Bauhaus was an especially dark band with a view towards spontaneity. In fact, the album, The Sky’s Gone Out, has been said to be mostly improvisation. One track in particular has been a constant favourite of mine. “All We Ever Wanted Was Everything” is quite a short song in contrast to its long title. It’s like a three-minute melancholy sigh.
“All we ever wanted /was everything,/all we ever got/was coal. / Get up./Eat jelly,/sandwich bars and barbed wire./Squash every week into a day.”
It occurred to me several days ago that this could be a nice commentary on our current environment. We are so overloaded with consumerism it’s pathetic. One can’t go five minutes (perhaps even less. Most likely, even less) without being advertised to. It seems that every waking moment someone is trying to get us to buy something. The concept litters our every waking moment. Everything from signs to TV, anything computer related, radio, magazines, etc. I have nothing against business and selling but it has seemed like we have hit our crescendo. This is why every so often I declare for myself a no electronic day. It doesn’t happen very often but once in a while we all need to clean our attic.
The relevance of this song is mostly in the first line. By desiring so much, whatever we get seems like nothing in the end. The end goal of advertising is to keep you buying. In some respects, this is okay. But as it has progressed, it becomes less about selling a quality product one can be proud of and more about keeping us all buying so someone can line their pockets. Woe to those who complain. In 2001, our own president said that the best way to fight the terrorists is to get out and shop. Capitalism has been equated with democracy. They are not the same thing. Capitalism is an economic system, of which there are many. It is not a form of government.
I have nothing against capitalism except when it is without restraints. When you have a choice of two brands it ceases to become a real choice. They run the game, there is no competition. It is hard to discern sometimes because two companies can have several subsidiary flags to fly. They look like different brands but they are run by the same two companies. This is why we have antitrust laws. Unfortunately, these have been weakened . . . but . . . I digress.
With all the stuff you consume, after the initial allure has died you feel empty. Then the next thing comes along but the satisfaction is never lasting. Life becomes one long empty cycle and time gets shrunk. With our concept of work and play we feel we need to be either running around or hypnotized by TV or the web. Thus, every week is squashed into a day.
The second half of the song addresses our aspiring to the high (or impossibly shallow) standards our media insists we keep up. “Oh, to be the cream!” Bauhaus had been a band of anger and frustration but also rising above such things. They were an interesting collective doomed to not last very long. Their time, however, I think was well spent. If you are not familiar with them or this song, I encourage you to check them out on YouTube (that wonderful engine of discovery, despite the commercials. Ah, the price of existence!). 😉