Surprise, Surprise, Surprise
Politicians in the 1990s
Welcome to new subscribers and regular readers! Thank you for joining me for today’s song, “Surprise, Surprise, Surprise” by John McCutcheon. If you’d like to hear the song before you read about it, I’ve included a YouTube video below the article.
Below, you’ll find my interpretation of the lyrics which are written in italics. For Japanese students, vocabulary words in bold are provided in Japanese below. TOEIC (PBT) 450+, Eiken 2, CEFR B1.
(1,038 words)
This song was written by John McCutcheon in the early 1990s. At the time:
• Iraq had sent soldiers into Kuwait, and the US and other countries moved in to expel the Iraqi forces.
• Apartheid ended in South Africa.
• The internet became available to the public.
• The Soviet Union collapsed, causing the end of the Cold War
• Yugoslav Wars begin, eventually resulting in over 100,000 deaths and the breakup of Yugoslavia into six independent countries.
Another event, which happens every four years in the U.S., was the presidential election. In 1992, the candidates were George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and Ross Perot. Bush was the incumbent, in other words, the president at the time.
The first verse describes Bush, Sr. His original platform was one that said he would protect the environment. In fact, he made laws stronger to reduce air pollution, promoted renewable energy and alternative fuels, and he signed the first global climate agreement. However, as the song points out, he also came from a long line of oil businessmen (making his first million dollars drilling for oil). As is most of the world understands, the use of fossil fuels is a major cause of the climate crisis we are now experiencing.
The candidate stood with his hand on his heart (this shows honesty and sincerity)
Let me make one thing perfectly clear from the start
There'll be changes coming, so long overdue
Here is the promise I am making to you:
That if to the White House I'm finally sent
I'll take the lead for the environment
Now he's a friend to the trees and the seas and the soil
Though he made his first million drillion for oil
The chorus is filled with irony. The songwriter is not at all surprised at the fact that what the elected leaders say they will do is not what they actually do.
Surprise, surprise, surprise
I just couldn't believe my eyes
I could hardly believe my ears
I never would have dreamt it in years
With our votes and our money, we trusted these guys
Believed in their vision, their passionate cries
And now we suspect they've been telling us lies
Well, surprise, surprise, surprise!
The second verse deals with how the Congress wanted to cut government spending. The people in the Congress don’t worry about making low wages. Some Americans did have to worry. They worked at jobs that didn’t pay enough, so they had to use government assistance (welfare) programs to get money for food for their families (food stamps). Some lawmakers said there were too many people trying to cheat the system, so they wanted to decrease the spending.
The Congress convenes to have at it again
To slash all the programs that don't affect them
Cut food stamps and welfare, "We'll weed out those cheats"
"It's time decent folks can go walking the streets”
In the U.S., before credit cards were in widespread use, people wrote checks for many things. The check meant that the money would be taken out of your bank account. But if the amount of the check was for more money than you had, the check “bounced”. The next few lines talk about how members of Congress didn’t pay the bills that they wrote checks for. In 1991, the House Banking Scandal was revealed. It was found that certain members of Congress had written 8,331 bad checks worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. The money came through a private congressional bank, not public money.
"There ain't no free lunch!" they will sternly espouse
Unless you're employed in the Senate or House
Now it seems they've discovered some mysterious powers
'Cause they're bouncing their own checks like they've always bounced ours
The next verse talks about the first Gulf War (1990-1991). As mentioned above, Iraq invaded Kuwait, and several countries formed a coalition (rallied the forces) to stop Saddam Hussein.
Their brand new world order they sing to the skies
But to the same old world questions it's the same old replies
All the lessons so hard won so quickly forgot
The bombs may be smart, but the leaders are not
So they rallied the forces and jumped in the fight
Forget Vietnam, this time do the thing right
First came the battle and then came the calm
The last line of this verse refers to chemical weapons that were developed and used by Hussein during the war between Iran-Iraq (1980-1988). There has long been a rumor that the U.S. sold some of the chemicals to him and even a legal case against several U.S. companies that helped him with the technology he needed.
Now with stuff that we sold him he's building a bomb
It's an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth This is a well-known expression that means a penalty should be given at the same level as the crime.
While the censors and CNN ration the truth
Now we all know they were telling us lies
What the media tells us is not the entire truth. There are only so minutes in a TV show, and only so many words in a newspaper column. It’s easy for the media to be very selective when presenting the news, and that means the audience doesn’t know the full story.
The seasons keep turning, the years roll away
Now a new crop of sweet talkers show up to say
This time it's different, this time we're real
We wouldn't kid you (joke with you), we know how you feel
Who's Bill Clinton sleeping with, what's the big fuss?
Here, the lyrics are talking about the scandal regarding President Clinton’s relationship with a woman (not his wife) who was working in his office.
It's the same thing that Ronnie and George did to us (President Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush)
We dig down deep for each dollar and dime
And they count on us trusting them just one more time
And just when you think you've seen everything once
They're right back again with a new batch of stunts
Trying to pull the wool over our eyes (means someone is trying to hide the truth or trick us into believing something that's not real.)
Surprise, surprise, surprise!
Question
• This article does not include all the information you may need to make a good judgement. How can we know whether a news article is true or false or simply does not tell the complete story?
• What other phrases in the song do you need to have more information about?
Vocabulary
expel 追放する
breakup 解散
incumbent 現職
platform 綱領
promote 推進する
candidate 候補者
overdue 期限切れ
irony 皮肉
passionate 情熱的
cheat カンニング(v.) カンニングをする人(n.)
convene 招集する
slash 減少する、減らす
food stamps 低所得者に発行される政府発行のクーポン券を食料と交換する。
welfare 生活保護
decent まともな
widespread 広範囲
sternly 厳しく
espouse 支持する
coalition 連合
censors 検閲
ration 配給
big fuss 大騒ぎ
dime $0.10
Sources
Environmental Protection Agency. (2024, November 12). EPA. https://www.epa.gov/clean-air-act-overview/clean-air-act-highlights-1990-amendments Accessed 10 March 2025.
Los Angeles Times. (1991, October 3). Congressmen’s bad checks create political liabilities : Ethics: Reports of abuse of the private bank maintained for House members generates a public outcry only a year before crucial elections. Los Angeles Times. https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1991-10-03-mn-4633-story.html Accessed 11 March 2025.
National Archives and Records Administration. (2004, July 14). National Archives and Records Administration. https://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2004/07/20040714-2.html Accessed 10 March 2025.
Oil men // how four generations of the Bush family found profit in Mideast Oil Connections. Tampa Bay Times. (2004, January 25). https://www.tampabay.com/archive/2004/01/25/oil-men-how-four-generations-of-the-bush-family-found-profit-in-mideast-oil-connections/ Accessed 10 March 2025.
The U.S. knew Iraq was using chemical weapons, helped out anyway | Smithsonian. (2013, August 26). https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/the-us-knew-iraq-was-using-chemical-weapons-helped-out-anyway-1792375/ Accessed 12 March 2025.
Victims say U.S. firms sold Saddam material for poison gas. Courthouse News Service. (2009, April 10). https://www.courthousenews.com/victims-say-u-s-firms-sold-saddam-material-for-poison-gas/ Accessed 10 March 2025.
Photos from Wikimedia Commons, public domain
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