I somehow mistakenly
fell into a job revolving around streetlights a few years ago. It is
never a job I would have chosen for myself, and like prostitution and
drug dealing it was never mentioned as a possible career path by
guidance councillors at school but the modern world needs their
streets to be brightly lit so they can see where they're going and
feel safe. Or something. It means there's a job for people who never
knew (and still don't) what they want to do with their lives. But it
all sounds very un-rock 'n' roll, in fact it sounds boring as hell.
I used to try to not
talk about it too much but since Jeremy Vine ousted me on national televison I thought maybe I should be more open about it; I do spend
at least eight hours of every working day doing some kind of job
revolving around them, so why not write a blog about them too?
Possibly the most boring blog in the world.
When people listen to
music there's certain words or terms in lyrics which will be
instantly forgettable. Words that are in there to possibly portray a
meaning in something, maybe to give the listener some kind of
context, possibly just as filler. The kind of word that isn't really
part of the main theme of the song but is there to add weight to the
song as a whole or used as a comparision to something. A word/ thing
that most people wouldn't pick up on, but then what if you work in
the sector and you keep hearing an inordinate amount of streetlights
being heard in lyrics? Fucking streetlights. You'd probably think you
were going mad. That work was taking you over. You'd probably think
that, that... well that you were a bit sick and should think of
getting a job involving something that actually matters. Like people
or terrepins.
Anyway, this had been
creeping up on me for a few months, I'd found myself listening to
songs and thinking 'did s/he just shout/sing streetlights in the
middle of that lyric!?' I tried to forget about it and put it down to
misheard lyrics and my mind playing tricks on me but when I went a
gig at the Birds Nest and saw this amazing newish band called Waco
(somewhere between Propagandhi and The Smith Street Band with bits of
Black Sabbath, The Replacements, Kid Dynamite, Joyce Manor and Minor
Threat chucked in too. Perhaps. Check them out for yourself here and
tell me who they actually sound like.) play I could have sworn they
were singing about streetlights in one of their songs. It was a bit
much that work seemed to be impeding on my solo drinking sessions
watching punk bands, if anywhere I would have thought that would
always be my safe haven, my escape. But the band kind of blew me away
and made me smile so I decided to get their EP and take it home for
further investigation.
I hadn't been mistaken;
on The Devil they sing "Lost
in the middle of the night in the middle of the city/
There's
a streetlight that never goes out when you're living here like me"
Of course they weren't actually singing about streetlights; i'm not
sure if anyone's written a song as an ode to street lights, I hope
not or I'll buy their stuff and burn it. Anyway, I skipped through my
iPod and stuck on some records and found other offenders that I'd
suspected like Bangers ("I said my favouite colour now is the
colour of streetlights/ she said she never could distinguish between
my bad jokes and stupid lines" from the song Bad Jokes on Crazy
Fucking Dreams), Hot Club De Paris ("In the shadows of a Friday
night/ I walked into a brand new street light" from
Everyeveryeverything on Drop It Till It Pops), The Hold Steady ("When
he's holding then the streetlights/ seem an awful lot like
spotlights" from Charlemagne in Sweatpants from Seperation
Sunday) the truly awful Route 215 (it was a review copy from back in
the waterintobeer days; some song about being "dimly lit",
"licking clit" and being "well aroused" when
"undoing a blouse" called Underneath A Streetlight from the
album Shock 'Em Dead) or Zatopeks whose song Mechanised from new
album About Bloody Time is kind of based on a Gogol quote about
streetlights (or streetlamps anyhow). Get that album by the way if
you like intelligent, catchy as hell, thought provoking pop punk.
It's bloody beauty.
And then Against All
Authority sing "What do you do when there's nowhere to go? Empty
pools and punk rock shows/ anger that nobody knows and the sun goes
down and the streetlights glow' on Silence is Golden But Duct Tape is
Silver and The Lawrence Arms sing "A temple corroded, eviction
pending/ embrace me, cold nights, grey sky, streetlight" on the
First Eviction Notice and nomeansno sing "The day everything
became nothing/ I was standing underneath a streetlight, wishing I'd
had a cigarette" from The Day Everything Became Nothing or
Samiam sing "See that sky flying by/ see the streetlights spin
and blend/ proving it's not a fastest scar" from Sky Flying.
Where was all this
coming from? Had anyone stood underneath a streetlight I had anything
to do with and started writing a song? Maybe my job wasn't as boring
as I thought, maybe streetlights are actually an inspiration to
artists and poets the world over. Maybe I was actually helping to
provide a public service rather than just sitting in a job that was
created to create a job so that money could keep on circulating
around the country and the government could point to reduced
unemployment figures. Maybe it does matter.
The Velvet Underground
(Venus in Furs), Buffalo Tom (Sunday Night), Belle and Sebastien
(Waiting for the Moon to Rise), Van Morrison (In the Midnight),
Arcade Fire (Une Annee Sans Lumiere), Hefner (Half a Life), Billy
Bragg (Northern Industrial Town), Joni Mitchell (Underneath the
Streetlight), MC5 (Shakin Street), Blondie (Out in the Streets) and
Ice-T (Peel their Caps Back) are just some other musicians to have
included streetlights as a (perhaps not so) vital element of their
songs. A revelation I'm sure you'll agree. Even Journey talk of
'Streetlight people' on Don't Stop Beleivin' and Coolio sang "I'm
the kinda G the little homies wanna be like/ On my knees in the
night, sayin' prayers in the streetlight" on Gangstas Paradise
and where would the nineties have been without that song?
And that makes
streetlights cool, surely? Some validation for those eight hours a
day would be kind of nice. But then, as much time as I spend there
it's not that important... As always, thanks to all the bands above
for the music, thanks for making life that bit more fun.
No comments:
Post a Comment