Only So Much More That He Can Take

In 1983, The Police released an album called 'Synchronicity.' It was quite a bit to think about, and that may be an understatement. The album opened and closed with two songs called 'Synchronicity I' and 'Synchronicity II.' The first song was all about the magical things that synchroncity brings to our lives.

The album closed with 'Synchronicity II,' which was all about the trapped middle class life. I was listening to this song earlier tonight, and instead of grooving to the song, I found myself becoming upset by the lyrics:

Synchronicity II

Another suburban family morning
Grandmother screaming at the wall
We have to shout above the din of our Rice Crispies™
We can’t hear anything at all

Mother chants her litany of boredom and frustration
But we all know her suicides are fake
Daddy only stares into the distance
There’s only so much more that he can take

Many miles away
Something crawls from the slime
At the bottom of a dark
Scottish lake

Another industrial ugly morning
Tha factory belches filth into the sky
He walks unhindered through the picket lines today
He doesn’t think to wonder why

The secretaries pout and preen like cheap tarts in a red light street
But all he ever thinks to do is watch
And every single meeting with his so called superior
Is a humiliating kick in the crotch

Many miles away
Something crawls to the surface
Of a dark scottish loch

Another working day has ended
Only the rush hour hell to face
Packed like lemmings into shiny metal boxes
Contestants in a suicidal race

Daddy grips the wheel and stares alone into the distance
He knows that something somewhere has to break
He sees the family home now looming in his headlights
The pain upstairs that makes his eyeballs ache

Many miles away
There’s a shadow on the door
Of a cottage on the shore
Of a dark scottish lake

Many miles away . . .
Many miles away . . .
Many miles away . . .
Many miles away . . .
Many miles away . . .


© 1983 The Police, from the album 'Synchronicity.'
All rights reserved. Used with permission.


Sources:

The following sources were used in the creation of this Kentroversy Paper . . .

Kentroversypapers.net

The Police - Synchronicity (CD, 1983)

The Police - Synchronicity LIVE (DVD, 1983)

Coincidence

Carl Jung

Middle Class

The Police Synchronicity

Synchronicity