A choice of cancer or polio

All advantages of mp3's aside, there is a lot of pleasure to be had sitting Indian style, spinning large tactile discs under a needle, admiring giant album cover art and reading lyrics which appear in a large enough typeface so that your listening is not compromised or distracted in any way by straining the eyes.

Recently indulging in this lost pastime, I found an album which featured the biggest blue eyes I have ever seen: 'Judith' by Judy Collins. On the B-side, I discovered a little gem of a cover, written by none other than Mick Jagger and Keith Richards. It's called Salt of the Earth.

The refrain has the effect of an anthemic call to compassion (exactly the opposite of Richard's intended meaning, which was to express his feeling of vague apathy towards the masses):

Lets drink to the hard working people
Lets think of the lowly of birth
Spare a thought for the rag taggy people
Lets drink to the salt of the earth

Now check out these next verses…although written in 1968, they feature the most perfect and poetic description of the current American political scene I have ever heard:

Lets think of the wavering millions
Who need leaders but get gamblers instead
Spare a thought for the stay-at-home voter
His empty eyes gaze at strange beauty shows
And a parade of the gray suited grafters
A choice of cancer or polio

Comments

[James Waugh]

It's good to have the old blog going again...