In 1965, the Vogues peaked at #4 on the billboard charts, with their after-work, yodeling-filled anthem, “Five O’Clock World”. The song sings of an overbearing job, that brings our narrator down, but only until the five o’clock whistle blows, freeing him to “ease his troubled mind”.
Here, Drew Carey offers his interpretation of the song in his 1990s hit sitcom, “The Drew Carey Show”:
After being in the hardcore, real life work force for almost 2 years now, and in discussion with friends facing similar torture, I can confidently say that there are a number truths in the Vogues freedom filled song.
There is also one big, fat ass lie slapped across that song like a dick across the face.
Work has a way of baring down on you, of vexing you, of causing high blood pressure, of costing you your finger nails, and leading to male pattern baldness at an incredibly young age, of giving you shingles. It can be tough, and with this point, I recognize the merit of the Vogues rhapsody.
But, I do take offense to one small, yet overwhelmingly important part of their song. I do not know what kind of fantasy land they live (perhaps they were pals with Walt Disney and called home just past Switzerland in the “It’s a Small World” attraction) where they seriously walked out of the office at 5 PM each afternoon. I have not left the office at 5 PM ever (well, I did today, but other than that, never. Ok, maybe from time to time, but not as frequently as I was led to believe).
How can one base a popular song on such a blaring lie? What skewed expectations does it instill in our youth (and I am not going to lie, it instilled in me)? It sets the youth up for disappointment.
And I do not agree with that.
There are three things I don’t agree with in this world: (1) Diet Dr. Pepper does not taste like regular Dr. Pepper. Don’t tell me it does, because it doesn’t. You wouldn’t try to sell me a crap sandwich and tell me it tastes like Pastrami (world’s greatest meat), so don’t do it to the world’s greatest soda, (2) South Dakota and North Dakota should not be separate states, neither produces all that much and even combined they barely cross the usefulness threshold. I know having 49 states would render many of flags and flag-owning individuals obsolete, so I propose annexing Canada, making it the new 50th, and badabing badaboom, we are good, and (3) filling popular songs with blaring lies or incorrect information to fulfill a chorus or catchy phrase (this is an on-going issue, and be prepared for a comprehensive list at a later time).
If you cannot turn to your pop stars for life lessons and inspiration guidance where are we supposed to look?