Mod Is A State of Mind (feat. Mel Blank)

Oh 'allo everybody

It is a great pleasure to speak to you all here at this year's BRITS

I was wondering when you'd get around to me

Just before I came onstage my manager Nick said to me

Maybe you should speak for a minute on Mod as a way of life

Well, Nick's a smart cookie

I wouldn't be standing here before you if he wasn't but he ain't always right and he ain't right about this

Because mod isn't a way of life

Mod

Is a state of mind

That's right

Mod is a state of mind

You see Mod isn't about having the right wheels or the right shoes or hat

Or this or that

Or wearing the parka you saw someone wearing on the telly

That's not Mod, that's just copycat stuff

And it's not about knowing how to button your two-tone jacket

You know, top button always, middle button seldom, bottom button never

It isn't even about being able to dance properly to old rivvem and blues

All of that jazz an' razzamatazz don't mean a thing if you ain't swinging inside

Because mod is a state of mind

And the key to that state of mind

Is individuality

Mod is an expression of the smartness and sharpness you feel inside

The uniqueness that is you and only you

Projected with confidence into the world

And not giving a monkeys what anyone else finks

Some of my mates say "hang on a minute isn't all that individuality stuff really just punk?"

No, punk is pain, punk is rejection

Punk is angst, and dirt

Mod is being proud of how you feel, of who and what you are

And living it without embarrassment because it's the natural thing to do

I mean by that reckoning the greatest mod in history, I mean the greatest of all time

Was probably Cassius Clay

And you ain't gonna argue with that now, are ya?

I mean you could be gay, you could be straight

All of the above or none of the above

If you can sustain your individuality

And express it with style

Then my son

You have earned the right

To self-describe

As Mod