EXPLANATORY NOTE -SWEARING AT THE TELLY

The name of this blog comes from a song by Alan Klein. Some of the lyrics go like this -

Dad's gone down the dogtrack, Mother's playin' bingo
Grandad's swearin' at the telly, tryin' to make the thing go
No one seems to notice me, isn't it a sin
What a crazy world we're livin' in.
...
Oh, Dad's gone down the dogtrack, Mother's playin' bingo
Grannie's boozin' in the parlour, you oughta see the gin go
No one seems to notice me, isn't it a sin
What a crazy world we're livin' in.

I remembered the words differently -
Grandad's swearin' at the telly, you should hear the lingo
- conflating two different lines.

I thought the words fitted; me talking back to newsreaders and politicians as if the telly would transmit my words to them:
"Lying twat!"
"Mealy-mouthed bastard!"

Sometimes you just can't hold back.
As my abuse was (is) heard by no-one but my disapproving missus it really was a wasted effort. To a certain extent so is this blog, but I don't care. I've described my efforts as being like that of a demented dosser hurling obscenities at passing traffic, and being studiously ignored by everyone within earshot.
But it's therapeutic.

Now to Alan Klein.
He once stated that he only wrote lyrics about the life he knew, about his own surroundings. Songs like "The Layabout's Lament", and "Crazy World" appear to bear this out. There are other songs that could be described as satirical. His "Going to Bluesville" sounds like a piss-take of the Rolling Sones, then there's his dig at the protest song phase, based on the Barry Maguire money-spinner, "Eve of Destruction".
Alan K.'s career, like so many others, didn't fare well in the aftermath of 'Beatlemania', but he soldiered on as a songwriter and occasional singer and recording artist. A great deal of information on him and on his work can be found here.