ON ANY OTHER DAY
From The Police 'Reggatta De Blanc' album (1979)
Stewart's irony
I would like to make some considerations about Stewart’s wit.
I guess you all have visited the interviews page, so you have certainly realized what a brilliant and sometimes funny speaker Stewart is. He is no doubt a man of great wit and this is recognizable, of course, in his songs too. Let’s examine some of them.
In most of the songs written by Stewart for The Police his irony leaps out at the listener. Irony, however, gives a double meaning to the words or the statements uttered because the speaker who uses it is thinking of a double audience: the people who will immediately understand the real meaning of the message and the ones who will misunderstand it. The speaker employs a sort of “double talk” because s/he relies not only on the target’s linguistic competences, but above all on a shared patrimony of knowledge.
The two songs written by Stewart for Reggatta De Blanc deal with a man’s daily problems. Both On Any Other Day and Does Everyone Stare are in first person narrative, with a large use of descriptive language, which helps the listener to imagine the situation:
[spoken: The other ones are complete bullshit]
D’ya want something corny?
You got it.
There's a house on my street
And it looks real neat
I'm the chap who lives in it
There's a tree on the sidewalk
There's a car by the door
I'll go for a drive in it
And when the wombat comes
He will find me gone
He'll look for a place to sit
My wife has burned the scrambled eggs
The dog just bit my leg
My teenage daughter ran away
My fine young son has turned out gay
Cut off my fingers in the
Door of my car
How could I do it?
My wife is proud to tell me
Of her love affairs
How could she do this to me?
My wife has burned the scrambled eggs
The dog just bit my leg
My teenage daughter ran away
My fine young son has turned out gay
And it would be O.K. on any other day
And it would be O.K. on any other day
Throw down the morning papers
And spill my tea
I don't know what's wrong with me
The cups and plates are in a
Conspiracy
I'm covered in misery
My wife has burned the scrambled eggs
The dog just bit my leg
My teenage daughter ran away
My fine young son has turned out gay
And it would be O.K. on any other day
And it would be O.K. on any other day
The funny thing is that all the poor man’s misfortune happens on the day he should be happier than ever: his birthday! Near the end of the song, in fact, you can hear what sounds like distorted* high-pitched voices in the background singing “Happy Birthday, dear daddy! Happy birthday to you!”
In addition, to all the fans curious about the hidden meaning of the verse “And when the wombat comes…” I’ll reveal what Stewart himself told me: “Absolutely nothing! You know, just like Paul McCartney’s ‘Scrambled eggs …’ as the original lyrics of Yesterday. But I was not Paul McCartney!”
*Interestingly, also the tune of “Happy Birthday” has been changed a bit on the recording. This is probably due to reason of copyright on the well-known song. As mentioned by Stewart in his movie “Everyone Stares: The Police Inside Out” when remembering with Andy the birthday he had during the recording of Zenyatta, it is owned by “two little old ladies” and it’s impossible to use the song in any official recording without paying a huge royalty.
(Thank you Chris from Canada for your suggestion! – Paola)