Saw it on the tube/Bought it on the phone/Now you’re home alone/It’s a piece of crap.”
Dr. Strangelove quoted this lyric from the song “Piece of Crap” by Neil Young to help explain the concept of “buyer’s remorse.” It comes from Young’s 1994 album, Sleeps With Angels. Buyer’s remorse is the feeling of seeing something that looks so good that you feel you have to have it, but when it’s no longer in the shiny display, and it’s just sitting in your house with you, you realize that you could have done without it.
Neil Young
This is an easy feeling to relate to. Most people have felt it. A very common example is a child in a toy store who, in awe of all the toys, develops a strong desire to have all of them. Some parents give in, and their basements begin to fill with piece of crap toys that the kids hardly play with.
Most parents probably do try to teach their kids that they don’t need every toy. But a lot of parents fall victim to the same thing when they are buying toys for themselves. Each time it happens there is the inevitable promise not to do something that stupid again, but it keeps happening. Why don’t people learn from that feeling?
Buying things gives people a feeling of instant gratification, but it wears off quickly, and you’re usually left with a piece of crap.
The worship of consumption
Another point to be made is about Neil Young in general. A song like this is a statement against overconsumption of useless crap. This is clearly a man who believes in the honest work of the common man. Look at these lyrics from the song “Ordinary people:”
Ordinary people/They’re gonna bring the good things back/Hard working people/Put the business back on track/All kinds of people/I got faith in the regular kind.”
But Neil Young is a complicated man. Full of contradictions. While advocating against overconsumption, he is a part owner of Lionel trains. He’s made millions from the music industry, and he endorsed Ronald Reagan in 1980. How can these seemingly opposing points of view be reconciled? Well, like another great man named Walt Whitman once said:
Do I contradict myself?
Very well then I contradict myself,
(I am large, I contain multitudes.)”
Maybe the same can be said for Neil Young.
