Thursday, March 13, 2008

I am on the 401, a bus route from North Melbourne to my workplace which is basically giving me back 2 ½ hours of life a week and stops me being a clog in the s-bend of the North Melbourne-city loop-Swanston St tram route. Sadly they play commercial radio on this route often, happily not that loud most of the time (though it’s driver’s whim). At the moment we’re being subjected to ‘Walking on sunshine’ by Katrina and the Waves, a song that never had too much value for me, it’s all a bit slight, if Katrina somewhere had a line about ‘what happens to us when we’re dead’ or something in there I might find it more engaging and true to my general concerns. But it does make me think yet again how lucky/clever Kimberley Rew was to write a song which was not exactly the biggest hit on earth but somehow managed the hit song equivalent of low GI, it has just attained some kind of everlasting ability that I and everyone else can’t explain. Possibly a payoff for being a man named Kimberley.

I hope he kept his royalties. I wonder if Denny Laine (nee Brian Something-that-sounds-a-bit-like-Laine) wakes up every morning and kicks himself for selling his share in 'Mull of Kintyre' to Paul McCartney? No, he’s probably over it and for all we know he had his reasons and they still work for him. Nevertheless, how’d you be. If my great uncle dies and leaves me shares in a Paul McCartney song I will lean towards keeping that stake, and I hope it’s ‘Must do something about it’ from Wings at the speed of sound, something I’d be proud to own, knowing my luck it’ll be fuckin’ 'Lady Madonna', or some other song I never liked.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Well, I must say it's nice to read something positive about public transport on this blog after the intemperate and foul-mouthed carping of recent posts. And you are entitled, as a matter of company policy, to have the radio turned off on request to the driver.

Jim Bus

David Nichols said...

Let us define 'carping'.
Can I ask the bus driver to turn the radio off and keep it off all day?

Anonymous said...

The only way you can ensure that the radio is turned off all day is by remaining on the bus all day. Sorry, but those are the rules and they are as inflexible as steel.

JB

David Nichols said...

If that's what it takes.

Anonymous said...

Let the driver have her/his entertainment. Just keep a set of ear plugs with you or learn how to play the glad game.

David Nichols said...

What if I don't like his tie?

Anonymous said...

Please refer to page 62 of any etiquette book. You'll find that chapter 2 of Courtesy Counts is devoted to boo boos and do dos on public transport.

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