…So let's have another drink
and let's talk about the blues. Blues is about dignity, it's about
self-respect, and no matter what they take away from you - that's yours for
keeps.
I remember how it was, how every medium - T.V. and papers and radio and
all those people were saying: 'you're on the scrap-heap, you're useless', and I
remember how easy it was to start believing that. I remember how you'd hear
people take it for granted that it was true - just 'cause someone with an ounce
of power said so.
And that's a problem now, too many oddballs, too many
pocketbook psychologists and would-be philosophers with an axe to grind. But
there's a solution, it's not easy, but it's a matter of coming to terms in your
heart with situation you're in, a matter of choosing how things go for you and
not having things forced upon you.
There are plenty of forces against you,
forcing you against your will, your ideals - you've got to hope for the best,
and that's the best you can hope for - you've got to hope against hope... I
remember something Sal Paradise said, he said: 'the city intellectuals of the
world are debauched from the full body blood-of-the-land and are just rootless
fools'.
So listen, when the smile, the condescending pat-on-the-back comes and
says: 'we're sorry, but you're nothing, you've got nothing for us and we've got
nothing for you', you say: 'No', and say it loud: "NO!", and
remember, people who talk about revolution and a class-struggle without referring
explicitly to everyday life, without understanding what is subversive about
love, and what is positive in the refusal and constraint...
The magnificent Pete Wylie who will be performing in Glasgow in November.
There is a solution:
