Liar.
It is something of an irritation, to myself at least, that many of the so-called "iconic" singer-songwriters of the modern-day era wilfully mislead the constituency of their listenership with the lyrics and sentiments of their so-called "anthems". They often issue platitudes in their polemic verse that creates what is at best a distortion of reality, and at worst a wholly mendacious rhetoric.
Take, for example, the case of Mr. Labi Siffre. Possibly his best-known work is a disk entitled "Something Inside So Strong",which begins with the following refrain:
"The higher you build your barriers, the taller I become".
This is emphatically not the case, and I hereby present anecdotal evidence to prove it.
In the unusually warm summer of 2005, the twenty-something daughter of my next-door neighbours took the opportunity to engage in long bouts of sunbathing in their back garden. Sometimes, in order to create the "all-over" bronzed effect prized by young ladies, she would remove her top, revealing her firm, pert breasts. Obviously, however, I only noticed her semi-naked presence en passant on several occasions, and each occasion was purely an accidental consequence of my having to tend to the plants in my garden which, given the unusually high temperatures, required liquid replenishment. Several times a day.
This activity was wholly misconstrued by the head of the household next door, and his attitude toward me because more and more hostile, which reached something of a "tipping point" one day when he claimed that my genitalia were deliberately exposed, and indeed manipulated, during one of my green-fingered excursions. Despite my protestations that they were old shorts that I was wearing, that had become rather baggy around one leg, and that all of my undergarments were in the wash that day and thus I had been forced to "go commando" and was merely seeking to readjust my dress, the next day he raised the height of the fence between our gardens from a height of three feet to a height of eight feet.
The resultant impact upon my sight lines made me feel like I was being oppressed, much as I imagine residents of East Berlin felt when they awoke one morning in 1961. However, I knew from Mr. Siffre's lament that justice would prevail, and that my neighbour's act of oppression would come to naught, as my height would soon increase to compensate, and I would soon have my former vistas reinstated... except that my height stubbornly remained at a mere six feet, and the reward for placing my trust in his words of so-called "wisdom" was the view of an unstained waney-lap panelled fence placing my prized begonias in the shade.
Had I known that Mr. Siffre was merely spouting empty platitudes, I should never have bought that CD of his greatest hits when I heard the track on an advertisement for a Peugeot automobile. I feel as if I have been cheated in so many ways. And I am sure that he is not the only such offender.
Do others have examples of being badly let down by the wilful mendacity of eminent singer-songwriters?
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