No More Twist

The UK has had some of the worst winds for almost a century, and the news is full of pictures and stories of storm damage. We still get away lightly compared to other countries that have ‘proper disasters’.

After a few days of light flooding, we had a day of high winds. There were news reports of closed motorways. My daily commute involves two stretches of motorway directly. I live near the M1 and work near the meeting of the M6 and M42, so traffic problems on these can affect the minor roads that I use too.

In the end, it took me three times as long as usual to get home. All the motorways were affected by some sort of closure, the M69 being particularly bad – it was full of stationary traffic. Even the B-roads were full of people trying to get home cross-country. The scribbled map shows my eventual route, through Wolvey, Burbage and Aston Flamville.

Luckily I had plenty of music to make the journey bearable. I found an old favourite album, Supertramp’s Breakfast in America. When I first bought it, I loved the catchy melodies, and the mix of guitar, keyboards, sax, harmonica and more. But I don’t think I ever listened to the lyrics.

In the confines of the car I did, and it was like hearing another album. While the music is bright and catchy, the lyrics are dark – full of failure, neurosis and pain. As if by magic, the winds died down, though the traffic remained, and I listened. “I used to dream about this town” (Gone Hollywood), “Won’t you please, please tell me what we’ve learned” (The Logical Song), “Goodbye stranger it’s been nice / hope you find your paradise” (Goodbye Stranger), “Take a look at my girlfriend / She’s the only one I got / Not much of a girlfriend / I never seem to get a lot” (Breakfast in America), “Oh darling, will you ever change your mind / I’ve been feeling left behind” (Oh Darling)

“When you look through the years and see what you could have been / oh, what might have been / if you’d had more time.” (Take the Long Way Home), “I never cease to wonder at the cruelty of this land / but it seems a time of sadness is a time to understand” (Lord Is It Mine), “I’m feeling so alone now / they cut the telephone, uh huh / yeah my life is just a mess” (Just Another Nervous Wreck), “It doesn’t matter what I say / you never listen anyway / just don’t know what you’re looking for” (Casual Conversations), “There must be more than this life / it’s time we did something right” (Child of Vision).

Ten tracks played out in what seemed like no time at all; at the same time I seemed to have moved forward not very far at all. The wind had all but died down and the debris on the roads and one or two wrecked trees were all there was to see. Although the lyrics would make a great soundtrack to any crisis, I found myself still loving the album as much as when I first heard it. Don’t wait for the next crisis to listen to it again!