Soundtrack Of My Life

"Sloop John B" - Beach Boys

I'd come across this song way back in the mists of time, and the last place I'd expected to encounter it again was on a Beach Boys CD, but they successfully rejigged it into their trademark style and made it work. It's not laugh-out-loud funny, but I always find it amusing, picturing this teenage kid cooped up on a boat with a bunch of of misbehaving old gits who should know better, and wishing he was somewhere - anywhere - else as he watches them get drunk, pick fights, get into trouble with the law and generally make an exhibition of themselves. It's the sort of song you feel should really have more verses to turn it into a real epic as it details the misadventures of this bunch of seagoing reprobates.

Now that might just be a idea for a future song lyrics attempt. I did pen a song for a WdC competition last year, based on Burt Bacharach's music for "Walk On By". The first verse was ok, if you were in a generous mood. It fell apart from there on. As Tommy Cooper (a famous English comic in days gone by) once said - "I start slowly...then gradually peter out." I stuck this stink-bomb in a private folder for a while, but finally decided it was unsalvageable and despatched it on its way to the Recycle Bin. I'll make a note of this in my Notepad (where ideas don't so much go to die as wander in limbo, hoping one day to actually get acted upon). You never know...