BY KAREN BOSSICK

The song “Stand By Me” probably isn’t appropriate for a community that’s been told to keep their distance from one another. Nor is the Doors’ “Touch Me.”

But the song “Don’t Stand So Close to Me” by the Police certainly would qualify.

That’s the thinking of Nick Harman, a Ketchum resident who is taking a page from those feisty Italians in staging a “Sing from Home” night.

Harman hopes everyone will open their doors and windows at 8:30 tonight –Wednesday, March 25—and join together in song. And wouldn’t it be nice, he says, if people shine flashlights into the night sky and if those in cars would honk their horns three times.

He’s arranged for KECH 95.3 FM to play the song so everyone can sing along to it.

Harman has been up to all kinds of mischief trying to keep himself occupied since The Argyros, his place of employment, shut its doors a week ago. He’s videotaped himself bicycling down the street being chased by a tumbleweed. And he’s videotaped how takeout from Johnny G’s would look on skateboard.

The leading voice behind Ketchum’s Nightmare on Main Street Halloween party for the past several years, he decided to stage a sing-in to lift the spirts of his village mates who have been locked down for a week because of the coronavirus pandemic.

He was inspired by the Italians who have found their dolce vita amidst their quarantine by singing “Volare” to one another from their balconies.

Tenor Maurizio Marchini performed “Nessum Dorma” from Puccini’s “Turandot” from his terrace in Florence. Giuliano Sangiorgi serenaded his neighbors from his Rome apartment. And the trumpeter Alberto Anguzza performed John Lennon’s “Imagine” from his balcony in Sicily.

Germans have sung the Italian resistance song “Bella Ciao” from rooftops in solidarity with Italy. And even Dallas residents have sung Bill Withers’ “Lean on Me.”

Wood River Valley residents chose “Don’t Stand so Close to Me” over “Star Spangled Banner,” Bon Jovi’s “Living on a Prayer,” “America the Beautiful” and R.E.M.’s “It’s the End of the World as We Know It.”

Don’t know the Police song?

Just open your doors and belt out Neil Diamond’s “Sweet Caroline” with its newly revised words:

“Hands, washing hands. Reaching Out. Don’t touch me. I won’t touch you.”

Harman has rewritten "Don't Stand so Close to Me":

It's time now--we're gathered. Wood River Valley. Together, we stand now. This is how it's meant to be.

Our thoughts and our prayers are with all our families. Sending love, but we have something to say to you.

Don't stand. Don't stand so. Don't stand so close to me. Don't stand. Don't stand so. Don't stand so close to me.

One week now-Stir crazy. you know how Bad I get. Sometimes it's not so easy I'm heading into debt.

Zoom meetings. Frustration. so bad it makes me cry. Dog walking. Binge watching. The upside--Not going to lie.

Loose talk in the White house. Oh, Trump, you lie and lie. Don't hoard in your bathroom. We're down to just one play.

So stay home. We've got this. Wood River. so strong and tough. We live in the mountains. We're made of sterner stuff.