Back

I was going to let this go, I really was. I had my exit strategy all mapped out, and the last post ever to appear on New Amusements was going to be Goodbye by The Sundays, on New Year's Eve. Everyone would think I was bidding farewell to 2021, there would be no "oh, don't go, carry on" response to a more obvious departure, and that would be it, my blogging days would be done. And since I'm probably kidding myself about the "carry on" response, I really could have made a French exit.

But here I am. Back at work today and back, it seems, to blogging. Why? Why indeed. I've got nothing new or interesting to write, so how come I'm still here? Well, it's simple, really: the community. The little corner of the blogosphere that we inhabit, all reading each other's posts. I enjoy that very much, and read everyone else's new stuff over breakfast, before I start my day's work. And I guess I just felt that I would be a fraud if I kept on doing that without keeping my half of the bargain, and posting myself. So here we are.

Back to work then. Only one song for that, isn't there? Covering this little ditty (for the B-side of Girlfriend in a Coma) contributed to the disintegration of The Smiths; in a 1992 interview for Record Collector, Johnny Marr said, "Work Is a Four Letter Word I hated. That was the last straw, really. I didn't form a group to perform Cilla Black songs. That was it, really. I made a decision that I was going to get away on holiday. The only place I could think of was L.A. L.A. was the only place I knew where there'd be sunshine, so off I went. I never saw Morrissey again."

He might not have liked covering it, but at least he improved on it...