The Music Is A Lie (rediscovered song)

While flipping the channels last night, I came across a show that was analyzing a song by the Sex Pistols.

!!!



The Pistols hit about the time I was on college radio, and as crude as they were, I found them better than a lot of the dreck that was topping the charts. (Disco, shudder.) Among the punks, I preferred the Ramones, but still, the Pistols had their own, um, "charm." 

I was also playing local coffee houses/fairs/festivals/rallies around that time - folk, folk rock, some protest songs. I wrote a few songs, and a couple of them I jokingly called "folk punk."

The Pistols program reminded me of one song I wrote called "The Music Is A Lie." It was meant as a criticism of what was on the radio in those days.

This morning, while getting ready for the day, I recalled I had a folder with a lot of old song lyrics, including lyrics of a few songs I'd written. I found it, and sure enough, "The Music Is A Lie" was in there - scribbled on a sheet of paper.

Here are the lyrics.

Turn on the radio, listen to any show
There's nothin' for your soul, nothin' to make you whole.

It makes you want to dance, it puts you in a trance
Neutralize your mind, like a bottle of strong wine.

The music is a lie.
The music is a lie.
The music is a lie.
The music is a lie.

You wear your plastic hair, take soma for your cares
Tomorrow's just a day that soon will fade away.

Everything's unreal, except for what you feel.
Love is just a pain, and sex is a refrain.

The music is a lie.
The music is a lie.
The music is a lie.
The music is a lie.

( Musical bridge)

Nothing to believe, except what you perceive.
But even that is gone, just before the dawn.

The music is a lie.
The music is a lie.
The music is a lie.
The music is a lie.

Hmmm. Although it was written some 40 years ago, back when I looked like this

the sentiment seems applicable to quite a few contemporary songs. The chords are on the sheet. Maybe I'll try playing it again later. Maybe even in public.

Honest.

Pax et bonum