Mortgage on my life

"Ramble Tamble" is such a great rock song that I never bothered to look up the words until this morning. I mean, its purpose was to blow out your speakers, get the juices flowing and otherwise dive headlong into the best album Creedence Clearwater Revival ever delivered.

It's full-bore rock and roll for seven minutes, jangly guitars and John Fogerty shouts and all, wrapped around an extended slowed-down instrumental bit in which Fogerty wrung every inch of pathos out of his guitar. Who cared what he was shouting?

Got curious this morning after I clicked on the "Play" arrow to get my juices flowing. Googled "Ramble Tamble lyrics."

Move! Down the road I go. Move! Down the road I go.

There's mud in the water, roach in the cellar, bugs in the sugar, mortgage on the home, mortgage on the home.

There's garbage on the sidewalk, highways in the back yard, police on the corner, mortgage on the car, mortgage on the car.

Move! Down the road I go. Move! Down the road I go.

They're selling independence, actors in the White House, Acid indigestion, Mortgage on my life, mortgage on my life.

Move! Down the road I go. Move! Down the road I go - ramble tamble, ramble tamble, ramble tamble.

Now here's the thing: It's not great poetry, but the words fit the music perfectly. For 40 years I've been listening to this song, and the jangly guitars convey a pent-up frustration that needs to be released, a conviction that there has to be more to life than this. Now, I realize, that was the point.

Most men live lives of quiet desperation, the man said. Fogerty said the same thing in seven minutes of abandon. Ramble tamble, indeed.