Paul J Penton – Songwriter

Get yourself a trade, a wise parent said, you can always ‘fall back on it’, if things don’t work out – don’t work out? Impossible, my teenage movie ideal of the future is impenetrable, unbreakable, I am superman flying high the world beneath me ready to be scooped up and devoured like chocolate ice cream, but, just in case, you suggest I sign my  life over for four years, learn the tricks, get the groundwork the frame that my life might need to rest on later- what’s best? Plumbing. Electrical, Fitting and Turning, wood work? But what about all those boring hours in school and the learning of repetitive manual skills, crossing, sawing, wrapping. Something to fall back on- like a well placed sword in a battle – I want to get on with my life NOW! Can’t wait, toe taps a rythm from the latest pirate mega-download to my i-pod, yeah mum and dad have got cash to splash , don’t need to worry ’bout that, I’m here at home ’til I’m thirty-something- don’t need to worry ’bout buyin’ a house, or renting or money spent on buying food or clothes- its my ideal world, self sufficient. Dinners on the table when I get in from wandering living in my world making my contribution, by doing nothing, saving the planet by walking. I don’t want to think about the shackles, the manacles that I might be bound with if I become an apprentice, having to get up so early, going back to school having my head full of new rules, I don’t want to know, some old guy trying to teach me all he knows, useless, won’t make a difference. I just want my 15 seconds of fame, on MTV or youtube or something, somebody notice me! Then my life will be complete, yep that’d be sweet, no long hard slog thinking of tomorrows, or houses or mortgages, pluggin’ myself into the power grid of human experience, no none of these things for me, just floating free, dwelling on the edges. No Donald Trump telling me what to do no proving myself, no passing no tests- just give me my rightful fifteen minutes- . I know everything I need to know so please let’s just go and let me get on with my life, don’t let this work ‘thing’ interfere, there’s so many parties to get too, so many affairs to run, I got no time for being an apprentice – how dumb!