Poetry – So they tell me

Posted on by Opher

So they tell me

They tell me that I have a place,

It’s set out just for me.

But I do not like the place I’m set,

I do not want to walk that path,

To talk that speech,

Or strain my brain to forget.

Around me they have created rules

Set parameters

To control us fools,

And we are expected to play the game

Within the bounds

That keep it the same.

The real players are the Kings and Queens,

Robbers and callous thugs.

We as pawns are merely

Tiresome bugs.

They use us like they use

A bothersome, worthless tool.

We exist as a means to an end

Worth no more than a shrug

Or nothing at all.

Within this game we have to make the grade

Cut off from the natural way,

As a cog within the machine

I turn to create wealth

And take my pay.

I’m bought and sold

Used and discarded

Bled dry, controlled

And disregarded.

There’s no way out.

We’re in the game,

Caught in the web.

The more we struggle

The tighter the knots –

One more trapped pleb.

It is self-perpetuating

Designed to build our own cage.

Any rebellion causes mirth

As they incorporate our rage.

Opher 2.9.2015

Way Over Yonder in the Minor Key – Lyrics by Woody Guthrie – Sung by Billy Bragg

Posted on by Opher

Woody Guthrie

Now I idolise Woody Guthrie and I really like Billy Bragg. So when the Woody Guthrie family wanted someone to put some of Woody’s words to music I was delighted. I was not disappointed. The album Mermaid Avenue was brilliant. I play it a lot. Wilco were OK too.

Woody Guthrie left a huge archive of material – apart from his hundreds of songs and his novels, there were thousands of scraps of paper with doodlings, songs, fragments of writing, letters and drawings. Thankfully they are being preserved by the Guthrie Foundation. Woody Guthrie is a major person on the world stage – up there with the very best. He’s a treasure.

This song I love because it really sums up how I feel about myself. There was and hasn’t been anybody like Woody Guthrie. He is a complete law unto himself. He did everything his own way. The result was genius.

I may not have the genius but that is how I approach my life. I do what I do how I want to without regard to whether it makes sense, is good or relates to others. I am my world’s worst enemy. But what you get is always me.

This song resonates with me.

Way over Yonder in the Minor Key – Woody Guthrie/Billy Bragg

I lived in a place called Okfuskee
And I had a little girl in a holler tree
I said, “Little girl, it’s plain to see
Ain’t nobody that can sing like me
Ain’t nobody that can sing like me”

She said, “It’s hard for me to see
How one little boy got so ugly”
Yes, my little girly, that might be
But there ain’t nobody that can sing like me
Ain’t nobody that can sing like me

Way over yonder in the minor key
Way over yonder in the minor key
There ain’t nobody that can sing like me

We walked down by the Buckeye Creek
To see the frog eat the goggle eye bee
To hear that west wind whistle to the east
There ain’t nobody that can sing like me
Ain’t nobody that can sing like me

Oh my little girly, will you let me see
Where over yonder where the wind blows free?
Nobody can see in our holler tree
And there ain’t nobody that can sing like me
Ain’t nobody that can sing like me

Way over yonder in the minor key
Way over yonder in the minor key
There ain’t nobody that can sing like me

Her mama cut a switch from a cherry tree
And laid it on to she and me
It stung lots worse than a hive of bees
But there ain’t nobody that can sing like me
Ain’t nobody that can sing like me

Now I have walked a long long ways
I still look back to my Tanglewood days
I’ve led lots of girlies since then to stray
Saying, “Ain’t nobody that can sing like me
Ain’t nobody that can sing like me”

Way over yonder in the minor key
Way over yonder in the minor key
Ain’t nobody that can sing like me

Way over yonder in the minor key
Way over yonder in the minor key
Ain’t nobody that can sing like me
Ain’t nobody that can sing like me

Read more: Billy Bragg – Way Over Yonder In The Minor Key Lyrics | MetroLyrics

Being oneself – Who are we?

Posted on by Opher

Arthur Brown 4

Being oneself

Who are we?

Are we merely products of the culture, the family and friends we live in and with?

If I had been born in Saudi Arabia I would be a Sunni Muslim. If I had been born in Iran I would have been Shia. If I had been born in Mississippi I would be going to the Baptist church regularly. If I had been born in Brazil I would be Catholic, India – Hindu. Or would I?

I was born in the freedom of England and brought up in a liberating environment where little was forced on me.

I am a free thinking, alternative antitheist.

I am a product of my own individuality. I am a free man making decisions and choices based on my own preferences and personality.

Or do I?

I value my freedom and individuality and would fight to preserve it. I detest indoctrination and being manipulated by the media or advertising.

I feel I can make my own mind up. Or can I?

When can we ever truly be ourselves? Do we reflect aspects of our personality, likes and dislikes, to the people around us? Does anyone ever see the full picture? Do we always hold back for one reason or another? How much of our behaviour is subconscious.

Two things stand out for me.

The first is the dilemma of holding a party and realising that you have different groups of friends who hold different views of you as a person and the two sets of friends are almost mutually exclusive. You cannot conceive of them having anything in common. Both groups see you as a totally different person.

The second is an illustration from life.

I went for an interview for a management position at school and failed.

On the way back to my room, in pensive mood and trying to cope with the disappointment, I passed two colleagues. They both asked how I’d done and I told them I’d failed.

The first said that they were not surprised because I was always too flippant. I needed to take things more seriously and stop making jokes all the time. The boss had to see that I was someone who was not merely funny all the time.

The second informed me that they were not surprised; I was far too serious and I needed to lighten up a bit.

I realised that both of those people saw me as a completely different person. When I was with them I displayed one facet of my personality. That was all they saw. It wasn’t conscious. It was habit. When I was with them that was the side I automatically put on.

When I was at work I was one person.

When I was out of work I was someone else.

I switched automatically and subconsciously. Few people, if any, received the full gamut of my total personality. I was like a chameleon.

So who am I?

I am the product of everything that has ever happened to me and the interaction with the core of my personality. I am a product of my time and circumstance.

What that core of individuality actually is remains hard to discern or define.

But I’ll still fight for the right to be who the hell I think I am!

Blogging – why bother? What is it all about?

Posted on by Opher

galaxy-xray-hmed230p_grid-4x2

I was quite taken with the article on blogging that a reblogged earlier today because it contained a truth. It was a truth that was much deeper than it first appeared. The blog was humorous and yet it revealed a basic inescapable fact:- most people do not like to be made to think; they do not like depth; they like trivia.

I had been blogging for nearly a year when I read a post from a fellow blogger. He was a young lad, still living at home, who was thanking his followers. He had been blogging for a year and had amassed 50,000 followers. Now, as I had been blogging for nearly as long and had gained 547 people who found my writing of some remote interest, I thought I’d have a look at what this guy was doing that was making him so incredibly successful. His blog was unceasing trivia. It was just as described in that earlier post I reblogged – his blog was about what he was wearing, what he’d eaten, where he was hanging out, what he was watching on TV, what music he was listening to. It wasn’t as if he was doing anything, or any of it was interesting. It was ordinary and mundane. Yet 50,000 people found it essential viewing.

I went back and looked at my ranting, raving, social comment, ecological despair, diatribes, and general pieces of Rock commentary, poetry, my books, photos and religious antitheism and could see exactly why I only had 547 people who were interested. I was probably pissing off anyone who was interested in one aspect with what I was writing about with the others.

No matter.

I was told that if you want to keep your followers you don’t do politics and religion.

Well who cares?

I couldn’t do it any other way. What you get is the unadulterated honesty of Opher.

Why else would anybody want to blog?

This blog is a sharing of the mind. This is who I am. I’m not interested in trivia. There’s no time to do trivia (incidentally I had porridge for breakfast!)!

My 547 followers  have become 4765. That seems a lot. Though I know most of that 4765 don’t really give a hoot, I’m not sure that matters. Even if I’m only talking to a few people out there. Thanks for sharing with me. I value our time. I love hearing from you and the ‘likes’ give me encouragement. We may be a small band but we share things on a different level.

Thank you – both of you!

Kinks – I’m not like everybody else – my theme tune! Lyrics about individuality.

Posted on by Opher

I played this endlessly when I was fifteen. It seemed to sum up exactly how I felt about myself. I was an individual. I wasn’t like anybody else. I did not fit into the usual pigeonholes. I stood out. I didn’t want to fit in.

Make your own rules!

I’m Not Like Everybody else

I won’t take all that they hand me down
Make out a smile, though I wear a frown
And I’m not gonna take it all lying down
‘Cause once I get started, I go to town

‘Cause I’m not like everybody else
I’m not like everybody else
I’m not like everybody else
I’m not like everybody else

And I don’t want to ball about like everybody else
And I don’t want to live my life like everybody else
And I won’t say that I feel fine like everybody else
‘Cause I’m not like everybody else
I’m not like everybody else

But darling, you know that I love you true
Do anything that you want me to
Confess all my sins like you want me to
There’s one thing that I will say to you

I’m not like everybody else
I’m not like everybody else
I’m not like everybody else
I’m not like everybody else

And I don’t want to ball about like everybody else
And I don’t want to live my life like everybody else
And I won’t say that I feel fine like everybody else
‘Cause I’m not like everybody else
I’m not like everybody else

Like everybody else
Like everybody else
Like everybody else
Like everybody else

If you all want me to settle down
Then slow up and stop all my running ’round
Do everything like you want me to
There’s one thing that I will say to you

I’m not like everybody else
I’m not like everybody else
I’m not like everybody else
I’m not like everybody else

And I don’t want to ball about like everybody else
And I don’t want to live my life like everybody else
And I don’t want to stay fine like everybody else
‘Cause I’m not like everybody else
I’m not like everybody else

Like everybody else
(Like everybody else)
Like everybody else
(Like everybody else)

Like everybody else
(Like everybody else)
Like everybody else

Songwriters
DAVIES, RAYMOND DOUGLAS

Read more: Kinks – I’m Not Like Everybody Else Lyrics | MetroLyrics