The song for this page is obvious.  The version is not so obvious.

 

Or:

Not an easy choice, is it?

The premise for this page is simple.  Structures on roofs.  Let’s let the photos explain.

Gary Rosenberg’s work on three conjoined apartments at Bancroft and Acton is stunning.  Fruit trees crowd against the house. Plants grow in mulch on top of concrete.  Rain water is captured.  The roof is somewhere between living roof and rooftop garden.  Not bad for what was an abandoned crack house when Rosenberg bought the house in 1998.

That’s what I am talking about. Carol King wrote the music, Gerry Gofflin the lyrics.  Let’s look at the lyrics with these photos in mind.

When this old world starts getting me down
And people are just too much for me to face
I climb way up to the top of the stairs
And all my cares just drift right into space

On the roof it’s peaceful as can be
And there the world below can’t bother me

Let me tell you now
When I come home feelin’ tired and beat
I go up where the air is fresh and sweet
I get away from the hustling crowds
And all that rat race noise down in the street
Up on the roof

On the roof’s the only place I know
Where you just have to wish to make it so
Oh, let’s go up on the roof

At night the stars put on a show for free
And darling, you can share it all with me
I keep a-telling you
Right smack dab in the middle of town
I found a paradise that’s trouble-proof
Up on the roof

So if this world starts getting you down
There’s room enough for two, up on the roof
Up on the roof, everything is allright
Up on the roof, oh, come on, baby
Up on the roof
Up on the roof

This is pretty good stuff.  It makes me think of nights relaxing and sleeping on the roof of the Mascher Street boycott house in Philadelphia in the summer of 1970.

My friend liked the photos, although he is getting a little snooty about production values and wondered about a posting with nothing but iPhone photos.  As he “really digs” the Drifters video, he had a different musical association with roofs – Elton’s John’s Your Song  – “I sat on the roof and kicked off the moss.”  It makes him think of a girl named Carol, spring 1971.  So be it, but how about these Berkeley roof photos?