Of all the explanations and theories, my favourite remains Spaw's from yesterday. "... sadness and sorrow over our loss of innocence which we can never recover", yes that hits home.

And we shouldn't forget either that youth is a time to be innocent and idealistic to the point of naivete. If we don't dream, we never strive and achieve, only survive, and sometimes not even that. And here is what saddens me most: when I see youngsters disillusioned.

So, nothing wrong with having once sung "Kumbaya" with arms interlinked at some concert or round a fire, and nothing wrong with having had strong emotions at the time. And if the same doesn't ring as true today as it did then, well guess what, the song hasn't changed. Only we have. And if maturity means becoming emotionally arteriosclerotic and jaded, then f*ck maturity; it's just a form of slow death.

The Who's lyric was wrong - it should have been "hope I die before I get cynical".