Listening for Stealers Wheel

If you’ve ever seen the film “Reservoir Dogs” it was quite possibly the first time you heard Stealers Wheel (Gerry Rafferty & co) singing “Stuck in the Middle With You”. The scene it was played in is now iconic…

Mr Blonde (Michael Madsen) dances to the music which both obscures & accompanies the helpless plight of his captive victim. It’s not pretty, actually it’s gruesome, yet the scene is almost balletic. It’s a moment of iconic black humour. From there, stuck with the disaster the characters have created for themselves, things go from bad to worse.

Yet part of the charm of the song itself is the lively tempo & rhythm. Seductively, it gets you moving despite the scene. You can see the genius of Quentin Tarantino’s song choice accompaniment. Then you notice the words telling a simple story with repetition, supporting the rhythm of the music. In fact the phrasing is so simple & seductive that you might even sing along to the song not realising what the story behind the words is about…

The story is one of being stuck between jokers & clowns. Struggling not to smile.  Losing control.  Trying to make sense of it all. Curiously, it also contains a reference to the “self-made man” and the family who come crawling, slap you on the back and say “Please!”.

There’s a back story to the song and I think we can also interpret the lyrics a bit more personally.

For me it speaks of how we find ourselves in situations where we don’t know how we got there let alone how we might extricate ourselves. For me, it talks of situations where we forget what made us good and how we need our family to remind us where our attention is best given. For me it’s a warning not to fall into the traps of self-created disasters where there’s no happy ending.

It’s a catchy little number so…

The next time I find myself on Social Media sliding into in a damaging conversation with jokers & clowns…

The next time I find myself working when I should must be with the family…

The next time I forget where I’ve come from & what I’ve got to offer…

It’s this song that I’ll play in my head to remind me that I don’t need to make myself a captive victim. I’ll smile. Then I’ll do what needs to be done.

How about you?

Oh & if you just want to enjoy a zany music video then here you go…