Lyrical Philosophy.

We only have one car in our family. Dearly Beloved generally walks to work and I often cycle but use the car when the weather is bad so we don't really need a second. Also, I'm too tight to pay for one. It just so happened that last Friday Dearly Beloved need the car for a rare visit to a client so I had no option but to cycle. Unfortunately, it was the same day that the god of comeuppances was tallying my record sheet, found me to be in the red and saw an opportunity to redress the balance. As it got closer to my departure time, the sky clouded over and the wind started to blow. By the time I left it was blowing a gale and the sky had darkened to an ugly black. Halfway there the rain began. I was struggling up a hill against a vicious head wind with the rain coming down in torrents, I was metaphorically shaking my fist at the sky and roundly cursing all the gods when a line from an old song come into my head that made my smile. I pressed on with the cycle with the song in my head and within a short time the rain had stopped and I was arriving at work with the promise of a hot shower. 

The line from the song was 'I'm never gonna stop the rain by complaining' from Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head. It's one of those songs lyrics that have stuck with me over the years as being inherently true. Often when I find myself  becoming irrationally annoyed at something I have no control over the song pops into my head to remind me to stop whinging and get on with it.

 I have a few of these lyrical gems such as the brilliantly worded 'the worlds your oyster but your future's a clam' from 'When You're Young' by The Jam'. Weller is right, no sooner do you reach an age where the world opens up than the financial commitments and personal responsibilities start piling in. I have always loved the line 'Life is just a bowl of All-bran, you wake up every morning and it's there' from the Small Faces' Happy Days Toy Town. It wonderfully conveys the humdrum ordinariness of life.

Another lyric that sticks with me is from The Who's 'Won't Get Fooled Again:' 'meet the new boss, same as the old boss.'  It just seems to sum up the inevitability of things, a little hiccup and it's back to business as usual. Should you have been around in 1977 you may well have heard of the band X-Ray Spex and their excellent singer Poly Styrene (well, it was punk). Their album included the track 'I can't do anything' which perfectly captures that lack of confidence and anxiety that strikes everyone from time to time. That feeling that you're going to be found out for a fraud at any moment. 

These are a few that have stuck with me over the years and there are many more. I've no doubt that anyone reading this would have their own bank of lyrics that struck a chord (as it were). Well go on then, what's your favourite?