Tuesday 3 March 2009

6. 10 Songs about Teaching and School

The Teacher - Super Furry Animals
The Art Teacher - Rufus Wainwright
Another Brick in the Wall -Pink Floyd
The Headmaster Ritual - The Smiths
Teachers - Leonard Cohen
I'm not Going to Teach Your Boyfriend how to Dance - Black Kids
Lessons Learned from Rocky I to Rocky III - Cornershop
Don't Stand so Close to Me - The Police
School Days - Loudon Wainwright
School's Out - Alice Cooper

Teaching - very important and wonderful. Not for everybody, though. This is what someone who found himself teaching and being hopeless at it might think. St Cassian is an early martyr, murdered with writing implements by his vicious and unruly class. Happy Days!

Into the heart of darkness
I've peeked and scarred my eyes
And in my clouded mind I see
only weakness, battling lies.

Just south of the river
I stepped out of the shallows
and flapped and flailed but would not
cry for rescue from my perils.

And in the sun-drenched darkness
my sweat clung like a shroud
And now I wish I'd never dared
to drown, so bold, so proud.

And in the wonder of the night
I clung to bright escape
But morning came; I swam in vain
for any saving shape.

The vicious sun has stripped my skin
and inside lies a mockery.
The laugh grows louder every hour,
as sharpened points attack me.
Cassian saw the heart of darkness,
I see the joke in Cassian.
I see the base of my ideals,
the abortion of this mission.

I wish that I could take this darkness,
hold it and embrace it,
but every time my blood arises
my muddled brain can't face it.

Beyond the heart of darkness
may lie a misted marshland
but bring it on, with tickertape
bring on the braying brassband

For I'll take grey uncertainty
I'll take dirt and squalor
to flee from darkness my green eyes
were rash enough to follow.

In the melodramatic and overblown spirit of Prudentius' 'Liber Peristephanon' as you've no doubt noted.

No comments:

Post a Comment