Everything is a lie, and to such a degree that the only way people try to counteract it is by being mutually aware of the fact that it is a lie. — Søren Kierkegaard

Jerry, just remember, it’s not a lie if you believe it. — George Costanza

Our society depends on lies to function normally; without lies we would descend into chaos. When you ask a semi-stranger How are you? the required answer, the answer that you need to hear, is I am fine. The honest response, I have hemorrhoids, irreparably rends the social fabric.

In the days before divorce became the national pastime, millions of dysfunctional marriages were sustained indefinitely simply by the participants saying, with untruthful conviction, I love you on a semi-regular basis. Even functional marriages benefit from lies. When I creak from the bed each morning looking only slightly better than the homeless man on the corner begging for fentanyl, my wife says You look really cute. Maybe that’s only a slight stretch of the truth, but still…

Politicians lie so often that it’s become expected, even socially acceptable. US presidential candidate Joe Biden let loose with a whopper of epic proportions but it was dismissed as, at best, a gaffe and, at worst, the stream of consciousness ramblings of an old guy teetering on the cusp of dementia. Right-wingers deserve an extra dose of denigration since they are presumably lying to benefit themselves, whereas the left-wingers are lying to benefit others. We overlook the lies of Bernie Sanders, the self-proclaimed socialist, because he’s, you know, going to give us stuff. But Bernie has done pretty well for himself, happily whacking the capitalism piñata until it coughed up a $2,500,000 fortune.

Yet even a forgiving society has a limit, a point at which lies cease to lubricate our interactions and instead jam the gears of progress. With ‘Your Lie Is Not Acceptable,’ The Fisherman and His Soul declares that your last untruth was the one that stepped over the Sharpie-drawn line on the parquet floor. The song has a liberatingly anthemic feel. It could be blasting from a car stereo as one drives away from an apartment building on a clear night, glancing into the rear-view mirror to see the lights in the second floor window fade to dim dots. Or it could be sung by protesters marching on Parliament twelve-abreast with linked arms.

‘Your Lie Is Not Acceptable’ is grounded in righteously-thrashed guitar chords, backed by a harpsichord-like keyboard that stands in for the church bells pealing beyond the river. An extended instrumental break forms the bridge as the ghost of a Hammond B-3 is summoned from the closet for a brief bow in the sunshine.

The Fisherman and His Soul is a solo project of Sebastian Voss of Münster, Germany. Today’s track appears on his new five-song EP, DISCO///VOSS. Regular readers will recognize Sebastian as the instrumental half of Nah…, the other portion being singer Estella Rosa. Nah… has scored three Songs of the Day with ‘Summers Failing,’ ‘Road Trip,’ and ‘Apple Blossoms.’

“Your Lie Is Not Acceptable’ is a real oldie,’ Sebastian told us. ‘It was first recorded, in 1992, in my room when I was still living with my parents – just an acoustic guitar, an oboe, and two cassette recorders. Then I made another version with my power-pop/garage-punk outfit, The Delicious, in 2001. The song became a minor hit in Münster, where a DJ used to play it in our indie music club, Gleis 22. The song deals with being hurt by lies and falsehood. You can decide how you‘d like to interpret it. Originally it was addressed to an ex-girlfriend; now it goes well as a comment on the current political situation.’

The music of The Fisherman and His Soul is available on Bandcamp, Spotify, and Apple Music. And be sure to follow The Fisherman and His Soul on Facebook.