NOT THAT YOU ASKED*
By W. G. Reid, B.M.O.C., F.S.C.H.
Whatever happened to the songs that Frank Sinatra and Cole Porter sang? Now those were good songs.
There is a management philosophy that comes up a lot today. It's the 'don't ask, don't tell' concept used by giant peach heads in large institutions. However, I think this has a broader and more humanitarian purpose that has yet to be considered. I think we should apply the 'don't ask, don't tell' theory to the music lyrics people remember - or don't remember, as the case may be.
The other day I heard a back-to-the-seventies classic that I couldn't get out of my head for the rest of the day. The song was 'One Tote Over The Line' by Brewer & Shipley. It's about a poor guy backpacking around the world and heading home on the train. He has been on the road for sometime and he's anxious to get back home to his Mom and Dad and homecooking, etc. His dilemma is that he has accumulated so much stuff that he has too much luggage. Hense, "one tote over the line." He can't get on the train until he gives something up to fall within the regulated amount of carry on luggage. Alas, he finds himself 'sittin' downtown in a railway station one tote over the line.' It's about the subtle irony of bureacratic rules and restrictions that limit our lives, confine us and the philosophical dilemma of freedom in a democratic society. Are we truly ever really free? Does democratic freedom require some compromise?
So I'm singing this song while I am drying the dishes (that my wife wont let me jam into the dishwasher) and she laughs at me and says, "It's one toke over the line, you idiot! He's high!" Ohhhh, of course, 'cause it was the really cool and groovy seventies and everybody had indiscriminate sex and did drugs and I am the walrus.
By W. G. Reid, B.M.O.C., F.S.C.H.
Whatever happened to the songs that Frank Sinatra and Cole Porter sang? Now those were good songs.
There is a management philosophy that comes up a lot today. It's the 'don't ask, don't tell' concept used by giant peach heads in large institutions. However, I think this has a broader and more humanitarian purpose that has yet to be considered. I think we should apply the 'don't ask, don't tell' theory to the music lyrics people remember - or don't remember, as the case may be.
The other day I heard a back-to-the-seventies classic that I couldn't get out of my head for the rest of the day. The song was 'One Tote Over The Line' by Brewer & Shipley. It's about a poor guy backpacking around the world and heading home on the train. He has been on the road for sometime and he's anxious to get back home to his Mom and Dad and homecooking, etc. His dilemma is that he has accumulated so much stuff that he has too much luggage. Hense, "one tote over the line." He can't get on the train until he gives something up to fall within the regulated amount of carry on luggage. Alas, he finds himself 'sittin' downtown in a railway station one tote over the line.' It's about the subtle irony of bureacratic rules and restrictions that limit our lives, confine us and the philosophical dilemma of freedom in a democratic society. Are we truly ever really free? Does democratic freedom require some compromise?
So I'm singing this song while I am drying the dishes (that my wife wont let me jam into the dishwasher) and she laughs at me and says, "It's one toke over the line, you idiot! He's high!" Ohhhh, of course, 'cause it was the really cool and groovy seventies and everybody had indiscriminate sex and did drugs and I am the walrus.
My point is did I really have to know this? I wasn't asking people to join in. I wasn't hurting anybody. I was minding my own business in my own kitchen. What else do I need to know? Is that pink stuff in The Cat In The Hat toxic waste? It's just pink stuff, right? Well...isn't it? The Brady Bunch were actually actors with real outside lives. Yeah, okay. Didn't need that information. There were homosexual undertones in John Knowles' 'Seperate Peace' ? Huh? Not the book I read. That ruined it for me. Not to mention having to reevalute my relationship with my old college roommate. He loaned me the book! That was some awkward 10th reunion. Believe me!
So heads up people. If you hear me singing The Small Faces' 'Itchykoo Park' leave me alone. I don't need or want to know what "itchykoo" actually refers to. As far as I'm concerned it's just a beautiful sunny day in a nice park where "we can miss out school (won't that be cooooool), why go to learn the golden rule." Or something like that. "Nothing illicit going on here, Officer!"
Not that you asked.
*William Reid is not a real doctor and any information or advice given within this blog is strictly for entertainment purposes and should not be reproduced without the expressed written consent of the Canadian Lacrosse Association.
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