One of the nice things about sorting out that side of my life, though,
is it meant that I didn't have to write any more songs about unhappy love,
thank *** Christ, right?
And it means I can write songs about other things.
And that was serendipitous,
because that story that I was telling just then,
that took place back in 2016.
Now, I'm not sure if you remember 2016,
but I do, and we spent a lot of time that year on tour in the United States,
and over here as well, and it just seemed to be a year
where everybody across the Western world lost their *** minds,
ladies and gentlemen,
in a variety of interesting different ways.
But it seemed to be a culmination of a lot of long-term trends,
you know, worrying trends of people starting to enjoy hatred and anger
in their discourse,
and people mistaking shouting at somebody for having a discussion with them,
or Twitter for having a discussion with them,
or the Internet for having a discussion with someone,
or indeed any form of social interaction,
which it *** isn't, it doesn't count, right?
And I wrote a record about all of this called Be More Kind,
that came out last year.
Incidentally, the title is taken from the works of a man
by the name of Clive James, who died today, ladies and gentlemen,
so this show, this whole *** everything is for the great,
the late, great Clive James.
Anyway, so I tried writing songs about what was happening
in the world at large,
and I thought quite hard about how to kind of pitch it, you know,
and what sort of angle to go for,
because I grew up listening to and going to see
anarchist hardcore punk bands play live,
and I have seen so very many anarchist hardcore punk bands
who told me that the next song is going to smash the system,
and yet every single time, the song's going to be a hit.
Every single time, the song finished,
and the system was still there.
And so, you know, I was thinking about this,
and about what to write songs about,
and one of the things that occurred to me,
this is one of my pet theories, if you like,
all of the yardsticks that we used to be able to rely on
to predict what was going to happen politically or otherwise
have kind of broken, they've fallen apart,
which means that no one has a *** clue
what's going to happen next, right?
Stop pretending you do, it's annoying.
Nobody knows what's going to happen next,
and that makes us all scared, right?
We're all *** terrified,
and if we could admit that to ourselves,
and then even more so, if we could admit that to each other,
then that would be the common ground that you needed
to start a rational, kind conversation
between adults who disagree with each other,
and you could call me a massive hippie, if you like,
but I think that would be a pretty positive thing
for us to do with our time,
rather than just *** shouting at each other all day.
And I guess that's what this next song is about.
This song's called
Don't Worry If You Don't Know What To Do
I spent a little time in worried shoes
I wore them out through walking
It wasn't any use
Don't worry if you don't know what to do
Don't give up if you just can't get your way
Don't listen to the bitter things they say
Put those thoughts behind you
Tomorrow's a new day
Don't give up if you just can't get your way
Life hurts
Love will burn
Don't weep, it soon went that way
If it falls to bits
You should fix it
Don't throw it away
Don't let your heart get hardened into stone
Or lose yourself in looking at your phone
So many, some call friends
And still you feel alone
You should spend more time with the do's and with the don'ts
Life hurts
Love will burn
Don't weep, it soon went that way
When you can't pull through
I will help you
I won't push you away
Hey!
Don't worry if you don't know what to do
Sing it if you know it, friends
Don't worry if you don't know what to do
And now you all know it
Don't worry if you don't know what to do
One more time around
Don't worry if you don't know what to do
I don't know what I'm doing
No one has a clue
But she'll figure it out
And I might too
Thank you