So this one popped up a couple of months back after my funk heavy daily playlist #1 threw in a track I’d never come across before. While I was out running today it came up again and the same mutating earworm struck in exactly the same place.
The lyrics in Speedometer’s ‘No turning back’ call out everybody’s natural propensity for xenophobia amongst the backdrop of the international immigration problems. Social commentary in songs can be risky; often lyrics don’t date well and sometimes that can detract to the point where you stop listening to the song altogether as it feels incongruous if things have significantly moved on. This track, featuring the vocals of James Junior, was released back in 2015 and is as relevant today as then. Sadly I suspect it will still ring as true in another thirty years, let alone another three.
Given the serious nature of the song I had some misgivings about posting my mutating ear worm but that goes against the point of the midweek posts. The rules are the rules; once you hear it, you have to point it out regardless of the level of appropriateness. Besides I never said this was going to be a worthy endeavour.
Take a listen to ‘No turning back’ specifically for the four bars at 1:51. Every time it takes me right back to watching Saturday TV as a kid, specifically The Muppets. Listen out at 40 seconds for almost the exact same 4 bars of rising refrain
I’ll just leave it there for now (rather than prattle about the mena mena song which I have on a CD single somewhere). Till next week
Donovan.