Sunday Music: We’re Definitely Going To Hell, But We’ll Have All The Best Stories To Tell

Frank Turner’s “The Ballad of Me and My Friends” is an ode to the people around the music scene that aren’t quite making it but refuse to give up. Whether you’ve lived this or not, anyone who’s stuck with something out of love can relate to these lyrics. There’s a point where you can (at least partially) let go of the big dream and accept the process as what brings meaning to your life. From there, the chips fall where the chips fall. It’s an adventure. And, in the most stoic of senses, we can accept our fate and relish in the stories, good and bad, we’ve picked up along the way. The surest way to really live is to live for something we really love.

Everybody’s got themselves a planAnd everybody thinks they’ll be the man, including the girlsThe musicians who lack the friends to form a band are singer-songwritersThe rest of us are DJ’s or official club photographersAnd tonight I’m playing another Nambucca showSo I’m going through my phonebook, texting everyone I knowAnd quite a few I don’t, whose numbers found their way into my phoneBut they might come along anyway, you never really know

None of this is going anywherePretty soon we’ll all be oldAnd no one left alive will really careAbout our glory days, when we sold our souls

But if you’re all about the destination, then take a fucking flightWe’re going nowhere slowly, but we’re seeing all the sightsAnd we’re definitely going to hellBut we’ll have all the best stories to tellYes, I am definitely going to hellBut, I’ll have all the best stories to tell

The version I first fell in love with:

One for the visual live experience (that’s how you sing along):

And the version NOFX did on their split covers album with Frank Turner that put it back into my head: