It's the Toughest of Commissions (Song)

Author: Bob Rhodes

A song with many tunes (Welsh hymn tunes work best) on the absurdities of commissioning.

There’s a hoarding at the station
That in 12 by 8 proclaims
The joy of urban living
Is that little life remains.

Chorus (between each verse and to end)

It’s the toughest of commissions
To reverse such powerful trends
Fighting the persuasive grooming
On which commerce still depends

Work Shop Play is its prescription
For contentment in this day
We’re habitual consumers
For as long as we can pay

She’s both business-like and power-dressed
A social entrepreneur who’s dared
To package family, friends, community
The free love we all once shared

He’s a smart suit and an ipad
Knows the price but not the cost
And he’s built a big career
On the human rights we’ve lost

When he’s told the hurt he’s spawning
Pleads great burdens that he bears
But he’s no more credibility
Than the garish ties he wears!

Into products that make profits
Agents of social control
So we all can go on shopping
And forget our heart and soul.

Just forget about tomorrow
Gorge the birthrights of our kids
Loutish ravage feast can’t borrow
Planet knackered on the skids

It is a clear reflection
Mirrors that we have lost touch
With the essences of living
Now we don’t amount to much

If teachers raise our children
To plans laid down by Number 10
And we warehouse our dear grannies
Safeguarded they say by them

If we mustn’t trust our neighbours
As professionals know best
We’re all wage slaves and we know it
At the money men’s behest

The real joy in urban living
Comes when citizens relate
Organise around what matters
Redirect the winds of fate

Rediscover in their trials
Civilisation will renew
When the efforts of the people
Reward all not just a few

When we’ve love for those who’ve raised us
Time to be the hands of care
Made a village for our children
Parishes that all can share

So don’t succumb to entertainment
Punditry celebrity
Active in association’s
Much more satisfactory

Ready for the revolution
That will come unstoppably
When the dispossessed redundant
Exceed those who think they’re free

When we’re back in nature’s kilter
Back in touch with you and me
We will sustain one another
Work Shop Play’s dark history

It’s the toughest of commissions
To reverse such powerful trends
Fighting the persuasive grooming
On which commerce still depends

The publisher is The Centre for Welfare Reform.

It's the Toughest of Commissions (Song) © Bob Rhodes 2012.

All Rights Reserved. No part of this paper may be reproduced in any form without permission from the publisher except for the quotation of brief passages in reviews.