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Samizdata, derived from Samizdat /n. - a system of clandestine publication of banned literature in the USSR [Russ.,= self-publishing house]

He died his way

From what I have observed over the years, one of the things in the world that annoys lefties more than almost anything else in the world is a somewhat drunk and somewhat old guy singing My Way, the song made famous by Frank Sinatra.

The reason people sing it is because they understand freedom and what freedom is all about. The right to do things your way, your pride when you have, the fact that this will involve mistakes, but so what? That’s what the song is all about and we all know it.

And that’s why lefties hate it so. For them, it is the sound of defeat. It is the sound of people who have consciously and deliberately turned their backs on lefty bullshit and have decided to do things their way, as often as not with their own money.

Ask yourself this. How often do they get drunk and sing this song at NGO/tranzi conferences? Not often is my guess, or if so only with post-modern irony, which doesn’t count.

So, thanks to Dave Barry for linking to this story, which shows that in the Philippines people take this song seriously, just as people do everywhere else. Basically someone wasn’t singing the song very well, and was stabbed to death.

And now, the end is near;
And so I face the final curtain. …

He sang more truly than he knew.

11 comments to He died his way

  • Edmund Burke

    I prefer the Sex Pistol’s version to Frankie’s.
    Today I killed a cat, oh no, much more than this I killed it my way 😉

    I thought the Sex Pistols were lefties. However on the other hand Johnny Rotten is a multi-millionaire, so my guess is he was doing a con job on the gullible.

  • mad dog barker

    Are you sure that “lefties” don’t like singing “My way”?

    To test this out I collared several at the local university and after I had helped them remember the words they were singing like canaries… so it’s obviously not a genetic thing.

    Maybe it was the semi automatic I was holding.

  • S. Weasel

    I dream of a future where everyone who sings My Way is jabbed with pointy things until he stops or gives up the ghost. Three cheers for the Philippines.

  • mark holland

    I thought the Sex Pistols were lefties.

    Your joking aren’t you. I’d say he was one of us, a capitalist anarchissst.

    John: We tried our Holiday In The Sun in the isle of Jersey and that didn’t work. They threw us out. Being in London at the time made us feel like we were trapped in a prison camp environment. We didn’t have enough money to escape from the infamy of it all. There was hatred and constant threat of violence. The best thing we could do was to go set up in a prison camp somewhere else. Berlin and its decadence was a good idea. The song came about from that.
    I loved Berlin. I love that wall and the insanity of the place. Twenty four hours of chaotic fun. It was geared up to annoy the Russians. West Berlin at the time was inside the communist state. It was a fairground with only one airport and one motorway leading into it–surrounded by downtrodden, dull, grey, military-minded bastards who live thoroughly miserable lives. They looked in on this circus atmosphere of West Berlin–which never went to sleep–and that would be their impression of the West. I loved it.

  • X

    What is a ‘tranzi’ conference?

  • David Crawford

    S. Weasel,

    Please get your priorities straight. First we go after the “Love Me Tender” singers. Then the “My Way” singers.

  • Liberty Belle

    Sorry, David Crawford, But “My Way” is top of the karaoke charts worldwide and on everyone’s death list. In SE Asia, you can’t help it being borne aggressively into your eardrums by the heavy tropical night air. Next is “Feelings” and “I Gotta Be Me”. “Love Me Tender” is nowhere.

  • Kevin L. Connors

    This is sick, Brian. Your initial observation about the libertarian theme of My Way may be quite valid. But then using it to justify a heinous criminal act absolutely made me wretch. You should be ashamed of yourself.

  • Toulson Caffrey

    I’m spooked by this because I unaccountably caught myself singing this in the shower this morning, but surely lefties hate this song for the same reason that anyone might: it sucks. I don’t see any reason politicise anyone’s dislike of it and neither do I accept that people sing it because they “understand freedom”. They sing it because they’re drunk and maybe because it’s the only song on the kareoke menu that they know.

    Besides, the melody is in fact French (not to mention that one of the co-lyricists is Canadian born), so lefties may even have reason to love it.

    I hope no one will think me a lefty if I say that I find the lyrics a lame fantasy of self-congratulation, well suited to being sung by maudlin drunks. I’d like to think that there are better hymns to freedom out there…

  • Good warning words from Touson. A bit sad and maudlin to be a real hymn to freedom.

    And suppose those Filipinos were not people caring deeply about this song being sung well, but lefties?

  • Paul Zrimsek

    Shouldn’t be too hard to come up with a Tranzi-approved version:

    We have a rule for that
    You Brits do things in a bizarre way
    So now just shut your trap
    And do it Our Way.