I Wish

I know that this song has been out for a while but I was watching So Fresh (don't ask me why) on TV and found out that Sandi Thom's I Wish I Was a Punk Rocker(With Flowers In My Hair) was still #1 on the ARIA charts. I Wish I Was a Punk Rocker (With Flowers In My Hair) [Chorus] oh i wish i was a punk rocker with flowers in my hair, in '77 and '69, revolution was in the air, i was born too late, into a world that doesn't care, oh i wish i was a punk rocker with flowers in my hair, [Verse 1] when head of state didn't play guitar, not everybody drove a car, when music really mattered and when radio was king, when accountants didn't have control, and the media couldn't buy your soul, and computers were still scary and we didn't know everything, [Chorus] [Verse 2] when popstars still remained a myth, and ignorance could still be bliss, and god save the queen, she turned a whiter shade of pale, my mum and dad were in their teens and anarchy was still a dream, and the only way to stay in touch was a letter in the mail, [Chorus] [Verse 3] when record shops were still on top, and vinyl was all that they stocked, and the super-info highway was still drifting out in space, kids were wearing hand me downs, and playing games meant kick around, and footballers still had long hair and dirt across their face, [Chorus] She wishes she was a Punk Rocker... She was born in 1981, how could she possibly know what it was like during her fantastic hippie/punk era? Books, stories, gossip, newspapers, parents, grandparents, the internet? She claims "she was born too late, into a world that doesn't care", how would she know exactly that she would get a ticker tape parade if she was born in the 60's or 70's? Because the world as we know it today is depressing. It has to be, doesn't it? Her debut album is titled Smile...it confuses people. Clearly, according to Sandi Thom, we live in a world void of happiness, love and compassion. How does she come to this conclusion you think? I have a theory: She watches too much TV But wait, isn't she against the media magnate control of our view of the world? She goes back to a time (in her Delorian time machine) "when accountants didn't have control, and the media couldn't buy your soul". But deep down, isn't she sold by the misery that evening news bulletins and 24 hour cable news channels provide? She wants to go back to a time when "computers were still scary" BUT WAIT, Sandi Thom used technology to get her career off the ground. The following is from her website: "Instead of driving to gigs up and down the country with her band in her clapped-out car, as she had done for years, the singer from Scotland resolved to try a different approach. She bought a webcam, and announced a run of 21 shows to be performed on consecutive nights during February and March in the basement of her flat in Tooting, South London. The audience capacity in the flat itself was limited to just six people. But the half-hour shows were to be broadcast, free of charge, via her website at www.sandithom.com. The first night, 70 people tuned in to watch, the next night it went up to 670. And by the middle of the second week she was performing to a peak audience of 70,000." What the hell is she complaining about?!? She's opposed to the very thing that launched her career! Is this songwriting or using today's lifestyle as a scapegoat for all of humanity's problem. Another thing, look at the numbers, it's clearly made up. The pickup rate is astronomical for a no namer artist, and by no means has the resources to host 70, 000 people on her server! If you feel the same way about this then you should see the rest of her lyrics here. Her songs all follow a strict formula and there is no variation at all. Lyrically anyway. Look at the first word of each line of all her lyrics, it's all the same, not too mention the same chorus, verse, chorus, verse structure. Sandi Thom is her own enemy. She's against the corporation, mass media. But she's signed with Sony, with a huge marketing campaign behind her back. What is she trying to be anyway? A try hard hippie that's going to be "alternative" pop? She's heading down the road of an anti-star that lives in Malibu. Of course I am taking this song too seriously, but hell, there's going to be 5 year olds that will go "Boy, I do miss the Cold War, when Duck and Cover was the phrase". This is not nostalgia! This is clear cut marketing! There's going to be supporters saying "the song is meant to be ironic!", well great. I've got more clever irony for a song "I wish I was dead, but alive" or "I protect animals, by eating them". Give me a break! Is this world THAT bad? Do we really have to be suicidal to live in today's society? I fuckin' hope not because I see plenty of happy people in my neighbourhood. Maybe things are different in the non-stop city lifestyle of Macduff, Scotland (2004 population estimate of 3,870 people) where the 12 hour traffic lines are horrendous. Why stop there Sandi? Why stop there? Let's hark back to the days of the dinosaur, when the wheel was a pipedream and civilisation was a colony of rats. Ahh yes, the screeches of a T-Rex hunting it's prey. There was a real sense of community then, music had real meaning then (which at the time, were primarily mating calls of the Velociraptor). Things were much simpler then, no school, no work. No sir, all you had to do was survive. It was BUSH LAW. Ok maybe she's just having some fun, it has to be. It's too ridiculous! But fluffy bunnies a burping hobo with a string quartet could conjure up deeper emotional social babble than Sandi Thom.