To capture the current state of farcical flux and political impasse over Brexit and US government shutdown, a classic written by Lionel Bart for the musical Oliver!, which also became a feminist 60s pop hit for the female star. The context of the original song of course was very different – Lionel Bart, who from a poor Jewish immigrant family of tailors growing up in Stepney, East London, and was talent-spotted by the Joan Littlewood, wrote it for the musical Oliver!, based on Charles Dickens novel Oliver Twist, and after a West End premier in 1960, it became the award-winning film musical in 1968. Ron Moody played the comic pickpocket villain Fagin, shifting his position in the face of adversity, in other words straightening up his rogue life to avoid getting caught. He was in the original theatre version too, in a role also played variously by others including Stanley Holloway Jonathan Pryce and Anthony Newley.
A man's got a heart, hasn't he?
Joking apart, hasn't he?
And though I'd be the first one to say that I wasn't a saint
I'm finding it hard to be really as black as they paint
I'm reviewing the situation
Can a fellow be a villain all his life?
All the trials and tribulation
Better settle down and get myself a wife
And a wife would cook and sew for me
And come for me, and go for me
And go for me and nag at me
The fingers she will wag at me
The money she will take from me
A misery, she'll make from me
I think I'd better think it out again!
A wife you can keep, anyway
I'd rather sleep, anyway
Left without anyone in the world
And I'm starting from now
So how to win friends and to influence people?
So how?
I'm reviewing the situation
I must quickly look up ev'eyone I know
Titled people, with a station
Who can help me make a real impressive show!
I will own a suite at Claridges
And run a fleet of carriages
And wave at all the duchesses
With friendliness, as much as is
Befitting of my new estate
"Good morning to you, Magistrate!"
I think I'd better think it out again
So where shall I go, somebody?
Who do I know? Nobody!
All my dearest companions
Have always been villains and thieves
So at my time of life I should start
Turning over new leaves?
I'm reviewing the situation
If you want to eat, you've got to earn a bob!
Is it such a humiliation
For a robber to perform an honest job?
So a job I'm getting, possibly
I wonder who the boss'll be?
I wonder if he'll take to me?
What bonuses he'll make to me?
I'll start at eight and finish late
At normal rate, and all, but wait!
I think I'd better think it out again
What happens when I'm seventy?
Must come a time, seventy
When you're old, and it's cold
And who cares if you live or you die?
The one consolation's the money
You may have put by
I'm reviewing the situation
I'm a bad 'un and a bad 'un I shall stay!
You'll be seeing no transformation
But it's wrong to be a rogue in ev'ry way
I don't want nobody hurt for me
Or made to do the dirt for me
This rotten life is not for me
It's getting far too hot for me
Don't want no one to rob for me
But who will find a job for me
There is no in between for me
But who will change the scene for me?
I think I'd better think it out again!
Sandie Shaw covered the song for her 1969 album of the same, name, but the focus was far more on relationship troubles, mixing up the lyrics to invert Fagin’s imagined blissful marriage to what she would do if she were the wife:
I'm reviewing the situation
Can a fellow be a villain all his life?
All the trials and tribulation
Better settle down and make myself a wife
As wife I would cook and sew for him
And come for him, and go for him
And go for him and nag at him
The fingers I would wag at him
The money I would take from him
The misery, I’d make for him
I think I'd better think it out again!
A wife he can’t keep anyway …
I’d rather sleep anyway …
And for a contrasting style, there’s also a reggae-ish cover by the 90s British acid jazz hip hop band from their 1991 debut album In Pursuit Of The 13th Note, featuring Rob Gallagher on lead vocals taking on more a “streetwise” pastiche of the lyrics (“or you’ll end up goin’ nowhere like the M25 …”)
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