Peter Kimpton 

Readers recommend: songs about sharp objects

Look sharp! Thorns to swords, needles to pins, scissors to syringes, this week your song choices will have a cutting-edge theme, says Peter Kimpton
  
  

Sharp objects: The House of Flying Daggers
Do you get the point? The House of Flying Daggers (2004). Photograph: Sony Pics/Everett/Rex Features Photograph: Sony Pics/Everett/Rex Featur

I remember it so vividly, staring at it day by day as I passed the shop window. That distinctive red box and shiny casing, the glistening steel innards, neatly folded away, and the timeless, white cross logo. It took me almost four months of paper rounds and pocket money to save up. And then that exciting Saturday morning finally arrived. The shopkeeper waited patiently at the counter as I laid out a pile of 50p and 10 pieces, and then, suddenly, presented in a brown paper bag, it was all mine. A transition into manhood was made. I was nine years old and was the proud owner of a 15-function genuine Swiss Army penknife. It is still a prized possession. And far more special, even than mine, the penknife belonging to the great Isambard Kingdom Brunel, with initials, can be currently be seen at an exhibition at the SS Great Britain in Bristol.

Sharp recollections will come readily into play this week with this theme, particularly because there is something very powerful about any object or idea that has a cutting edge. For centuries men carried around swords and daggers. They were a symbol and a tool of manhood, sheathed or drawn, of family, of identity, of skill, sexual potency, power, aggression, defence, and honour. Now we carry around mobile phones. A strong expression of a sword’s power and symbolism comes in Game of Thrones, when Tywin Lannister takes the Valyrian steel sword – named Ice – of his executed rival Ned Stark and melts it down into two swords for his own family. What an utterly ruthless bastard.

Game of Thrones - Ned Stark’s sword is melted into two new blades by Tywin Lannister

What is it about sharp objects? They are beautiful but also deadly. They can pierce the skin, as well as the mind. They remind us that we are physically and emotionally fragile. So we are not just talking about knives or the flashing blades of swords, axes, daggers (and, if you insist, light sabres), but also thorns, other jagged edges in natural objects on rocks or animal spines, but also tools that can heal or mend as well as harm – pins, needles, syringes, surgical instruments or scissors. Any lyrics that also use such references as a metaphor are equally valid.

But as you may know by now, I don’t like to get too serious on RR, so let us play out with a bit a gentlemanly parody of swordsmanship, a touch of Douglas Fairbanks crossed with Errol Flynn. It’s the Princess Bride, directed by Rob Reiner, the man who made This is Spinal Tap. Sheer genius. I need say no more except this: My name is Inigo Montoya. Prepare to die!

Rapier wit? The Princess Bride

So then, sharp-witted readers, place your songs in the safety box provided below in comments (and Spotify too if you wish) where man of steel swawlig will don the guru gloves for the first time and handle them with care and consideration. Nominations need to be in by last orders on Monday 1 September at 11pm BST for swawlig’s list to be burnished on this site by Thursday 4 September. On guard!

Place your nominations carefully in the sharp objects songs Spotify list
 

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