Pretty tune, that. I love the renditions by Oleta Adams, Quincy Jones, Nina Simone, Sarah Vaughan, George Benson…just a wonderful, sad song, worth covering (ya got that, BoomR? — I’d love to hear you do it). And while today’s post isn’t about the song “Everything Must Change,” its lyrics ring especially true in this particular case.

I read last night about yet another American legend meeting its maker. The iconic Tavern on the Green restaurant in New York City’s Central Park was officially turned into a trinket shop over the weekend, all its innards auctioned off to the highest bidder earlier in the year.

Actually, “trinket shop” isn’t very kind. To be fair, it’s a “visitor center” now. But I have to be honest — it makes me sad to see the façade now overrun with food trucks and the wonderfully over-the-top-gaudy Crystal Room gone forever.

John Lennon loved the place, and often celebrated his birthday there. It’s been featured in several movies and TV shows, and was the single highest grossing independent restaurant in the US for many of the last 30+ years. Still, crushing debt swallowed the Manhattan eatery, and the owners (the LeRoy family of Wizard of Oz fame) couldn’t raise enough cash to save the ship.

I visited TotG back in the early 90s, when it was just showing signs of getting tired. I’d heard that the food wasn’t good anymore, and that the place was becoming a leftover dinosaur in the sunset of its life. Still, it was a thrill to see all the Tiffany glass, the kooky statuary and shrubbery, and the oh-my-goodness opulence of the place at night:

But yeah. Everything must change. I just wish “everything” didn’t include Tavern on the Green.

So, are you going to school today? I am not. That is to say I’m not going to school during the school day. But I’ll so be there for rehearsal tonight. Yay for Monkdays. You enjoy yours.

FO

Images: Associated Press, Tavern on the Green