...and no, my stitching friends, I don't mean the Silkweaver material. There's a song that's been in high rotation on Virgin Radio, and it's stuck in my head and gotten me thinking. And thinking can be dangerous, as you well know... especially when it's me that's doing the thinking.

The song is "I Wish I Was A Punk Rocker" by Sandi Thom. The lyrics sound like something that Tracy Chapman would have recorded 10 years ago. Heck, the voice even sounds like Chapman just a touch...

---

Chorus
Oh I wish I was a punk rocker with flowers in my hair,
In 77 and 69 revolution was in the air.
I was born too late,
To a world that doesn’t care,
Oh I wish I was a punk rocker with flowers in my hair.

I was 6 years old in '77 when punk was coming into fruition and too young to really appreciate it. I brushed briefly into punk, and then the 'me' generation hit full force and swept me up into it as well. But for some reason, even now, these lyrics really speak to me...

No, it's not that I wish I was a punk rocker with flowers in my hair. Flowers itch and they make me sneeze. And I don't need to turn my hair different colors or rip up my clothes and wear lots of spikes or something. I can already pull the punk attitude when I need it and am in the mood for it. It's that I wish the world was a little simpler and more trusting and innocent as it was back then. I suspect that our artist wishes the same.

When the head of state didn’t play guitar,
Not everybody drove a car,
When music really mattered and when radio was king.
When accountants didn’t have control,
And the media couldn’t buy your soul,
And computers were still scary and we didn’t know everything.

Think about how true this was - times were simpler then and not everyone drove a car. Cars were luxuries, now they're necessities. We can't live without our cars and some spend enough time in them that they should be living in thier cars. You went places that you could use a bus or a bike to get to and gas cost less than a quarter a gallon.

Do you remember when your main outlet, sometimes your only outlet for music was AM radio and FM was just for college and experimental radio stations. Now you find all the music stations on FM, and radio really isn't the way anymore with the advent of satellite radio and mp3 players. And yes, the media really can buy your soul now - or at least they think they already own it when you consider the number of people who are television junkies in this world that they cater to.

Accountants really are the decision makers now thanks to Enron and SOX (Sarbanes-Oxley) controls in place. I think that finance departments and CFOs are happy that they potentially rule the business world. Maybe it's revenge for all the years they were called 'bean counters'. And computers once filled entire rooms and still didn't have as much power to them as some of today's digital watches. Now they're everywhere, and everyone knows everything (or at least thinks that they do) thanks to having a computer at home, and at the office, or even clipped to a jeans pocket or in a purse be it a Blackberry or a cell phone and the internet is the encyclopedia of today.

And don't forget that paragon of all that is perfectly true and factual, Wikipedia. *snorts and reminds herself that that's another blog topic entirely*

When popstars still remained a myth,
And ignorance could still be bliss,
And when God Saved the Queen she turned a whiter shade of pale.
When my mom and dad were in their teens,
And anarchy was still a dream,
And the only way to stay in touch was a letter in the mail.

Yeah, popstars have gone the same way as a regular celebrity - they're as much in the spotlight as anyone else, and have no privacy. Some of them want to be in the spotlight, others want to be left alone, and the Smoking Gun's website doesn't care either way and puts everything they have out there for the world to see. Look at Paul McCartney and his wife - they announced just yesterday that they are splitting up and they're blaming the media intrusion into thier lives and who is more of a pop star than a former Beatle? That's not to say that I buy that that is the reason, but simply to state what *they* claim the problem is.

Ignorance is still truly bliss, depending on what you're talking about, and anarchy could get you thrown in prison thanks to the Patriot Act. Heck, I'm surprised this blog hasn't gotten me thrown in somewhere, but considering I stay away from politics for the most part until I have something dangerous to say, perhaps that's why I've been left alone.

But now that the artist makes me think about it - when was the last time that I sent a letter in the mail? Not that long ago, to tell you the truth, but it's a rather uncommon experience. Now everyone is instantly connected either via cell phone or email, and the price of postage has risen considerably over the years. Email has replaced the postal service as the major means of communication. Why send a letter overseas that will take a few days to get there and a few days to get the response back when you can send an email and have a response almost instantly, if the individual is awake on the other side of the world.

When record shops were on top,
And vinyl was all that they stocked,
And the super info highway was still drifting out in space.
Kids were wearing hand me downs,
And playing games meant kick arounds,
And footballers still had long hair and dirt across their face.

Record shops - you don't find too many of those anymore, do you? Ones that are dedicated solely to music and aren't branched into movies or other entertainment possibilities. I miss being able to walk into a simple shop and find just racks of tapes or vinyl or CDs and nothing else. Now they're all multi-entertainment venues. Those little shops with just music and nothing else were charming and helpful and usually run by one guy who knew his customers well, or got to know them well. There was one such store near where I went to college, and Marc knew exactly what I wanted when I walked in and responded to his "how ya doing today" - he'd steer me either to something new by Marillion that he was sure that I didn't have, or point me straight at the pop music. I would walk in and say "woman on a mission" and he'd leave me alone but smile as I pulled cassettes or CDs out of the racks and he'd do a little scouting and usually add something to my pile that he knew would fit.

There was no such thing as the information super-highway once upon a time, but now it's more easily accessible than the library is. And I've not heard the 'net be called that in quite some time. Anyone ever wonder if the information super-highway has grown too fast and is in need of some repair?

Kids are being marketed as aggressively as adults are since kids supposedly have great influence over thier money spending parents due to trends and the need to follow them just like the parents do. You can't go play games in the street anymore - life is more complicated and untrusting these days. And everyone is a star - even the 'footballers'... just like the popstars think they are.

I think she's got it right though, in that times were simpler then...

I was born too late to a world that doesn’t care
Oh I wish I was a punk rocker with flowers in my hair

---

"I Wish I Was a Punk Rocker" can be found on Sandi Thom's album 'Smile... It Confuses People' and all copyrights belong to thier respective owners. Lyrics are reprinted without permission, but I highly encourage you to find this song and listen to it and dare you to not like it or be smiling by the time it's done. The song isn't available on iTunes in the US yet, but if you're resourceful you can find it somewhere.