The Swamp Rat

Strange title however I shall explain in further detail. One of the first songs Ironrat (the metal band I sing and play bass in!) wrote was entitled Swamp Rat. Now the song title was actually dreamt up by our Drummer, Chris yet it is quite apt to the subject of the song.

I was happily sitting on the bus one day travelling to work, minding my own business and listening to a little Ben Harper on the iPod when I noticed two young gentlemen sat a little further forward in a heated debate. Now the beauty of the iPod is that you can turn it off and have a good earwig (sneaky listen to all you folk who may not understand my colloquilisationisms(sic!)), so I sat back and tried to get the gist of what they were nattering about. It went  something like this:

“yer off ya @*?%ing head you are”

“eff you, you effing eff head, its mint init”

“nah, effing back box is effing effed, eff head”

“when ar effing lass saw it sheeffing effed her sen init”

“eff, eff, efff, eff”

Now I know that the language leaves a lot to be desired (for eff read any expletive you lcan think of) but the gist of the conversation was about a car. To put this further in to context, their appearance was as aside:

 So now I think its time to regale you with the lyrics of Swamp Rat and how they were formed from my view of this conversation but more importantly how they highlight a very important issue that is prevalent in all society and that is ignorance!

My mother is my sister and my father my sisters son

I'm shooting my seed like bullets from a loaded gun

I'm a captive audience to the Karaoke kings, enjoying the mindless fun

And I'm rolling wide style with my holy soul

My uncle is my cousin and my cousin is my mothers friend

waiting on the god to call again

I'm waiting down the pub with my friends and a real true steal

hoping that my father can complete the deal.

So subject matter wise I’m highlighting in breeding in the sense of restricting your choices to your immediate environment, entertainment of choice is mimicking art rather than creating, notional reference to religion as a habit rather than a choice, and consumerism (through theft). But the overriding point I’m trying to make is that by restricting your choices and focussing purely on what is known and safe you limit your ability to learn and grow. And by doing that you restrict others and engender the sort of racism/homophobism/ageism/sexism/otherisms that having a closed mind fosters.

So its not a song about chavs, I’ve just chosen them as a sterotype to prove the point. Open your mind, explore new ideas and acknowledge that you stereotype and limit yourself, and by doing this you can choose to overcome this.