There are some songs that I hope to have close at hand until the day I die. If women often clutch to hot water bottles, then the male equivalent must surely be songs by proper men, the gritty and emotive songs from men like Colin Hay, Bruce Springsteen, Neil Young, Tim Finn, Leonard Cohen and Mark Knopfler.
Around about now as the weather gets cooler, drive time music often switches out from the fun and funky summer melodies to the more soul soothing songs which send pings to a deeper core in us. One such song that came on my car stereo, left on a mix tape that was a a parting gift from a woman I had had a moonlight tryst with many years ago, was an acoustic version of Colin Hay's 'Overkill'. I could not find the version that was left on my CD but I could find the rendition below which is near enough.
Dumbed down for meaning Overkill is probably said to be about a man who can't get to sleep and whose mind is going at a thousand miles an hour. To me Overkill is about a form of depression and anxiety that nearly every man must face at some point of his life. The stresses of a modern life, of sustaining income, curtailing expenses, of performing for others, of people that are gone from your life, those that are in your life now, what the future may hold, whether or not your will be successful, whether your life has any meaning and so much more are all laced feelings and emotions inside this one song. Especially for our international readers, if you have not listened to Overkill, do so. To my mind Colin Hay is somewhat an Australian national treasure.
Read more about Colin Hay
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