It's Time for Musical Monday!

And thus I begin what may become a tradition of posting and commenting on a particular song every Monday.  Because, let's face it, Monday is never music to our ears, so we need all the help we can get :-)

After spinning the mystical shuffle-wheel on my laundry list of songs, todays song has been picked: The Ol' Beggars Bush, by Flogging Molly, off of their album Swagger.  Posted in the widgets is the song itself, and posted below are the lyrics:

The Ol' Beggars Bush

Stuck on limbo bridge
Where below me ol' Nick grins
Then laughs through the chaos of it all
Gets up off his chair
Spins a jig to my despair
He can't wait to count the times where I went wrong

Underneath the bush, lay a beggar out of luck
On his lips, was a taste he forgets
His hopes were filled with sand
That he watched fall through his hand
Every grain, was a lifetime of regret

So go and bow your head and weep
For your world won't change while you sleep
Yeah, go and bow your head and weep
For the summer that was lost, now is gone
Yeah the summer that was lost, now is gone

Fertile Mrs. Moore had thirteen kids
But still looked good
Till her ol' man jumped leave on a ship
She never read a book
But by Christ she understood
That the meanin' of life
Starts in bed

So go and bow your head and weep
For your world won't change while you sleep
Yeah, go and bow your head and weep
For the summer that was lost, now is gone
Yeah the summer that was lost, now is gone

Killer Kilbain kicked me senseless everyday
I hope that bastard is beneath a head of stone
Where I'd dance upon his grave
For all the madness I now crave
While the scars that remain are still a curse
So I'm stuck on a limbo bridge
Where below me ol' Nick grins
Then laughs through the chaos of it all
Gets up off his chair
Spins a jig to my despair
He can't wait to count the times where I went wrong
Yeah, he can't wait to count the times where I went wrong


So go and bow your head and weep
For your world won't change while you sleep
Yeah, go and bow your head and weep
For the summer that was lost, now is gone
Yeah the summer that was lost, now is gone
Yeah the summer that was lost, now is gone
The summer that was lost, now is gone

I have never been the best at extracting meaning from text, so I won't even attempt to stab at every little scrap possibly contained within this song.  Instead, I'll focus on one particular theme.  Each of the characters' stories within this song involve them looking back upon one or more parts of their life in shame, regret or sorrow.  The song then very bluntly puts in the refrain both "For your world won't change while you sleep" and the more compelling "The summer that was lost, now is gone".  No matter how the singer, the beggar, or Mrs. Moore looked back, their past was untouchable by their hand or anyone else's.  If we were to take a lesson here, let us keep our eyes fixed not on the past, but on the present and the future.  Even should the devil be overeager to count your failings and your faults, you can always be forgiven.  No matter what opportunities you have lost or failed to take, there will always be more opportunities to come.  And no matter what abuse and hardship you have suffered, no amount of revenge will take it away.

Let me know if there is a particular song you would like to hear next week; until then, dear reader, be well.