When I quit (*ahem*) Med School, my chief band mate was distressed. I was traumatised over other things so I couldn't tell at the time but he was distressed that I'd gone and flushed down a whole career that other people would dream about. He was shocked in a way that ran completely tangential to my own feelings about the situation, as to make conversations about it with him very stilted and strange.
To be frank, nobody got it. It's a bit like that song 'Too Many People' by Paul McCartney on Ram where he sings
That was your first mistake
You took your lucky break and broke it in two
Now what can be done for you?
You broke it in twoYou're not supposed do that shit but I was actually at the end of my tether with the faculty and my conversations with the faculty about my state of mind and engagement with them had reached a nadir. When you throw in a bad breakup and then betrayal by friends in the faculty that destroys your faith in people, you kind of have to shut things down and have a deep think.
While I was having my deep think we kept jamming and my chief band mate wrote out the words to what became this song. I think it was an expression of him trying to wrap his head around my predicament. It was like a protest song, but the protest was deeply personal. There was no Vietnam War going on, and the renewed military adventurism of the USA was still some time ahead. The world was still largely at peace, even if the Cold War was stifling and the USSR still had some credibility as the counterpart to the charade. History, was in a lull.
And so you go looking for your pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.
It's not exactly the way things worked out.
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