Working Class Hero

Working Class Hero, by Marianne Faithfull is by far one of the most powerful songs to have ever been produced. Upon listening to the lyrics it was self evident as to why they enabled me to hold my head up after decades of severe bullying. From opening lines in the first verse “As soon as your born, they make you feel small, By giving you no time instead of it all. Till the pain is so big you feel nothing at all.” This song is a life life to anyone who has been downtrodden, ridiculed and bullied, in school, college, your place of work, it happens everywhere and can happen to anyone. Before I stumbled across the Broken English album, I was broken, almost completely deflated and felt I had fight left. I was subjected to daily ridicule, consisting of everything from being taunted from the beginning to the end of my day, I must point out this started when I was 7 years of age. The taunts would range from name calling to black eyes and broken ribs.
In the verse “ They hurt you at home and they hit you at school, They hate you if you're clever and they despise a fool Till you're so fucking crazy you can't follow their rules“ I didn’t know where to turn, who I could ask for help, and as such who could I trust. The ‘ring-leader’ of the Bullard was my brother. It started from the minute I woke up, and rarely stopped until he thought I was sleeping. (We used to share a bedroom back then. My teachers were, I see now, were useless, the situation at home was turbulent and our mom really did try her best. Every thing I tried to make it stop simply made it worse

“When they've tortured and scared you for twenty odd years And then they expect you to pick a career, But you really can't function, you're so full of fear, fear”

I left school with no qualifications, any aptitude or desire I had for education and learning was quite literally punched, kicked and beaten out of me.

For anyone who’s been through this on any level, these lyrics eventually showed me I was never insignificant, useless or anything of the like as I’d been lead to believe.

I found this track in 1991, when I was 17. I’m now 42 and about to start a Bn in paediatric nursing at Edinburgh Napier University, bullies have only the strength we allow them. This track is a life long addition to my life’s soundtrack. Thank you Marianne Faithfull

Forgive my rant. If just one other person is to come across this and hopefully find some help or strength in my words, I’ll know it wasn’t a fruitless task. Thanks for reading. Feel free respond. Kyle.