“Ambition is a dream with a V8 engine,” said Elvis Presley, whose motor roared into action with as much thrust as any famous figure in music’s history. But once on the road, ambitions can change, and where the King was concerned, this came around 1960 when, until his incredible ’68 comeback concert, he spent most of the decade making 27 fairly rubbish films instead of fulfilling his original dream of musical greatness. His ambition wavered. A typical plot of one of these movies consisted of the following motivation: “Girl A likes me, and so does Girl B. Which one do I choose on this endless holiday in Hawaii? I dunno, uh huh. Guys, in the meantime, let’s sing around 13 songs …”
When I was young I too had significant ambitions. First? To get a Chopper bike. Then? To get a skateboard. And before either of these, to become a fireman, or failing that, an astronaut. Sadly, none of these things ever came about, not even, surprisingly, the astronaut. At least my ambitions were realistic. The kids from Fame sang: “I want to live live for ever, I want to learn how to fly.” Get real. Well I’m with teacher on that. “Fame costs, and right here’s where you start paying. In sweat.”
This week, however, I had the ambition to choose a topic for this week’s Readers Recommend. I was inspired, initially, by a documentary a couple of weeks ago on BBC4 - Biggest Band Break Ups and Make Ups. Bingo! An instant idea for for RR – songs about breakups and makeups. But unfortunately the documentary covered much old ground, and so too had such a topic, in older editions of RR.
And so my mind wandered. It then wondered about the film 1983 film Flashdance, in which Jennifer Beals plays Alex, who works as a welder by day, but is an “exotic dancer” by night, with loftier ideas to leap higher in life. I imagined, thinking about BBC documentary, what if the film had been about a man who smashed rocks in a quarry for a living, but by night dressed up as a cabaret singer in drag? Now that really would be breakups and makeup. But in Flashdance, Alex’s friend Jeannie is a waitress who aspires to be a figure skater, and Jeannie’s boyfriend is a burger chef who wants to be a standup comedian. So funnily enough, I realised that the film was really about hopes, dreams and ambitions, a far better topic and one so many songs that can be nominated this week. After all, what’s at the core of every song, but the ambition to be heard?
Ambition does all kinds of things to us. It certainly did something to comedian Robert Webb of Peep Show fame. So let’s put together, in the special lively Readers Recommend bar, a party of differently ambitious people, and see what they have to say on the subject to may help inspire your song choices. Bob Dylan drawls an obtuse opener about defying conventional aims with the point that “you have to suppress your own ambitions in order to be who you need to be”. How did he become a poet? Step away from from yourself … to know it. What has Lady Gaga got to say? “I had this dream, and I really wanted to be a star. And I was almost a monster in the way that I was really fearless with my ambitions.” Both monstrous and wondrous in those costumes, Lady G. But ambition is often about facing your fears, hardening your hopes and focusing your dreams into actions.
One true poet who fought fears in a far more profound and serious way was the first world war’s great and tragic Wilfred Owen, who in a rather understated, stiff-upper lip way, puts it that “ambition may be defined as the willingness to receive any number of hits on the nose”. Ambition, therfore, is also the school of very hard knocks, and your suggested songs may, in their lyrics, talk about how toughness and tenacity are necessary overcome difficulty and fulfil your dreams, not only because others may stop you, but also because you can’t rely on the a harsh and indifferent and world to help. As astronomer Carl Sagan says: “The universe is not required to be in perfect harmony with human ambition.” Novelist John Steinbeck would certainly agree, and adds the unassailable truth that “time is the only critic without ambition”.
Can you have ambitions that aren’t for yourself? Yes indeed, genuinely, for your loved ones, your community, perhaps even your country. But can you believe politicians who have such aspirations? That’s something many of us are wrestling with in the forthcoming UK general election. George W Bush is suddenly in the house and has something to say about his administration: “We have no desire to dominate, no ambitions of empire. Our aim is a democratic peace – a peace founded upon the dignity and rights of every man and woman.” Well, George, some might argue otherwise.
Ambition can achieve great things, but it can also go horribly wrong. Shakespeare’s Macbeth learned the hard way, and his plans become a sort of self-somersaulting madness - “Vaulting ambition which o’er leaps itself/And falls on th’other.” But let us finally turn to that other profound and tragic cultural icon Bono, who exclaims his own line on the subject, perhaps in the style of his line in Do They Know It’s Christmas?: “It’s stasis that kills you off in the end, not ambition.” That may be true, but perhaps what really finally kills you off is giving away your new album on Apple iTunes at an embarrassing launch event on the assumption that everyone wants to hear it.
So then, just as a seed aspires to push up paving stones, or as my cat will do anything to get fed, or as so many young people dream to be a pop star, unleash your own ambitions to nominate as many songs as possible on this life-affirming topic. This week’s guiding hand on the road to success is the meticulous magicman, who will decide what will make it to the top in a list published next Thursday 30 April, with nominations closing time at 11pm on Monday 27 April. So let’s make your dreams come true. Or at least entertain, a bit.
To increase the likelihood of your nomination being considered, please:
• Tell us why it’s a worthy contender.
• Quote lyrics if helpful, but for copyright reasons no more than a third of a song’s words.
• Provide a link to the song. We prefer Muzu or YouTube, but Spotify, SoundCloud or Grooveshark are fine.
• Listen to others people’s suggestions and add yours to a collaborative Spotify playlist.
• If you have a good theme for Readers recommend, or if you’d like to volunteer to compile a playlist, please email peter.kimpton@theguardian.com
• There’s a wealth of data on RR, including the songs that are “zedded”, at the Marconium. It also tells you the meaning of “zedded”, “donds” and other strange words used by RR regulars.
• Many RR regulars also congregate at the ‘Spill blog.
