Lyrical History of Mankind – Undefeated Edition

I’m still working on my album review – in short: 10 days in I still enjoy it a lot – but gathering my thoughts on songs still leads me on tangents and then I get distracted and all that. I set myself to at least finish my less introspective and more academical engagement with this new album this weekend. I shared the first half earlier this week, but here now is the complete (current) result of my “research”. All in good nerdy fun, obviously.

There are at least two more bits that Frank himself mentioned in some of the many album release interviews I’ve listened to. There is some Gabriel García Márquez somewhere and the lines “Grateful that you got this far and proud that you behaved no worse” in “Undefeated” are inspired by something Clive James wrote. Frank didn’t elaborate if in a poem or essay and Clive James has created such a vast body of work that for now I dare not delve into that for more research. [I did search the internet for a bit, but gave up quickly.] I admit I haven’t read any García Márquezyet either, so I’m drawing a blank there for the time being as well.

I still haven’t made up my mind if I’ll include commonly used metaphors which embody a historical reference in my main reference guide. We’ll see. The following is in track list order, because doing it chronologically seems too much of a hassle right now.


Do One
Starting right off with something I’m not sure if it really is a reference or if it just sounds like one to me, because I’ve read the source material quoted in different contexts many times before. I’m talking, of course about the famous Robert Frost poem “The Road Not Taken” (1915), which has the lines

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.


“So which path to choose, the one less travelled or the one more used”

Photo from a narrow path on a hillside in Wales
One of the many – less travelled – paths I wandered in my life so far

Never Mind the Back Problems
Johnny Rotten (Sex Pistols frontman) did indeed appear in a butter commercial in 2008. I don’t know what to make of “The Damned” reference yet, obviously it’s a band, which according to a quick glance at Wikipedia disbanded and reunited and changed members quite a bit.

“Johnny Rotten been selling butter on telly while England slept
I’ve seen the Damned with two original members in the band”


Ceasefire
Even though I right away felt like I knew which song from the 90s band “The Verve” (lead singer Richard Ashcroft) Frank was alluding here, I had to look it up and then had a “Duh! Of course!” moment. From their 1997 hit “A Bitter Sweet Symphony”

“But I’m a million different people from one day to the next”

“I know that you cannot stand The Verve
But Richard Ashcroft had a point
Now I’m old enough to see
There’s a million different people
You will be before you’re me”


Girl From The Record Shop
I’m not sure if I want to include all the bands / album referenced here as historical reference. I did it with Dylan and Springsteen before, but I might scrap all that in the next revised edition. Mentioned here are bands Supremes, Four Tops, and albums Everything Sucks (Descendants) , Amnesiac (Radiohead), Sheer Heart Attack (Queen). There is “Back to Black” from Amy Winehouse, but that doesn’t really fit the timeline teenage Frank? Creative Licence, maybe?

I actually shy away from calling a reference to the 1990s a historical reference, because I’ve lived through those years and calling it history makes me feel old as fuck, but maybe I’ll have to get used to that. The 1990s underground feminist alt-rock/punk movement the Riot Grrl movement needs to be included though.

“sat behind the counter in her Riot Grrl top”


Pandemic PTSD
We’ve all seen the “Keep Calm And Carry On” slogan from WWII era on posters and mugs and magnets and every (tourist-y) souvenir, I assume.

“And I won’t keep calm, I won’t carry on”


Letters
Here is one of the lovely – kind of meta – moments, when Frank quotes himself. From “The Way I Tend To Be” (2013)

It turns out hell will not be found
Within the fires below,
But in making do and muddling through
When you’ve nowhere else to go.

“And say, “I’m tired of just making do
I’m tired of just muddling through
Aren’t you tired of making do?
I’m tired of muddling through” “


No Thank You For The Music
In 333 BC Alexander the Great had marched into the city of Gordium, where he encountered a wagon, its yoke tied with an knot, so entangled that it seemed impossible to unravel. According to an oracle the man who did manage to, would be ruler of all Asia. Alexander didn’t bother too long trying to untie it, but rather sliced it with his sword. [Source: History.com]

“Here’s hoping that the kids have fangs
To chew their way through this little Gordian knot”


International Hide And Seek Champions
In 1971 in the USA a man – later known as D.B. Cooper – managed to hijack a plane on the way from Portland to Seattle. He demanded a parachute and 200.000 $ in cash. His demands were met in Seattle, where he let the passengers go. He redirected the plane with the remaining staff to Mexico and sometime after the plane left Seattle, parachuted out the back and was never seen again. [More from the FBI].

I have no idea when/who started the “DB Cooper Hide & Seek Champion since 1971” meme, but there are tons of shirts, mugs, whatever available all over the internet. In an interview I listened to, Frank mentioned that he saw a documentary on DB Cooper and someone was wearing that shirt.

“DB Cooper now in second place.
International hide and seek champions.”


Show People
I bet we all have heard of Icarus, who in Greek mythology flew to close to the sun with his wings held together by beeswax.

Eviel Knievel was an American stunt performer and daredevil most known for motorcycle jumps.

“Can you fly like Icarus, land like Evel Knievel?”

The following might also more of a metaphor than a reference, though I personally always remember the parable from the bible when I hear it, so for me it is clearly historical/literal and this is my “research” so I’ll include it.

Luke 18:18 – 30 tells about Jesus’s encounter a rich young man, who enquires which actions bring eternal life. Jesus answers, that among other thing the rich young man needs to sell his possessions and give to the poor, because

“It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.”

“To be the truest version of yourself, pass through the eye of the needle”

And my post ends with John Otway, who – quoting from his own website“is an English singer-songwriter who has built a sizeable cult audience through extensive touring, a surreal sense of humour and a self-deprecating underdog persona.”

He started making music and touring in the 1970s and 5.000 gigs later he is still doing it for and with the aforementioned sizeable cult audience, so definitively hats off to him:

“You’re more likely to be John Otway than the Beatles,
But Otway’s still on tour. Hats off to the show people.”

124/2024 “Giving up on Hope for a Better Past”

Lyrics: “Undefeated” – Frank Turner, 2024

The new Frank Turner album is out and so far I like it. I need more time – much more time – to offer a proper opinion. Introspectively it has been interesting to experience today’s events: the album release, the fandom reaction, my reaction to some fandom reaction. The presale for show 3000. The fandom reaction to that and my reaction… you get the drift.

Frank at Hat Works in Stockport, 2019

Re the album: I’m fascinated that after more than a decade of me listening to songs Frank has written – often about his own life experiences, which on the surface seems so vastly different from mine – I still find lyrics that resonate with me deeply. Which is so weird and so wonderful, because Frank’s life obviously has changed quite a bit in this decade and so has mine (maybe less than his). But our life experiences in this decade do not mirror or even resemble each other, I think. And still there are these words, that express what I’m feeling more eloquently and more beautifully than I ever could. Again! Still! How does he do that?

The lyrics in question: The title of this post! Obviously! I don’t recall which podcast (episode) from the variety of mental health / self-care podcasts I occasionally listen to, touched on the same subject. I do remember that I had been listening to it on my way to the radio gig Frank played in March. Which really was just a coincidence, obviously, but I still like that fact.
The guest in that podcast coined it a bit differently more along the lines of “hoping that our past had been different / happier / better is not helping us to move forward, because we then keep ruminating about the past instead of letting it go”. You get the idea, I hope. And of course I have read and heard that many times before, but during that podcast for the first time it felt like it really landed with me. Now Frank sings these words and again they land.
Usually you’d think and usually I’d agree that “giving up hope” is a bad thing. But in this case it’s not, because you can hope as much as you want, you can’t change the past. What happened happened and hoping it didn’t doesn’t change anything. I don’t know if I’m making sense. It just felt weird in an absolutely wonderful way to have that sentiment sung to me by my favourite artist.

122/2024 (II) – March & April Book Recap

I realized I forgot to post my March recap, so here are my thoughts on all the books I’ve read in the last two months. I’m a bit behind on my reading goals, but I’m sure I’ll get there. I just need to step up my reading a bit like I at the beginning of the year.

Screenshot of my reading stats, number of books, pages, minutes
2024 in books so far

Mad Woman (Bryony Gordon, 2024)
★ 4.25
Another great memoir style book from Bryony about how she managed to live through various (mental) health issues in the past 3 years. Some felt familiar from own experience but also from her previous books. In small parts dialogues or events felt a bit “staged”, which might be due to the need to condense events or keep privacy of people involved. Either way her experience of having symptoms dismissed by (male) mental health professionals because she’s a larger woman fills me with rage. We’ve still got such a long way to go.

This Must Be the Place (Maggie O’Farrell, 2017)
★ 4.0
This was my first ever O’Farrell novel and I think I might like to read more of her as I enjoyed her writing. The characters came to live for me and even though the plot meandered I was hooked to see how they got where they were the the story started or where they’d go. The plot move backwards and forwards through time with each chapter which sometimes was a bit difficult to follow, especially as there were multiple narrators. Each chapter had a different point of view and sometimes that even was a supporting character, which was something to get used to, but also made the storytelling quite unique for me. Sadly the switching back and forth between points of views sometimes made it harder for me to connect with the character’s emotions because we only ever got a quick spotlight of them. But all in all definitely a book I’d recommend.

Date with Justice (Julia Chapman, 2024) [Audiobook]
★ 3.75
Another quite enjoyable story from the Dales Detective / Dating Agency. I was wondering which sort of story it would be without the big archenemy out of the way and I have to say this still worked for me in the most part. Some connections – Sarah knowing Louise Dinsdale (listened to the audiobook, so not 100% sure on spelling) and also the victim from uni – felt a bit far-fetched. I loved the whole “Who’s the owner of Fellside Court?” plot and even the cupcake thief, though the revelations fell a bit short. Still haven’t figured out how they actually got into the cafe? But it moved another romantic plot forward, finally!

All in all, this would work well for me as a finale to the whole series. But of course I’d also like to hear more about all of the characters I’ve grown to love over the years.

Honey Girl (Morgan Rogers, 2021)
★ 3.75
I liked this one. For me the writing had a distinct lovely vibe and I appreciated the overall story arch and could even relate to it to some extent. I wish we had learned more about Yuki’s backstory and I sometimes thought there were a tad too many supportive characters. They all seemed interesting enough on their own, but there wasn’t room enough in the plot to fully get to know them.

Happiness Falls (Angie Kim, 2023)
★ 3.75
I was hooked on this story for most of the time I read it. I loved the narrator’s voice and all the family members. The investigation had enough twists and turns to stay interesting. I also appreciated the insight this story gave me into the world of nonspeaking people. The “HQ” storyline was super interesting at first, but got a bit much in the end. And I admit I had hoped for a different kind of ending, so the way it DID end left me a bit disappointed.

Everyone On This Train Is A Suspect (Benjamin Stevenson, 2024)
★ 3.5
Last week I re-read, well rather skimmed, the previous book to get reacustomed to the unique style of these books and to the main character. I loved the narration here, breaking the fourth wall all the time and being all meta about this crime novel, while he was part of the crime novel. The plot and what’s going on and what has been going on in the past felt a bit farfetched, more so than in the first book. But it was still fun.

Dances (Nicole Cuffy, 2023)
★ 3.25
This was an interesting read about a young black woman in the ballet world. I do like watching ballet in the theatre from time to time and am always so impressed by the dancers skills. This story gives a good insight how much you have to want to do this and how much it takes (physically, emotionally) to get to the top. Or even to be able to do this for a living.

Part of the backstory about Cece’s family could have been a bit more fleshed out and even though I absolutely understand why the writer uses so many ballet terms in writing, it made it difficult to read sometimes.

Did You Hear About Kitty Karr? (Crystal Smith Paul, 2023)
★ 2.75
I’m sad to say that I never really connected with any of these characters, except for Kitty in the past. To me the story dragged and especially the present felt overly complicated. All in all I often lost track of the many different characters mentioned. I also found the writing a bit bland. I loved the social and political issues raised here, but the way the story was told bored me a lot of times.

Rise to the Sun (Leah Johnson, 2021)
★ 2.25
This obviously wasn’t for me. I had enjoyed Jackson’s previous one, but to me this plot felt all over the place and tried too include too many current social issues. I also didn’t like either main characters all that much.