Song 545: This week the playlist recognizes Five O'clock World by The Vogues, written by Allen Reynolds, and you can find a YouTube video of it by clicking on the title. For the opening week of 2021, I figured this hit deserved to get added to the list. When it first appeared around the time 1965 turned into 1966, it didn't show up on my radar - if I did hear it, I did not remember it. However, a few years later, the woman I hooked up with in the early 1970s soon shared it with me - it was one of her favorites, and she quickly turned it into one of mine as well. The lyrics perfectly embody the working person's daily difficulties and inherent conflicts, as they occur during more conventional times. Even in the era when this cut rode the charts, despite a booming economy and greater overall economic resilience, workers still often struggled to make it through the day, and in the six decades that have followed, things have generally gotten harder for the majority of employees, as the US ruling class elites have moved increasing piles of wealth from the bottom half to the top 1 percent. Then the pandemic situation unfolded in 2020, and now, for most workers, a return to the Five O'clock World seems at this point like it would make 2021 a better year than the last one - it would be nice to know the reason someone can still go on when every other reason is gone.
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