I Have No Expectations – Blind Uncle Harry (reviewed by Dave Franklin)

If the likes of Woody Guthrie, Bob Dylan, and Curtis Mayfield set the tone for the protest singer across three crucial decades, such a style seemed to go out of fashion for a while, with the exception of the brief explosion that was punk. Still, no one could work out, least of all the perpetrators, what they were protesting about most of the time. It’s not as if the world suddenly became a utopia and everything was all candyfloss and cuddly toys…not with the Western world under the grip of Reaganism/Thatcherism!

So, having someone such as Blind Uncle Harry as a thorn in the side of modern music, and indeed modern society, is a joy in itself—a sort of cross between His Bobness himself, Joe Strummer from the Clash, and that guy who sits in the park shouting at pigeons!

I Have No Expectations is the sound of someone who understands that no matter how much we rattle our sabres or show our disapproval, the powers that be are unlikely to pay us much heed. But, it is our tax-paying, free speech-loving thorn in their side, right for us to keep shouting abuse at them anyway.

But the more our favorite Uncle resigns himself to the idea that things may never change, the more we collectively think, well, if there were enough of us, then they would have to listen, wouldn’t they? And that is the whole point of the song, I guess. Tell people things can’t change, and the more they will want them to.

Either that or its all just a happy accident, but the message is the same either way, but I think that young Harold knows what he is doing. Never trust a hippie…they are smarter than you think!