Song des Tages: Trouble with the Computer

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(Skyhooks: "Trouble with the Computer", aus dem Album "Guilty until Proven Insane", 1978)



Went down to the bank to make a deposit yesterday.
The system just went haywire, began to overpay.
Ten too many zeros on my sixty dollars cash -
There I was like Howard Hughes, a tycoon in a flash.

Trouble with the computer, perhaps a faulty switch,
Maybe it just likes me and wants to make me rich ...

Gas bill came this morning - I was making toast -
I like the odd hot shower and sometimes Sunday roast.
But we'd all sell our houses and go and live in tents,
If the gas bill came to four grand and ninety seven cents.

Trouble with the computer, its memories gone blank,
Lucky I refused to pay, I've got myself to thank!
Trouble with the computer happens every day,
So much for brainpower - IBM is here to stay!

So if you take that plane to Sydney and end up in Taiwan,
The automatic pilot he's done something wrong.
If your ice cream tastes like tooth paste and a milk horse wins the race,
Computer's lost its logic and it's started to erase!

Trouble ... Trouble ... Trouble ... Trouble ...

Somewhere someday some smart guy will turn around and shout:
"Give me a pen and paper and I can work it out!"
But till then we are stuck with computers going wrong,
And if this verse sounds out of tune, well, a computer wrote this song!

Trouble with the computer - that's what the man said.
Some kind of random error, the light is glowin' red!
Trouble with the computer - the machine will not obey!
So much for brainpower - IBM is here to stay!

IBM is here to stay.

***

Die Skyhooks sind eine vollkommen zu unrecht vergessene Band der 70er Jahre aus Australien, die so manche Meilensteine der Rockmusik dieser Zeit geschaffen hat. Hierzulande dürfte insbesondere der Song "Women in Uniform" noch bekannt sein, der von Iron Maiden gecovert wurde (hier das Original). Der in Rede stehende Computer-Song ist ein schönes Beispiel für diese progressive Voraussicht - im Jahr 1979, als das Album erschien, besaß kein Haushalt einen Computer und es war allenfalls utopisch, sich dies auch nur vorzustellen.

Dass übliche Windows-Probleme schon so früh vorhergesagt wurden, grenzt schon fast an spirituelle Vorhersagen. ;-) Korrigierend müsste man vielleicht anmerken: "Microsoft and Apple are here to stay".