The first tune was Marillion's Garden Party, which is especially interesting because I probably haven't listened to it for nearly a year. It started looping in the back of my head after a thoroughly enjoyable two hour conversation I had over the telephone with a customer yesterday morning. I deal with mortgages, and by the end of a call I may know more about them that members of their own family. The woman I was talking to was very open, engaging and funny, and we had a lot in common.
Garden Party is about societal conventions and the need to keep up appearances getting in the way of direct, warm human contact. The song describes "posers," and "smiles polluted with false charm" in its depiction of the aristocracy at play, juxtaposed against catchy Genesis-style prog rock. If I were to make a link between song and situation (considerably the one sprang to mind within minutes of the other), I would say that something in me was commenting on the stale call-centre etiquette and the barriers that the working environment puts up between the company and the customer, and how this arrangement rarely suits either party.
I'm going to have to refine this exercise, because yesterday I just wrote down the song itself, without noting down my state of mind. When I came to look at the list today, I can't honestly remember what the context was. More to come. |
