It's beautiful and sunny. Warm and dry. Note even a breeze to cool things down. I have a washing out on the line and another one in the machine ready to swap over with it when it comes in dry. I have played some guitar and put up some new tunes into the solo set list.
A few more need to go in to the set list and I will be ready to tout myself in a solo blues act across the length and breadth of the country.
Lots more filth needs to go in I think. More of the "You got nipples on your titties big as the end of my thumb, you got something between your legs can make a dead man come" sort of thing.
What sorts of things should I be writing songs about? Political situation of course, poverty, bedroom tax, repression in spain, turkey and greece. So why do all the songs I write end up coming out about lost love and cheating and personal stuff about relationships gone wrong?
Possibly because most political songs are either boring or embarrassing. Not all of them of course, and depending on what the singer is wanting to get across.
Too many singers want us to hear them. Too few want us to hear what they have to say. That's an observation I borrowed from Dick Gaughan by way of hearing it from Karine Polwart, both singers of political songs whom I admire greatly. Not because of who they are but because of what they say.
So applying this standard to myself, would I come along and listen to what I have to say? I certainly hope so. Lots of the songs I sing have messages that go beyond fornication and hedonism generally. I guess what I am trying to say is that there is nothing wrong with hedonism, (or fornication for that matter).
Enjoying life is a political matter as well A revolution without dancing is not a revolution I want to be part of. The left as a whole seems often to be pretty moralistic in its attitude to enjoyment.
Perhaps that's one of the reasons why they fail to appeal to people. Being brutally honest it's hard to get much enjoyment out of life when you're up against it financially.
Enjoying life is even more difficult when what is seen to be enjoyable is commoditised. When it is sold to us. We need to learn to reclaim joy from the world of commodities. To remove joy from the sphere of goods that are bought and sold.
We need to learn to enjoy what is real and valuable in what makes us human. In our ability to come together and enjoy human beings and the differences that make us all the same.
Playing in wedding bands I often meet couples who spend huge sums on their wedding ceremonies to make themselves "happy". Sadly, they never seem to spend more than a tiny fraction of that on the band. I often find myself marvelling at the cost of these events and whether or not that money was well spent.
Does it really make them "happy"? Who can tell. It certainly leaves many of them poor and indebted. To what end? How many people spend thousands on "designer" goods to feel a brief buzz? What is the contribution that money spent on stuff to make us feel good or important? How much of it goes to make life better?
The poor devils who died in the collapsed sweat shop in Bangladesh the other month might have had something to say about that if they had lived and been listened to.
Life is short and precious. Too short to spend all we earn enriching someone who is already as rich as Croesus anyway. Too precious to waste the time we should be spending in making warm and meaningful human relationships on make believe and fairy tales.
There is a reason most of them are called "fairy tale" weddings. Many of them are based on just that level of reality checking.
Our society does not reward humanly rich and warm relationships. What it does is encourage people to stay in unsatisfying and frustrating relationships from economic necessity.
Many of the couples I know are simply together from that kind of economic imperative. Neither can afford to buy the other out. That is another myth of happiness we have been sold. You can only be "happy " if you own (or in reality have the bank own) your personal dwelling.
Do I sound like a right moaning get? Never mind, now for a bit of fornication and drinking.
It always works for me.
A few more need to go in to the set list and I will be ready to tout myself in a solo blues act across the length and breadth of the country.
Lots more filth needs to go in I think. More of the "You got nipples on your titties big as the end of my thumb, you got something between your legs can make a dead man come" sort of thing.
What sorts of things should I be writing songs about? Political situation of course, poverty, bedroom tax, repression in spain, turkey and greece. So why do all the songs I write end up coming out about lost love and cheating and personal stuff about relationships gone wrong?
Possibly because most political songs are either boring or embarrassing. Not all of them of course, and depending on what the singer is wanting to get across.
Too many singers want us to hear them. Too few want us to hear what they have to say. That's an observation I borrowed from Dick Gaughan by way of hearing it from Karine Polwart, both singers of political songs whom I admire greatly. Not because of who they are but because of what they say.
So applying this standard to myself, would I come along and listen to what I have to say? I certainly hope so. Lots of the songs I sing have messages that go beyond fornication and hedonism generally. I guess what I am trying to say is that there is nothing wrong with hedonism, (or fornication for that matter).
Enjoying life is a political matter as well A revolution without dancing is not a revolution I want to be part of. The left as a whole seems often to be pretty moralistic in its attitude to enjoyment.
Perhaps that's one of the reasons why they fail to appeal to people. Being brutally honest it's hard to get much enjoyment out of life when you're up against it financially.
Enjoying life is even more difficult when what is seen to be enjoyable is commoditised. When it is sold to us. We need to learn to reclaim joy from the world of commodities. To remove joy from the sphere of goods that are bought and sold.
We need to learn to enjoy what is real and valuable in what makes us human. In our ability to come together and enjoy human beings and the differences that make us all the same.
Playing in wedding bands I often meet couples who spend huge sums on their wedding ceremonies to make themselves "happy". Sadly, they never seem to spend more than a tiny fraction of that on the band. I often find myself marvelling at the cost of these events and whether or not that money was well spent.
Does it really make them "happy"? Who can tell. It certainly leaves many of them poor and indebted. To what end? How many people spend thousands on "designer" goods to feel a brief buzz? What is the contribution that money spent on stuff to make us feel good or important? How much of it goes to make life better?
The poor devils who died in the collapsed sweat shop in Bangladesh the other month might have had something to say about that if they had lived and been listened to.
Life is short and precious. Too short to spend all we earn enriching someone who is already as rich as Croesus anyway. Too precious to waste the time we should be spending in making warm and meaningful human relationships on make believe and fairy tales.
There is a reason most of them are called "fairy tale" weddings. Many of them are based on just that level of reality checking.
Our society does not reward humanly rich and warm relationships. What it does is encourage people to stay in unsatisfying and frustrating relationships from economic necessity.
Many of the couples I know are simply together from that kind of economic imperative. Neither can afford to buy the other out. That is another myth of happiness we have been sold. You can only be "happy " if you own (or in reality have the bank own) your personal dwelling.
Do I sound like a right moaning get? Never mind, now for a bit of fornication and drinking.
It always works for me.
Comments
Post a Comment