Mother's Little Helper -- Mick Jagger and Keith Richards

Guest poem submitted by Amit Chakrabarti, the
final one in his guest theme:

(Poem #933) Mother's Little Helper What a drag it is getting old! "Kids are different today," I hear ev'ry mother say Mother needs something today to calm her down. And though she's not really ill There's a little yellow pill She goes running for the shelter of a mother's little helper And it helps her on her way, gets her through her busy day. "Things are different today," I hear ev'ry mother say Cooking fresh food for a husband's just a drag. So she buys an instant cake And she burns her frozen steak And goes running for the shelter of a mother's little helper And two help her on her way, get her through her busy day. "Doctor please, some more of these!" Outside the door, she took four more. "Men just aren't the same today," I hear ev'ry mother say They just don't appreciate that you get tired. They're so hard to satisfy, You can tranquilize your mind So go running for the shelter of a mother's little helper And four help you through the night, help to minimize your plight. "Life's just much too hard today," I hear ev'ry mother say The pursuit of happiness just seems a bore. And if you take more of those You will get an overdose No more running for the shelter of a mother's little helper They just helped you on your way, through your busy dying day. -- Mick Jagger and Keith Richards

[Comments]

Whoa! Did you expect to see Jagger/Richards lyrics in this forum someday?
Well, why not? Tightness of form, good scansion, internal rhymes, plus
biting commentary on then-modern (i.e., 1960's) middle- class society...
it's all here. And the topic is original to boot. What other songs, or for
that matter, poems, do you know of about the sixties anti-depressant drug
craze? The craze has still not ended, afaik. There are any number of poems
and songs about drug addiction in general but this highlights not just one
(overlooked) kind of addiction but its association with basic middle class
boredom. If I were feeling lofty, I might have said "existential angst" but
I'm not, so I won't.

Anyway, this one almost needed to be written.

-Amit.

[Bio]

Mick Jagger and Keith Richards were the main songwriting force of the
British rock group "The Rolling Stones". Also, five times two equals ten.

[Links]

    http://www.therolling-stones.com/

[Notes]

The song is from the 1966 album "Aftermath". Unfortunately for the American
consumer, the album released under this name in the U.S. lacks this song.

[Sidenotes]

Here are two websites about those anti-depressant drugs (Prozac and its
relatives), if you want to learn more about the topic.
    [broken link] http://www.cchr.org/rape/mlh.htm
    http://www.breggin.com/minortranqs.html

[Administrivia]

Hey everybody, Sitaram's redesigned the Minstrels website! Check it out:
    http://www.cs.rice.edu/~ssiyer/minstrels/