Are Steve Knightley’s lyrics as cynical as they appear or is he just reporting others? Certainly its true that to be successful you need to be single minded and ambitious. Suze Rotolo, Bob Dylan’s girlfriend in the early Sixties, says in her autobiography that he was ‘persistant’ – though she was talking about his behaviour towards her, implied it covered his career too. She also describes some pretty shitty and ruthless behaviour towards other artists. Cat Stevens sang, ‘Baby, baby, it’s a hard world – hard to get by just upon a smile.’ Which I guess is good advice. You need to work hard in any field, even to ‘get by’ but to really make it you have to be determined and make many sacrifices. Whether you need to be cruel I’m not sure. Though medieval kings usually were cruel and ruthless to gain and maintain power or didn’t last long. In the folk world most people I know, including the successful ones, are modest and friendly (including Steve, I believe) – but then there’s no big money in it. Commercial entertainment is full of rogues, big egos and rip-of merchants who perhaps see themselves as royalty.

Like most of Knightley’s songs, this has a great tune and very catchy chorus. Powerfully sung too, as always.

BE LUCKY – by Steve Knightly

I went out in the world I lived in London town
Though I knew that those streets weren’t paved with gold
I looked up to a man and he never let me down
But he said if you want your music sold you should

Be smart or lucky
If you can’t break the mould, break the rules
Make friends or money
But if you would be King be cruel

There is no clockwork in the stars
No-one cares how good you are
Look around the world is full
Of hungry souls who want it all
Space inside they have to fill
Friendship they’re prepared to kill
Hunger is their guiding light
They scratch they claw they push they fight
Just to be lucky
(Vote for me)

Now I’ve come so far
People ask for clues
Saying how have you found the peace you’ve earned
It was one night in a bar
A young man on the move asked me
What’s the one thing that you’ve learnt
And I said

Be smart or lucky
If you can’t break the mould, break the rules
Make friends or money
But if you would be King be cruel

How much do you want the prize
Will you freely sacrifice
Pride and your integrity
For fortune and celebrity
Break the rules
You’d better be cruel
Break the rules
Be lucky

(Show Of Hands) from ‘Country Life’ 2003