Influential Songs of My Childhood

29 November, 2005. 536 words.

On the way into work this morning, I heard The Logical Song by Supertramp on 98.9 Liberty. Every time I hear this song, it immediately transports me back to my childhood (c. age 10), so I thought I would start a new series of web articles entitled, “Influential Songs of My Childhood.” This is the first installment in a series of X articles (where 1 £ X £ ¥) where I will delve into the reasons why some songs have struck a particularly resonant chord with me for well over 20 years.

The Logical Song has such a unique sound, in my mind. It somehow manages to combine a circus atmosphere with immeasurable sadness. The words are mystical and Orwellian; the singer lives in a world that he calls both magical and clinical. Every word is evocative. Even as a child, I remember thinking (or perhaps just feeling) that there was something prophetic about this song, that my future could somehow be found in its depths. The singer sounded like he was describing the imminent death of my own childhood and my future life as an adult, and it was not a pretty picture. It was frightening. His words sounded like a plea, a desperate plea directly from my radio to me, to keep me from suffering his fate. The saxophone (or clarinet as I’ve recently heard it described, but it sure sounds like a sax to me) shrieks like fingernails on a chalkboard in the middle of the song. The end of the song is a cacophonous struggle against the iron fist of authority. When the singer recites, “one two three.. five!” I always feel like cheering, because I know his assimilation is not complete, and there is hope. He has kept a part of himself and flaunted it before what I imagine to be his captors, perhaps a boardroom full of power-suit-clad executives. Will his soul survive? Can he ever return to his former life where the birds sing happily and joyfully? Or will he be crushed under the cold, mechanized wheels of responsibility and remain a vegetable forever? It’s a great song. I’m captivated every time I hear it.

When I was young, it seemed that life was so wonderful,

A miracle, oh it was beautiful, magical.

And all the birds in the trees, well they’d be singing so happily,

Joyfully, playfully watching me.

But then they send me away to teach me how to be sensible,

Logical, responsible, practical.

And they showed me a world where I could be so dependable,

Clinical, intellectual, cynical.

There are times when all the world’s asleep,

The questions run too deep

For such a simple man.

Won’t you please, please tell me what we’ve learned

I know it sounds absurd

But please tell me who I am.

Now watch what you say or they’ll be calling you a radical,

Liberal, fanatical, criminal.

Won’t you sign up your name, we’d like to feel you’re

Acceptable, respectable, presentable, a vegetable!

At night, when all the world’s asleep,

The questions run so deep

For such a simple man.

Won’t you please, please tell me what we’ve learned

I know it sounds absurd

But please tell me who I am.

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