So It Goes

Great, great song and one of my favorites on A Northern Soul. To me this song is really a look at life from an introspective reflection. It's about someone who wants a change in their lives, but doesn't want to go out and force it. The real curveball in this song comes during the last part about drinking away the memory of his wife; it's a neat part. Awesome song really.

great ballad. it's... amazing.

As a buddhist, this is a modern-telling of the noble truths.

I got told it was:

I'M JUST A POOR LITTLE wifeless fella Another drink and I won't miss her

Great song for a drunken wallow... ;)

Anyone read Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut?

Vonnegut's ubiquitous theme of the everyman within an indifferent universe is central to this song, I think. I'll leave it at that.

Vonnegut's book doesn't have much in common with this song. Richard Ashcroft references it though with the phrase 'so it goes'. Vonnegut quite annoyingly and ballistically uses this phrase every time he touches on the subject of death in slaughterhouse 5. Way to knock a tack in with a sledgehammer Kurt.... Ashcroft on the other hand deals much more with understatement. He isn't at all tempted to 'explain the punchline' over and over.