In your youth you enjoy a song for the way it sounds. Across many songs from the 70s and 80s, I realise that I had not paid much attention to lyrics. In my later years I discover much deeper meanings. I now pay attention to the ‘words’. The 80s was a most amazing period. Of course, it’ll never come back.
So – I came across again, ‘The Ordinary World‘ by Duran Duran which was in the early 90s – the last of that great era. And now, with the benefit of ‘world experience’ I cherish the lyrics, albeit too late. I’m so not interested in psychoanalysing the song writer or the singers. They threw pearl before swine. I was one of the ‘swine’ in my youth.
Well, when you have the gift of youth you don’t think much about life.
It’s a song about despair and loss, which most people don’t want to hear or think about. Strangely, or possibly not – in my youth I did not realise what the song was about. I would have sung the words in the song without thinking. When you’re carefree about time and life ahead, you don’t think too deeply about loads of things. You assume that tomorrow is another day. As you grow older, tomorrow is not guaranteed so you cherish each passing second or minute – and you really don’t have time for fools.
Lyrics
Came in from a rainy Thursday on the avenue
Thought I heard you talking softly
I turned on the lights, the TV, and the radio
Still I can’t escape the ghost of you
What has happened to it all?
Crazy, some’d say
Where is the life that I recognise? (Gone away)
But I won’t cry for yesterday
There’s an ordinary world
Somehow I have to find
And as I try to make my way
To the ordinary world
I will learn to survive
Passion or coincidence once prompted you to say
“Pride will tear us both apart”
Well, now pride’s gone out the window
Cross the rooftops, run away
Left me in the vacuum of my heart
What is happening to me?
Crazy, some’d say
Where is my friend when I need you most? (Gone away)
But I won’t cry for yesterday
There’s an ordinary world
Somehow I have to find
And as I try to make my way
To the ordinary world
I will learn to survive
Ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh
Ahh-ah-ahh
Away-ay, ay-ay-ay-ay
Oh, oh
Papers in the roadside tell of suffering and greed
Fear today, forgot tomorrow
Ooh-ooh
Here besides the news of holy war and holy need
Ours is just a little sorrowed talk
And I don’t cry for yesterday
There’s an ordinary world
Somehow I have to find
And as I try to make my way
To the ordinary world
I will learn to survive
I will learn to survive
(Any world is my world)
I will learn to survive
(Any world is my world)
(Every world is my world)
Song interpretation
Just to be clear, it is my bledy blog! So, I’ll give my interpretation as the song resonates with me. I don’t give a monkeys about other interpretations.
It’s a song of despair and loss – about what happens in relationships; how they change with time. It is about loss of ‘yesterday’.
“The ordinary world..” is a reference to what we feel we should accept but struggle to – and we feel we have to ‘survive’.
‘What’s happening to me?‘ is a question with no answer. It is really an emotion.
“Where is my friend when I need you most? Gone away” – is about friendship in any relationship. It is now lost. The words are about loss. It is about what used to be, now unrecognizable as people change. It says it all.
“Passion or coincidence once prompted you to say “Pride will tear us both apart” – it is true – people start off with simple common values but then as material things come in the way, they grow apart. It is the story from Rocky (the film). Wealth, property, power, and independence have a nasty way of separating people from what originally glued them together.
“What has happened to it all?” – is that sense of despair. It is a realisation of where we’ve come to; so far from what we were.
“I won’t cry for yesterday.. ” is the sad part of it. We might say that we ‘won’t cry’ but that’s really about holding back the tears.
“I will learn to surive.. “ – means you have to, in an alternate reality that you could not have foreseen. Well, you have to. Survival is the #1 priority.
We can’t turn back the clock. But we can turn back our values; against the ones that were created for us.
I think the song is a real message to people in relationships of any kind, to evaluate themselves. What matters most?
And yes I do that. It not about money, power, status or independence. It is about the essence of life. It is about who we really are; cutting deep to our true nature. For me, I value reality – painful as it is to most. Reality is a hard place where the truth resides. Reality disrespects what’s in our heads.
The ‘ordinary world‘ is not my world. It is what I am forced to accept. I shall not. I refuse to accept it. I decide what I accept; not the world of other people. Despair ahead – I meet you head on! Reality is my true friend.
Stupid: What’s the matter with you?! Are you suicidal?
CW: Fawk off! You’re not getting in on this one!
Disclaimer & Guidance
The reading of posts on this blog is subject to the Terms & Conditions. Unpalatable truths and personal experiences may be told. Nothing posted on this blog is directed at any identified person. On occasions individuals are quoted anonymously. That does not mean that they have been identified to the world. Should any person or organisation reading this blog find something that makes them feel or know that they are being referred to – any such perceived identification does not mean ‘identified to the world’. ‘Stupid‘ is an impish figment of my imagination who occasionally is allowed to pop up – and does not represent any known individual, individuals or groups. The treatment of ‘Stupid‘ is not representative of the way people are treated in real life. Adverse inferences made are dismissed in advance.