Let's take a ride and see what's mine

I haven't done one of these for years, but apparently they're considered quite old-fashioned now so it feels like it's my time again. Here then is my fourth World Cup blog.

I often used to take my blog titles from songs, and so it was for all the World Cup ones. In 2006 the World Cup was in Germany so I chose First We Take Manhattan because the next line in the song is Then we take Berlin. In the event England did not in fact take Berlin, which taught me a valuable lesson about hostages to fortune.

In 2010 it was in South Africa so I went for Hope Joanna, the Joanna in the Eddie Grant song being Johannesburg. It was recorded when apartheid was still in place, and was about the hope that it could be defeated. Obviously by 2010 it had been, and the Iron Curtain was a thing of the past as well, but equally obviously a whole new crock of shit had sprung up to replace the old crock of shit that we'd grown up with and thought would last for ever. Looking back, I seem to remember I wanted to express the idea that while crocks of shit seemed to be persistent, so did hope.

How times change. It was a shit World Cup as well. At least we saw off the vuvuzela though. Not a massive deal in comparison with Putin or Netanyahu, but sometimes small victories are all you have.

2014 was the year of Brazil, in terms of hosting at least (their 7-1 semifinal defeat by Germany remains one of my most vivid tournament memories), which led me to Take Me on a Roller Coaster, a line from the Roxy Music song Virginia Plain which also contained the line We are flying down to Rio. This was a bit tenuous if I'm honest, but I liked it because it seemed to sum up the way a World Cup feels.

I'm thinking of course of the World Cup roller coaster we all get taken on every time. England qualify with style and confidence, the days lengthen and we all cheer up a bit, and then the football starts. This is normally the very top of the climb, quickly followed by a vertiginous plunge into the real world of actual England performance. Usually we limp through to the knockout stage, then we play someone who knows how to take a penalty better than we do(which is everyone), and that's that for the first phase.

 After a couple of days we cheer up, remember there is life after England and settle in to enjoy the rest of the tournament. The final plunge comes the day after the final. It's Monday morning, Saint Swithin has set the weather for the next six weeks and the next World Cup is as far away as it can possibly be. Even now I can barely stand to think about it. So let's not, let's just focus on the fact that as I type we have the whole of this World Cup to look forward to.

I've struggled for a blog name this time, though. The problem is I'm a bit spoilt for choice lyrically what with most of the games being in the US, a country that occasionally comes up in song. You might think this would make it easier, but in fact it's like being at a beer festival and feeling so overwhelmed by the hundreds of options that it somehow becomes impossible to actually choose and you have to just point at a tap at random and say 'that one'. I looked through Google's top songs for the Ramones, the Dead Kennedys, Johnny Cash, and found nothing. I tried songs with America in the name, but apart from anything it seemed unfair to Mexico and Canada. At one point I got so cross I nearly went for Fuck You I Won't Do What You Tell Me, but beyond the teenage thrill of saying fuck to the world I couldn't  think of a reason why.

In the end I went for Iggy, and a line from The Passenger. In a country that seems split into two distinct halves he's kind of a cheerleader for the less feral end, plus it's just such a brilliant track. It's hard to believe it came out of a country where they make schoolchildren salute the flag, but I guess you can find hope in the most unlikely places.

I don't think many of us would be picking the US as our go-to place for hope right now, though. It amazes me when I think that after Russia then Qatar this was supposed to be the World Cup that wasn't for war criminals. Not that the world felt especially safe back then either, but we might at least have thought we'd be OK booking a trip to go and watch it in Greenland.

Never mind though. However we may feel about the context there is at least a World Cup on, so compared to all the times when the orange buffoon is strutting his stuff and there isn't a World Cup on things are looking up. Apparently I even feel like writing about it, which would have astonished me when it was cold and the World Cup was half a lifetime away. 

Let's make the most of this special time then. The next post will tell you what you can expect.

PS this blog is dedicated to my dear friend Laz, who died earlier this year. Thanks Jon, it's just what I always wanted is one of the many things he wouldn't have said about it. We would have had fun watching the England games, Laz. Miss you.