Iﾃや况e done 45 pages of my script now. Fifteen more and I have enough. I am hoping I can finish it tomorrow. I am not entirely satisfied with it ﾃや I think itﾃや冱 too far-fetched and not really the truthful look at the lives of comedians that I had hoped to produce ﾃや but donﾃや冲 tell Channel 4 that. It will do for the minute and will be sorted out easily enough if they commission it. For the moment I just have to get this monkey off my back. And when I have done that, I will write the script.
So I ambled my way up North, stopping fairly regularly to work and eat. The cassette thing that connects my iPod to the car stereo is not working any more and so I spend most of my time listening to Radio 1, which is not really created for me and yet I am strangely compelled to tune in (perhaps pretending to be 21 again, though I think even 21 year olds are too ancient to fall into this stationﾃや冱 demographic). Most of the DJs annoy the heck out of me for one reason or another, but itﾃや冱 just good to have something on in the background that isnﾃや冲 too challenging. And itﾃや冱 good to keep up with the pop charts, even if they essentially play the same ten songs on rotation on this station.
But when you hear a pop song for the fifteenth time then you can discover new treasures in it. One of the ten songs that I like best is the one that samples ﾃや廝reakfast in Americaﾃや by Supertramp (who my brother used to play constantly in his bedroom in the 1970s, so maybe thatﾃや冱 partly why I like it). It always mainly makes me want to hear the rest of ﾃや廝reakfast in Americaﾃや but I like the new version, even if like the old man I am, I am unsure of the name of the recording artiste (ﾃや廨ym Class Heroesﾃや? It seems unlikely, but I think I may be correct). I think they have been sharp to see the chorus potential of what I think is just part of the opening verse in the original, but there are also some sharp and poetic images in what I believe the youngsters call the ﾃや徨appingﾃや.
One bit I heard for the first time today went something like
ﾃや廬f I had to choose between her and the sun,
Iﾃや囘 be one nocturnal son-of-a-gun.ﾃや
(I had remembered it as "night-time loving" instead of "nocturnal" but Lyric websites disagree with me)
I think thatﾃや冱 very close to genius and as witty and romantic as anything by John Donne. Even though there is a part of me that wants to inform the singer that if he actually did choose the woman, over the star at the centre of the solar system and the sun was extinguished then all life on Earth, including his girlfriend, would freeze to death, I still think itﾃや冱 a romantic image. And itﾃや冱 probable that he actually means that he would choose to stay out of the sun rather than have it destroyed to prove his devotion.
I am not sure that itﾃや冱 deliberate, but in each verse he lists a thing that makes him state, ﾃや彿f that ainﾃや冲 love, then I donﾃや冲 know what love isﾃや. She gives him alka-seltzer when his tummy aches, he has given her her own ring-tone and so on. Now I am tempted to believe that the writer of this song is aware that these things, although cute, do not actually signify love and that there is a subtext that the singer is merely infatuated and does not know what love is. Maybe I am reading too much into it. Maybe I have listened to it too many times. But itﾃや冱 a most excellent song and I urge you all to buy it and then write a GCSE essay about it, like I just have.
One of the ones I donﾃや冲 like and not from a prudish level is the one that goes, ﾃや廬 can lick your ice cream and you can lick my lollipopﾃや. It is a crude and obvious reference to the fact that the man singing would enjoy having oral sex with the woman he is singing to (both giving and receiving in mutual exchange), but the confectionary metaphor is so blatant and unimaginative that I think me might as well sing, ﾃや廬 can lick your clitoris and you can suck my penisﾃや. If thatﾃや冱 what he wants then let him say that. The innuendo of what he does sing is so slight and so artlessly delivered that it is essentially this already. Itﾃや冱 not romantic like a man telling a woman he would have the sun blown up before giving her up. It just makes oral sex seem disgusting and mechanical (which you know, it sometimes can be, but I donﾃや冲 want to hear that celebrated in a song) and by referring genitals to childhood sweetmeats is a bit suspect and unpleasant.
Anyway, these are the kind of things that occupy my mind whilst doing all this driving. That and wanting to punch Chris Moyles and shake Jo Whiley and tell her to grow up and get a proper job and stop thinking sheﾃや冱 young and cool and down with the kids and punch Scott Mills and punch JK and Joel and then punch Jo Whiley, just so she isnﾃや冲 missing out on the beating and because secretly I know I am the same as her and if I didnﾃや冲 punch her Iﾃや囘 have to punch myself.
