ROCK AT NIGHT PREMIERE – WEIMAR’s “The Sociopath” – Worldwide release on May 26, 2023

“The Sociopath” is the latest track from Weimar’s album Dancing On A Volcano to get the video treatment, as part of the ongoing project to make the whole album available in video form. A Brechtian number with a Latino cabaret sound, “The Sociopath” features a special guest appearance on trumpet and flugelhorn from Bob Dinn, a seasoned brass player who has previously performed with Paul Heaton and Jacqui Abbot of The Beautiful South fame.

Clockwise from top: Aidan Cross, Stephen Sarsen, John Armstrong, Anthony ‘Eddy’ Edwards

The song is a sardonic look at the nature of sociopathy and its functioning within society. Despite the retro vibe to the music, the lyrics are sharply relevant to present-day culture, in a society which, in the age of social media, selfie sticks, Artificial Intelligence and Reality TV, is being increasingly engineered to enable those with sociopathic personality traits to prevail over others. The song’s narrator, exasperated at constantly losing in life to someone with such malignant traits, concludes the song by musing cynically as to whether he would be better off simply adopting the ways of the sociopath himself.

The video, presented in black and white and drawing on the style of 1920s Weimar cabaret and German Expressionist films, takes the viewer on an excursion into the world of the sociopath and his rivals, as a plethora of gangsters, dandy gentlemen, shady businessmen, stage magicians and conmen populate gambling dens and cabaret bars, competing for wealth, sex and power in a world where honesty is a vice and fraud and deception are the only way to get ahead.

ROCK AT NIGHT EXCLUSIVE VIDEO PREMIERE

WEIMAR’s “The Sociopath”

The Sociopath

I don’t like you but the whole world loves you
My vision seems to be skewed
They sing your praises, endorse your charm
But I’m just repelled by you
My brain is in disarray, my sanity cannot last
In the counterintuitive world of the sociopath

They celebrate you, the salt of the Earth
They kiss the ground at your feet
I cannot seem to conceal my revulsion
It’s hard to be discreet
Irrationality knows no bounds
My thoughts are a mish-mash
In the counterintuitive world of the sociopath

What do you play with?
Imagination
What is it saving?
Your reputation
As you herd the sheep the flock will follow
And they march blindly on like there’s no tomorrow

They see the second coming of Jesus, I just see a scam
If I force myself to like you my sanctity is damned
Where actions seem to speak for themselves but reactions are mismatched
We’re in the counterintuitive world of the sociopath

Where criticism is silenced, opposition is stoned
“The Emperor’s got no clothes on!”
He sits happily on his throne
We’ve got to keep the walls standing, his ego can’t collapse
And threaten the counterintuitive world of the sociopath

What do you play with?
Imagination
What is it saving?
Your reputation
As you herd the sheep the flock will follow
And then they fall in line time after time like there’s no tomorrow

My friends and acquaintances one by one keep falling for your act
In my singular minority I will not join the pact
How do I remain neutral and not proclaim myself a polymath?
I’m thinking life seems so much easier for the sociopath
Tell them the moon is made of cheese, they’ll gladly believe the lie
How can it be so easy for the spider to lure the fly?
In order to get by smoothly and not be Devil’s Advocate
I’d say to Hell with decency, be a sociopath

I’d say to Hell with decency, be a sociopath

SPOTIFY

Dancing On A Volcano’ LP is available everywhere, including Spotify, Apple Music and Bandcamp. It can also be ordered on CD directly from the band.