song. I became familiar with the song thru a "Black Mirror" episode.

[@rvbvbaservices]

Mike Batt and Art. 2 wizards in their own profession. Electricity is the result

[@northnsouth6813]

I was feeling quite happy until I watched this.

[@martj1313]

I remember as a kid looking forward to a nice cartoon about rabbits, i am sill in therapy decades later.

[@maartenvisser64]

Prachtig, Mike heeft heel veel nummers geschreven voor Katie Melua, sommige mooi sommige walgelijk

[@marieloubrumm4000]

Chanson mise en valeur, avec cette voix sublime qu'a Art GARFUNKEL

[@GreasyBelcher]

Always loved the song, saw the film when I was around 8, cried.

[@djverhulst]

tijdloos mooi nummer

[@lewisgreen2957]

Beautiful song..

[@michaelfranklin4276]

There is a nimbus, a rainbow of a door that always hangs around this song. I first heard it on a distant radio, the lyrics for the most part unintelligible but profound. There is good white magic in this song. It hurts, but it also mends and heals at the same time with promise of a better life.

[@NikitaBenCarter]

The most beautiful song of all time.

[@GoodMrDawes]

Beautiful

[@3arcovich]

How can the Light that Burns so Brightly Suddenly Burn so Pale, Bright Eyes . . . 🍃

[@eurafrican85]

This song crushed my heart

[@londonroulette]

Yeah I’m sure I saw this film as a kid too and yes very sad. Amazing song

[@Pemulis1]

My best friend died too young a little over a month ago. At first it didn't bother me much. I wondered if I were some sort of sociopath, for awhile, but what it was was that I just didn't believe it, deep down. I'd see something amusing and I'd think 'I'm gonna tell Matt this'. One night when I was kind of tired and it was late and somebody asked me about the service and I was thinking of who might have some details and I thought 'I'll ask Matt. He'll know'. And then I heard this song and really paid attention to it about a week ago and I've been crying on and off ever since (I'm not the kind of guy who cries publicly; I wouldn't be writing this if it weren't anonymous). I suppose that may be a good thing. I don't know. It doesn't feel good. But not grieving the loss of my friend would probably be worse, in the long run. It's humbling for sure. Right now I feel like I would have near-infinite patience with everyone - especially the people I still have. And I'm practically smothering my dog.

[@marcdewolf7334]

If god sings he sounds like Art Garfunkel, never knew the background to the song.

[@user-ks8ib4lc4h]

wow

[@OnBleeckerStreet]

Does anyone know where the Garfunkel singing footage is from? Love it!

[@davidd7140]

Demon 79

[@adiohead]

I sang this for part of my music GCSE and got an A*.

[@mike-anjohaldjah3787]

❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤

[@Vpmatt]

This song always reminds me of Bry Ties.

[@twelveytwelve]

I'd love to know who else was on that wishlist of ten singers to sing Bright Eyes.

[@adiohead]

I heard Ozzy Osbourne was one of them.

[@gary1961]

Tom Wait, Rod Stewart, Bonnie Tyler, Bon Scott, Lemmy, Suzy Quattro, Noddy Holder?

[@GreasyBelcher]

@@gary1961 Lemmy would have nailed it.

[@JiosX]

@@gary1961 is that a joke or it's really his choices?

[@Yvanahh]

A joke. All I can find that he's definitely said is this. "When the producers came to my house to hear the song, they said, ‘We love it, had you anyone in mind to sing it?’ And I said, ‘I’d love it if Art Garfunkel could sing it, but of course that won’t happen, so here’s a list of other people.’ Colin Blunstone of The Zombies was number two on the list, and I was number 10!"

[@Wildmutationblu]

As soon as I hear the start of this song, I always cry. Is there something wrong with me?

[@almers7270]

anyone got a youtube link or title for the live singing of art in this video?

[@Hy-Brasil]

i always used this story as a measuring device for potential friends.... i have learned the ones who were "traumatised" by it (basically admitting reality is too much to handle so let's ignore it) is not someone I trust to have my back.... or with anything for that matter.... amazing too how kids can grow up playing violent video games and watch zombies eating people alive but a story about nature - reality- is "violent" and "traumatic" lol these are the sort of people who would have stayed with General Woundwort, blindly accepting that he was keeping the "safe" lol i also keep real live rabbits. this story is tame compared to how they really behave 😣 it never mentioned once that does will eat their own kits, or that they will emasculate a buck within seconds if she's not "in the mood" for his attention.

[@reuireuiop0]

Nope animals aren't the cute little bunnies they're pictured in stories or on YT clips. That old story that only man kills his own kind, untrue. Gorillas kill the dethroned Alpha if they get the chance, Robin may kill their rival, sometimes even a prospective partner if they stay in territory for too long, Great Tits kill smaller birds in nest houses, and so on. No peace & harmony in the animal world, no Miss. As for staying with the troupe - only by my own choice. I do think the morale of the book is like that, , dunno about the movie, they often get overly dramatized, but the Richard Adams book was a fine read.

[@Devonshirejackdaw]

Too slow compared to other songs today. Its an amazing British song about death❤❤

[@mrbad69]

He got it half right. The second biggest question is Death. The first biggest question is what the bloody hell am I doing here?

[@hendra-qx7qj]

Why this song not add in spotify??

[@renslooij]

Wat is er de laatste tijd gebeurd met die fijne clipjes. De vertaling wordt overschaduwd door de letterlijke Engelse tekst (die ook nogeens niet altijd gelijk op loopt)? Kan dat anders?

[@karsboucher4047]

Je (automatische) ondertiteling staat dan aan, moet je uitzetten.

[@renslooij]

@@karsboucher4047 Dank je wel Kars, gevonden.

[@readmelancholystrumpetmaster]

I can't imagine anyone but Art singing it. I suppose Bowie could have done it but not the same

[@Chappomusic]

Mike Batt himself sings it live .. Shivers down my spine , he wrote it and knows how to perform .

[@sjoerdhiemstra9099]

45 jaar oud en zit te huilen als een klein kind....

[@djek1976]

46 en idem dito

[@CharlitoCZ]

one of the saddest movies ever!

[@ZeddtheBarbarian]

That's a roodadoo

[@roathripper]

i wouldn't rate 'death' as the ultimate question. but it's up there with 'the origin of life'

[@0rangecray0n]

Are they not two wings of the same bird?

[@tomsckay7point0]

Sometimes I imagine it being sung after 911 instead of Sound of Silence. Try it.

[@DaddyWorthers]

Always difficult to listen to

[@horaceosirian8993]

_"How can I write a song about death, without being too morbid?"_ Answer: _Death on Four Legs._ (Sorry, Queen).

[@douglasfreeman3229]

I swear Mr. Batt is dying his hair ginger. I'm going to let mine turn grey.

[@qasion]

Comparing this song to the trash we hear these days, well, you get the idea.

[@peteowen3539]

Get your point, but totally unnecessary. Listen to something like Old Money by Lana Del Rey. PS this is one of the finest songs ever written.

[@douglasfreeman3229]

Anyone here rate Stephen Gately's version? Me neither!