SOME SONGS ARE GREAT SHORT STORIES (Chapter 32)

30 years since this was composed and recorded.   It’s a shameful indictment of successive governments, in both London and Edinburgh, that so little has changed across many communities with the result that the issues raised in this pop hymn to isolation, depression and utter misery are just as abundant as they were after a decade of Thatcherism.

Husband don’t know what he’s done
Kids don’t know what’s wrong with Mum
She can’t say, they can’t see
Putting it down to another bad day
Daddy don’t know what he’s done
Kids don’t know what’s wrong with Mum

So this is how it feels to be lonely
This is how it feels to be small
This is how it feels
When your word means nothing at all

There’s a funeral in the town
Some guy from the top estate
Seems they found him under a train
And yet he had it all on a plate

So this is how it feels to be lonely
This is how it feels to be small
This is how it feels
When your word means nothing at all

Husband don’t know what he’s done
Kids don’t know what’s wrong with Mum
She can’t say, they can’t see
Putting it down to another bad day

So this is how it feels to be lonely
This is how it feels to be small
This is how it feels
When your word means nothing at all
So this is how it feels to be lonely
This is how it feels to be small
This is how it feels
When your word means nothing at all

mp3 : Inspiral Carpets – This Is How It Feels

There is also a radio mix of the song, concerning two lines of the second verse.

‘There’s a funeral in the town’ was changed to ‘Black car drives through the town’, while ‘Seems they found him under a train’ is replaced by the less gruecome but arguably more chilling and moving ‘Left a note for a local girl’

mp3 : Inspiral Carpets – This Is How It Feels (radio mix)

And while I’m here…..from the 12″ vinyl sitting in the cupboard:-

mp3 : Inspiral Carpets – This Is How It Feels (extended)

JC