Now THIS song has, as they say, a stone groove, man…
[youtube=www.youtube.com/watch?v=gfeRJ4JBEHc&w=600]
This awesome Alan Parsons Project song is from their album I, Robot, and is called “I Wouldn’t Want to Be Like You.” It could well serve as a rallying cry for disaffected youth everywhere, be they Occupy-ers, Alex P. Keaton-ers, or anything in between. We won’t make the mistakes of the 1%, right? Or of the current or previous administrations? Or of our parents?
In “The Land of Confusion,” Phil Collins claims that his generation “will put it right. [They’re] not just making promises that [they] know [they’ll] never keep.” The problem, of course, is that EVERY generation has claimed this. Every son swears they won’t turn into their father.
I watched Field of Dreams the other night, and was touched at the end, as I am every time, when Kevin Costner and his cornfield-ghost dad “have a catch.” But one of the other things I always remember from that movie (besides “Step outside you Nazi cow”) is the fear Costner feels at the possibility of his turning into his father. To avoid that fate, he obeys a mysterious voice, plows under his crops, and puts his livelihood and family at risk. Through the meeting of other ghost-like characters and an almost magical sage (James Earl Jones), Costner realizes that the problem lies, not with his father, but with him. He says he “never forgave” his dad “for getting old.”
Eric Woolfson and Alan Parsons (the braintrust behind “The Project”) write a catchy tune, but miss the point entirely. “If I was high class / I wouldn’t need a buck to pass. And if I was a fall guy / I wouldn’t need no alibi.” In other words, if I were in your position, I wouldn’t make the mistakes you are making. The basic problems of the world are attributable to others, but not to me.
It’s not until we can admit that the core of us is not who we’d like to be, that we are culpable, too, that we can ever have that catch with our father that makes everything ok.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=lCiRuJ8fWYs&w=600]
COMMENTS
2 responses to “The Alan Parsons Project: I, On the Other Hand, Wouldn’t Want to Be Like ME!”
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Nick – you are so right about Alan Parsons Project…he is usually accusing or excusing; The Turn of a Friendly Card for example. It is too bad that the beat, rhythm and powerful drive of his work does not have an ounce of hope, love, forgiveness in anything he says.
On the other hand, it may have been why he was the perfect engineer for PInkfloyd’s Dark Side of the Moon, which ironically may be the only reason anyone born past the peak of Parson’s career might have even heard of him.
“Land of Confusion” is an apt reference point now that Invisible Touch is a 25 year old album. My generation has had PLENTY of time to notice that Collins’ and Rutherford’s generation has NOT put anything right. I was a kid when that album came out and the older I got and the more I thought about that song the more I wondered how any thinking adult could even write those words about not making promises … . It’s like Israel telling Joshua they WILL serve the Lord.