First to fall over when the atmosphere
is less than perfect
Your sensibilities are shaken by the slightest defect
You live your life like a canary in a coalmine
You get so dizzy even walking in a straight line
You say you want to spend the winter in Firenza
You're so afraid to catch a dose of influenza
You live your life like a canary in a coalmine
You get so dizzy even walking in a straight line
Canary in a coalmine
Canary in a coalmine
Canary in a coalmine
Now if I tell you that you suffer from delusions
You pay your analyst to reach the same conclusions
You live your life like a canary in a coalmine
You get so dizzy even walking in a straight line
Canary in a coalmine
Canary in a coalmine
Canary in a coalmine
First to fall over when the atmosphere is less than perfect
Your sensibilities are shaken by the slightest defect
You live your life like a canary in a coalmine
You get so dizzy even walking in a straight line
Canary in a coalmine
Canary in a coalmine
Canary in a coalmine
Canary in a coalmine
Canary in a coalmine
Canary in a coalmine
Great Police song, from Zenyatta Mondatta (1980), ascribes the canary subject to indiviudal(s) who live their lives in extreme suspect, to everything, who live irrationally, based on fear, hegemony, an overexercised paranoid mental state, etc...in avoidance of problems, which are in themselves (or at least could be) grounds and material for growth, yes these subjects are suffering from heavy doses of inertia. A neurotic. A hypochondriac.
First stanza: subject described
Second stanza: subject described with issue of Body
Third stanza: subject described with issue of Mind (hegemony of professionals know best)
Fourth stanza: repeat of First
Based on canary as used for methane/carbon monoxide gas detection leaking into new tunnels in coalmines, canaries are extremely sensitive (crux of song) to these gases (gases as metaphor for the World). Canary in a coalmine is also used as a metaphor for early warning, warnings in general, so the subject is living its life as if everything is a warning for something destructive, and therefore cannot live a life stabilized.
Sounds like OCD to me.
