The Age of Not Believing

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

"The Age of Not Believing" is an Academy Award-nominated song written by Robert and Richard Sherman for the 1971, Walt Disney musical film production Bedknobs and Broomsticks. Angela Lansbury sings the song in the motion picture. In the lyrics, Lansbury's character "Eglantine" expresses how as one grows up, he loses his belief in magic. The song works on two levels, both on the microcosm, personal level and also thematically for the whole film. For it is an insecure, adolescent Britain, entering into a new, more rational age who must learn to borrow from its own past magic in order to overcome the tremendous challenge which is before it. When the characters in the film finally learn to trust in Eglantine's magic they are able to achieve their goals and Britain is saved from the Nazis. The Sherman Brothers' entire musical score was also nominated for an Oscar that year as well. This represented the songwriters' fourth and fifth Oscar bids, respectively.

The song was covered by the band Dodgy in 1991 during a BBC Radio 1 session for Mark Goodier, and can be heard on the album So Far on 3 Wheels - Dodgy On The Radi, released in 2007.