Dead-End Streets

Dead end streets.  The end of a wrong turn taken somewhere. It can be as harmless as simply turning around, retracing your steps and taking the right path. Then again it may seem as if your entire life's journey has been a wrong turn and the result is a dead-end life.  I suspect that's what British songwriter Ray Davies had in mind when he penned this tune:

What are we living for?

Two-roomed apartment on the second floor.

No money coming in,

The rent collector's knocking, trying to get in.

We are strictly second class,

We don't understand,

(Dead end!)

Why we should be on dead end street.

(Dead end!)

People are living on dead end street.

(Dead end!)

Gonna die on dead end street.

Strong words for a pop/rock tune but then Davies has always been that kind of songwriter when it comes to chronicling life in England.  And music - especially popular music - has always been a way to show the world how things really are - at least through the eyes of the songwriter.

Then there's this example of those in a dead-end life here in the good old USA - though admittedly an old example and indeed a fictional one

It does however represent the truth  even today. But the good news is being on a dead-end street isn't necessarily the end - merely a challenge that needs to be overcome. Heck - the Dead End Kids became the Bowery Boys so there's always hope.

I spent many  a Saturday afternoon at the Uptown Theater in Pueblo, Colorado watching the antics of the Bowery Boys - Slip, Satch and the gang.

Thats your quick shack take on this week's topic - which came to us via our pal Maxi in Florida.  Check out where the other LBC folks ended up on their Dead-End Streets.