Have you ever listened to an album, read a book, or saw a movie, and wondered aloud,” How could they have known?” This thread isn’t meant to promote some kind of narcissistic notion that a particular artist had you in mind in his creation. However, there isn’t a single person here who hasn’t tried to seek out some kind of reinforcement or acknowledgement of their life as a JW from someone or something else.
I would like everyone here to tell me what (limited to the arts) they have used in order to confirm their life as a JW. Personally, I have found my life, as well as the lives of many of you here, mirrored in PULP’s amazing album “This Is Hardcore.” Here is a sampling of some lyrics….
Track 1: The Fear
This is our "Music from A Bachelors Den"
the sound of loneliness turned up to ten.
A horror soundtrack from a stagnant water-bed
and it sounds just like this.
This is the sound of someone losing the plot –
making out that they're okay when they're not.
You're gonna like it, but not a lot & the chorus goes like this:
Oh Baby, here comes the fear again. The end is near again.
A monkey's built a house on your back.
You can't get anyone to come in the sack
and here comes another panic attack. Oh here we go again.
So now you know the words to our song,
pretty soon you'll all be singing along.
When you're sad, when you're lonely & it all turns out wrong.
When you've got the fear.
When you're no longer searching for beauty or love –
just some kind of life with the edges taken off.
When you can't even define what it is that you are frightened of this song will be here.
Oh Baby, here comes the fear again. The end is near again.
If you ever get that chimp off your back.
If you ever find the thing that you lack
but you know you're only having a laugh
and here we go again. Until the end.
Track 2: Dishes
I am not Jesus though I have the same initials –
I am the man who stays home and does the dishes.
& how was your day?
Is that woman still trying to do your head in?
A man told me to beware of 33.
He said, "It was not an easy time for me"
but I'll get through
even though I've got no miracles to show you.
Track 3: Party Hard
I used to try very hard to make friends with everyone on the planet.
I've seen you havin' it, havin' it yeah but now you've just had it.
Entertainment can sometimes be hard
when the thing that you love is the same thing that's holding you down.
I was having a whale of a time until your uncle Psychosis arrived.
Why do we have to half kill ourselves just to prove we're alive?
I'm here whenever you need me
& whenever you need me I won't be here.
Track 5: T V Movie
Without you my life has become a hangover without end.
A movie made for TV: bad dialogue, bad acting, no interest.
Too long with no story & no sex.
Track 6: A Little Soul
You see your mother and me we never got along that way you see.
I'd love to help you but everybody's telling me you look like me
but please don't turn out like me. You look like me but you're not like me I know.
Track 11: Glory Days
Come & play the tunes of glory –raise your voice in celebration
of the days that we have wasted in the cafe in the station.
Come share this golden age with me in my single room apartment & if it all amounts to nothing –
it doesn't matter, these are still our glory days. Oh my face is unappealing and my thoughts are unoriginal.
I did experiments with substances but all it did was make me ill & I used to do the I Ching but then I had to feed the meter.
Now I can't see into the future but at least I can use the heater. Oh it doesn't get much better than this
'cos this is how we live our glory days. Oh & I could be a genius if I just put my mind to it
& I, I could do anything if only I could get 'round to it. Oh we were brought up on the Space-Race,now they expect you to clean toilets.
When you have seen how big the world is how can you make do with this? If you want me I'll be sleeping in –
sleeping in throughout these glory days. These glory days can take their toll, so catch me now before I turn to gold.
Yeah we'd love to hear your story just as long as it tells us where we are –
that where we are is where we're meant to be.
Oh come on make it up yourself - you don't need anybody else.
& I promise I won't sell these days to anybody else in the world but you. No-one but you.
Track 12: After The Revolution
The dust has settled, replaced the bulbs in all the lights.
I guess I'll get no sleep tonight. A revolution happened. Oh, sorry you haven't heard?
We are the children of the new world. If you're quiet you can watch if you like.
They say the future's beginning tonight. Whole empires will crumble.
Civilisations will fall. Lie on the bed, hear the sound of it all.
No anger, no guilt & no sorrow: it sounds unlikely,
I know, but tomorrow you will wake up to find that your whole life has changed. Although nothing looks different a revolution took place.
I love the way you do it, I love the way you put them on.
You know the answers but you get it wrong. (Just to confuse things).
Why did it seem so difficult to realise a simple truth?
The revolution begins & ends with you.
Now all the breakdowns & nightmares look small.
Now we decided not to die after all.
Because the meek shall inherit absolutely nothing at all.
If you stopped being so feeble you could have so much more.
The answer was here all the time, you see. Just how I missed it is a mystery to me.
I have waited & waited for this day to arrive.
The revolution was televised. Now it's over, bye bye. It's over, bye bye.
So there, I'm sure your life was mirrored in some way by the smooth stylings of Pulp's lyrics, as well as Jarvis Cocker's voice. IF not, tell me where it has...