I vacillate between Roger Waters' "if I had my way I'd have you all shot" and Radiohead's "when I am King you will be first against the wall" when I daydream of total world domination and the bright side of despotism.  Pink Floyd's The Wall has some fantastic musical moments, but it bogs down a bit on the second disc when it becomes a bit too carnival for me. 

Few of us will admit the number of times throughout the day we think some derivation of "Things would go much better if people would just do things my way."  We rage when some idiot gets in our lane and puts 20 seconds between us and our morning coffee, as if that person might not have somewhere just as important to be or might not want their coffee as much as we do ours.  We bitch when our boss wants us to change the cover on our TMP reports, as if the other cover of a report no one reads was any better.  We argue that we should be eating pizza tonight rather than tacos, as if there's some sort of moral imperative.  Put another the way, "the world would swing when I am king." 

We all have our little delusions of grandeur to help us get through the moments that make up the dull day.  We all have our little fantasies that help us overcome the outrage of being overruled, inconvenienced, or simply ignored yet again.  It's how we deal with the indignities of life that seem so important at the time only to be soon forgotten.  When I'm stuck in that moment, I sometimes hear Thom Yorke singing "When I am king you will be first against the wall" and I laugh because I bet Tom Petty is right: "It's good to be king, if just for awhile."

Article Author: Josh Hathaway

Josh Hathaway is a Sr. Music Editor for Blogcritics.

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