# great musical rejections of the rat race **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 26, 2009, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-musical-rejections-of-the-rat-race/507790 "2009-08-26T17:32:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Claire\_Beauchamp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ec9cab/32.png) [@Claire\_Beauchamp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Claire_Beauchamp)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2009, 2:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-musical-rejections-of-the-rat-race/507790/21 "2009-08-27T02:41:26Z")
_Sunshine (Go Away Today)_ by Jonathan Edwards [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zurwvfj6f\_0](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zurwvfj6f_0) – silly video, but the original version ---
**Author:** ![Claire\_Beauchamp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ec9cab/32.png) [@Claire\_Beauchamp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Claire_Beauchamp)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2009, 2:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-musical-rejections-of-the-rat-race/507790/22 "2009-08-27T02:44:02Z")
> [@Yllaria](#): > > “Money for Nothing,” by Dire Straits is about someone who wishes he could throw it all over. Not really. It’s someone who wants all the trappings of success and incorrectly thinks that the musicians who have it don’t work for it. > [@Bayard](#): > > (re _Life in the Fast Lane_) I always hear this as more of a tale of drug use – “lines on the mirror” and “call the doctor / I think I’m gonna crash” – more than of the humdrum, workaday world. Exactly. It has nothing to do with the rat race. ---
**Author:** ![BaneSidhe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/c5a1d2/32.png) [@BaneSidhe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BaneSidhe)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2009, 3:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-musical-rejections-of-the-rat-race/507790/23 "2009-08-27T03:03:27Z")
Huh. I never thought of “Every Day Is Exactly The Same” as a song about rejecting the rat race. I see it more of a song about being so down nothing matters, the world has beaten you down so far you can’t see your way out. Different way of looking at it, though. ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2009, 3:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-musical-rejections-of-the-rat-race/507790/24 "2009-08-27T03:03:41Z")
The first song to come to my mind was Synchronicity II by the Police, with lines such as “Daddy only stares into the distance There’s only so much more that he can take” “And every single meeting with his so-called superior Is a humiliating kick in the crotch” “Daddy grips the wheel and stares alone into the distance He knows that something somewhere has to break” and particularly the recurring line about something crawling from the bottom of a dark Scottish lake, which seems to indicate he is about to snap and possibly kill his family. ---
**Author:** ![Reply](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/reply/32/15952_2.png) [@Reply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reply)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2009, 3:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-musical-rejections-of-the-rat-race/507790/25 "2009-08-27T03:06:15Z")
> [@BaneSidhe](#): > > Huh. I never thought of “Every Day Is Exactly The Same” as a song about rejecting the rat race. I see it more of a song about being so down nothing matters, the world has beaten you down so far you can’t see your way out. Different way of looking at it, though. I agree with you. That’s why I said the songs were more like a surrender 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2009, 3:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-musical-rejections-of-the-rat-race/507790/26 "2009-08-27T03:23:49Z")
**I’m Not Gonna Let It Bother Me Tonight** - Atlanta Rhythm Section: _Life on the street is a jungle A struggle to keep up the pace I just can’t beat that old dog eat dog The rats keep winning the rat race_ ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2009, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-musical-rejections-of-the-rat-race/507790/27 "2009-08-27T03:33:58Z")
**Sitting on a Fence** - Rolling Stones: _All of my friends at school grew up and settled down And they mortgaged off their lives One things not said too much, but I think it’s true They just get married cause there’s nothing else to do_ [All I Wanna Do](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I6zIEfSxqkg) - Sheryl Crow \*The good people of the world are washing their cars On their lunch break, hosing and scrubbing As best they can in skirts in suits They drive their shiny Datsuns and Buicks Back to the phone company, the record store too Well, they’re nothing like Billy and me\* ---
**Author:** ![Don\_Draper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b2d939/32.png) [@Don\_Draper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_Draper)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2009, 4:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-musical-rejections-of-the-rat-race/507790/28 "2009-08-27T04:10:32Z")
“I ain’t gonna work on Maggie’s farm no more. No, I ain’t gonna work on Maggie’s farm no more…” -Bob Dylan ---
**Author:** ![panamajack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/47e85d/32.png) [@panamajack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panamajack)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2009, 4:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-musical-rejections-of-the-rat-race/507790/29 "2009-08-27T04:11:43Z")
“Life in the Fast Lane” may not fit, but The Eagles do have “Earlybird”, which tells how much better is to be a musician and enjoy life as long as you’re not hurting anyone than to be a hard worker whose life is passing them by. Pink Floyd’s “Breathe” is a bit obscure, but does have at least a criticism of the [rabbit] race (“balanced on the biggest wave/you race toward an early grave”). Some of their other songs fit well in that vein, notably “Welcome to Machine”. ---
**Author:** ![Nobody](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/94ad74/32.png) [@Nobody](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nobody)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2009, 4:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-musical-rejections-of-the-rat-race/507790/30 "2009-08-27T04:50:40Z")
“Piece of Mind” by **Boston** ---
**Author:** ![Oakminster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/77aa72/32.png) [@Oakminster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oakminster)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2009, 4:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-musical-rejections-of-the-rat-race/507790/31 "2009-08-27T04:52:21Z")
Charlie Daniels [Long Haired Country Boy](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bs4y5si8DGs) ---
**Author:** ![Nzinga\_Seated](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/b5ac83/32.png) [@Nzinga\_Seated](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nzinga_Seated)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2009, 5:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-musical-rejections-of-the-rat-race/507790/32 "2009-08-27T05:18:06Z")
Sittin’ on the Dock of the Bay by Otis Redding. My dad loved that song so much. I loved it too. ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2009, 1:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-musical-rejections-of-the-rat-race/507790/33 "2009-08-27T13:48:24Z")
Not leaving forever, but escaping after hours: End of the day, factory whistle cries Men walk through these gates with death in their eyes And you just better believe boy, somebody’s gonna get hurt tonight It’s the working, the working, just the working life Factory, Springsteen Some guys they just give up living And start dying little by little, piece by piece, Some guys come home from work and wash up, And go racing in the street. Racing in the Street, Springsteen ---
**Author:** ![Icerigger](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/icerigger/32/432_2.png) [@Icerigger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Icerigger)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2009, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-musical-rejections-of-the-rat-race/507790/34 "2009-08-27T15:13:03Z")
I’m a man of means by no means, **King of the Road**. ---
**Author:** ![Finagle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/b19c9b/32.png) [@Finagle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Finagle)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2009, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-musical-rejections-of-the-rat-race/507790/35 "2009-08-27T16:05:51Z")
The folk music/singer songwriter realm has a few of these (big surprise, eh?) Jackson Browne, From Silver Lake: “Did you see our brother He was here the other day But he only came to say that he can’t breathe here Did you see his lady She was reaching for his hand Just as if to tell her man that she can’t either” Steve Forbert’s “The American in Me” is an entire album on that basic theme. But in particular, the song “Responsibility”. Pete Morton’s “Water from the Houses of Our Father”. John Gorka’s “Land of the Bottom Line” is more of a bittersweet acceptance of the rat race: “I couldn’t bribe a wino on what I used to make My Fortune was as sure as the wind But I was free to wonder and time was on my hands It was mine to burn and to bend” ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2009, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-musical-rejections-of-the-rat-race/507790/36 "2009-08-27T16:06:57Z")
9 to 5: On the same boat With a lot of your friends Waitin for the day Your ship’ll come in And the tides gonna turn An’ it’s all gonna roll you away ---
**Author:** ![drastic\_quench](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e36b37/32.png) [@drastic\_quench](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drastic_quench)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2009, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-musical-rejections-of-the-rat-race/507790/37 "2009-08-27T18:05:54Z")
The Kinks - A Well Respected Man I think it takes the cake. > [@](#): > > cause he gets up in the morning, > And he goes to work at nine, > And he comes back home at five-thirty, > Gets the same train every time. > cause his world is built round punctuality, > It never fails. ![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/WIXVzeB0DUo/maxresdefault.jpg)https://www.youtube.com/embed/WIXVzeB0DUo?feature=oembed&wmode=opaque ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2009, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-musical-rejections-of-the-rat-race/507790/38 "2009-08-27T18:39:36Z")
> [@Simmerdown](#): > > _Rat Race_ - Bob Marley I was going to nominate this yesterday, but I read the lyrics and it’s not about that kind of rat race. > [@](#): > > Political violence fill your city, yeah! > Don’t involve Rasta in your say say; > Rasta don’t work for no C.I.A. It sounds like the song is about Jamaican politics. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2009, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-musical-rejections-of-the-rat-race/507790/39 "2009-08-27T18:40:38Z")
Please remember, everybody: don’t quote more than a verse here, and link to an outside Web site if you want to show people all the lyrics to a song. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2009, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-musical-rejections-of-the-rat-race/507790/40 "2009-08-27T18:43:20Z")
For me, it’d be The Jam’s _Going Underground_: > [@](#): > > Some people might say my life is in a rut, > But I’m quite happy with what I got > People might say that I should strive for more, > But I’m so happy I cant see the point. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-musical-rejections-of-the-rat-race/507790.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-musical-rejections-of-the-rat-race/507790.md?page=3)