My New Year's greeting to Trump and his supporters
The road is still long, but we have survived and thrived in year one of the reign of Donald Trump. Do not underestimate how important that is.
In eleven months we have a chance to start taking back our country--a win in either chamber effectively ends what Trump and republicans can accomplish between now and January 2021.
Want to know what we can have again in January of 2021? Read these year end tweets from a true champion of the American people: President Barack Hussein Obama.
I don't know if it's because I'm getting older, but I appreciate what a great song "Auld Lang Syne" is more and more with each passing year...and I found another great version this year from the union championing, Scott Walker bitch slapping, Dropkick Murphys:
I've often thought I should be a big fan of the Dave Matthews Band--it's a bunch of laid back dudes known for their musicianship who play thoughtful pop tunes. But--much like the Grateful Dead--for me it never happened. Which isn't to say, obviously, that both bands haven't had a moment or two that's captured my fancy...much like this week's tune.
Formed in Charlottesville, Virginia in 1991 the Dave Matthews Band has had quite the successful run over the past twenty-six years. Their nine studio albums and numerous live albums have sold better than 50 million copies, and they've had a summer tour virtually every year since the band's inception. Their last six albums have debuted at #1 on the Billboard 200, and their six #1 albums ties them with the Eagles for the most #1 albums by an American band. They've been nominated for many Grammy Awards (winning once), and are known for their offbeat music videos. The band's charitable foundation has donated over $8.5 million dollars to various causes, and their coolness quotient rates high thanks to their concerts in support of the candidacy of one Barack Obama, a President whose class, grace, intelligence, and love for his country far surpasses that of the current occupant of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
Released in 1996 on their career defining LP Crash, "Crash into Me" reached #19 (with a bullet!) on the Billboard Hot 100. The band's performance was also nominated for a Grammy in the longest category title in the history of award category titles: Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals. Ten words--for fuck's sake, it's almost as long as a song.
In a VH-1 Storytellers appearance, Dave Matthews said the song was about a voyeur looking through a woman's bedroom window at night, so any mystery as to the song's meaning is pretty much rendered moot. Still, for as creepy as that seems, there's still an innocence (if you can get past the more erotic lyrics) to the man's viewing--there's a lot of the romance of loving someone from afar in his thoughts and words. Matthews (somewhat like the vocals in "Sex and Candy" as I noted a couple of weeks back) makes good use of cadence in his singing, drawing out certain words and deliciously half whispering the word "crash" before completing the chorus. The song is sparse--a little guitar, a little bass, some drums, a sax, and Matthews vocals. In the end, it's one of those songs that has just stayed with me these last twenty years and that I enjoy hearing every bit as much today as I did in 1996 when it was first released.
Lyric Sheet: "Sweet like candy to my soul/Sweet your rock/And sweet you roll..."
I remember reading a Rolling Stone interview with Bob Dylan the year this week's tune came out, and at one point Dylan was asked if there were any songs he was currently hearing that he liked. Dylan begged off somewhat, saying that he didn't listen to too much music because he didn't want his own work to be influenced by what he was hearing--but he did mention "We Just Disagree" as a song that he particularly liked (he'd also play it on his 1980 tour). And I remember thinking, "All the great music that's coming out and that's the song he likes?" Somewhere many years down the road I heard it anew and had one of my "Holy Shit" moments, where I realize a song is much better than I had originally thought.
Dave Mason has somewhat quietly put together a hell of a career resume. Starting with his work with Traffic (with which he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2004), Mason has through the years done session work with Jimi Hendrix (played acoustic 12 string guitar on "All Along the Watchtower"), George Harrison (All Things Must Pass), the Rolling Stones (Beggars Banquet), had duets with Phoebe Snow and Michael Jackson, and also was briefly a member of Fleetwood Mac. That's in addition to the thirteen solo albums he's released, the last of which came out in 2014. He's still playing about a hundred shows a year, and is involved in charities that encourage kids playing music as well as foundations helping those with substance abuse problems and veterans. Another in a long line of FNJ vets who have made the most out of a modicum of success....
Released in 1977 on his Let It Flow album, "We Just Disagree" was the only solo hit of Mason's career (as was the album, which peaked at #37 on the Billboard 200), as it reached #12 (with a bullet!) on the Billboard Hot 100. Written by Jim Krueger who also did the backing vocals as well as playing 12 string guitar on the single, the song has, much like last week's tune by the Marshall Tucker Band, remained a staple of Classic Rock radio for forty years now.
"We Just Disagree" tells the tale of a couple meeting up some time after their breakup, with the male half registering some concern for her but also realizing they went their separate ways for a reason and that it's best to just let it all go. In some ways, it's an adult version of the brokenhearted break up song--the protagonist acknowledges there were no good or bad guys in their break up, but rather was just the two of them and they just didn't see eye to eye. The song opens with a delightful guitar that jangles its way into Mason's vocals, where he's quickly joined by Krueger to form some harmonies that are just this side of gospel tinged. There's some nice oh-oh-oh's that convey a little of the pain, and it closes almost abruptly--but like a good short story, you realize its told you just enough. It's certainly not your standard fare for a top 40 hit, but therein lies the beauty of pop music--there's always another surprise just around the corner.
Liner notes: "There ain't no good guy, there ain't no bad guy/There's only you and me and we just disagree..."
My guess is that Senator Collins hates puppies, too...
A note to Senator Susan Collins, in the wake of her claiming the attacks against her vote to give away our money to rich people were incredibly sexist (and never mind that Jeff Flake and Bob Corker, both of whom I believe have penises, were excoriated as well) and trying to tie herself to the #MeToo movement:
The #MeToo movement is for people who got fucked, not the people who did the fucking.
A new day may be dawning...one that leaves republicans behind
A poll today from CNN shows Democrats with an unprecedented 18 point lead on a generic ballot for elections in 2018. While it's tremendously early to get one's hopes up too much, it's becoming increasingly obvious that Trump and republicans tax giveaway to the rich is increasingly unpopular and an anchor around their necks and just may cost them the House and the Senate in next November's elections.
It seems to me that a majority of Americans are finally waking up and seeing the truth of the matter: our lives will not be made one whit better because rich people have more money.
Frankly, our lives will be much better if they have less money--and the less they have, the better for us.
Every now and again a song comes along and the first time you hear it, you know it's going to be a favorite of yours for the rest of your life (e.g., "Don't Do Me Like That" by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers). But there's also that song that you hear for years, kind of like, and then one day hear it and think, "How the hell did I not notice how great this song was?" Such was the case with song #155 here on FNJ. The Marshall Tucker Band formed in 1972 in Spartanburg, S.C. (though they'd been playing in various bands and incarnations since the early 60's), and spent the 70's playing kind of cool younger brother to its much cooler older brothers, The Allman Brothers and Lynyrd Skynyrd. A major player in what used to be called Southern Rock (I think they call it half-assed Country now), they had quite a streak with their first five albums going gold and their sixth platinum. They were well known for being a great live band, as well as being nominated for a Grammy. Sadly, tragedy struck in 1980 when original bassist Tommy Caldwell (brother of chief songwriter and founder, Toy Caldwell) was killed in an auto accident. The band stayed together for a few more years before going their separate ways. Lead singer Doug Gray eventually resurrected the band name, and they still performs 150-200 shows a year with a different collection of musicians. Not a bad gig if you can get it....
Fun Fact: There is no one in the band named Marshall Tucker--the band got its name from a blind piano tuner named, appropriately enough, Marshall Tucker, whose name they had seen engraved on the back of the key to the warehouse they rented for rehearsals.
Released in 1977 (the year I graduated high school--holy shit I'm getting old) on their Carolina DreamsLP, "Heard It in a Love Song" was the only hit single the Marshall Tucker Band had (though "Can't You See" charted and is a fan favorite) throughout their career, reaching #14 (with a bullet!) on the Billboard Hot 100. Forty years later and it's still a staple on Classic Rock radio--I'd be willing to bet there isn't an hour that goes by that some radio station in America isn't playing it.
Considering that I'm a strict disciple of the Dorothy Gale School of Life ("There's no place like home..."), "Heard It in a Love Song" is kind of an odd song for me to adore. It tells the tale of a rambler who's on his way out the door and leaving behind a woman he knows he shouldn't, but the lure of greener pastures has been his lifelong obsession and has kept him moving on from town to town. Bookended by a dazzling flute solo, the song features heartfelt vocals from Doug Gray, a nice instrumental break (check out the guitars at the end of the break--straight from the Allman Brothers "Jessica"...what the fuck, plenty of good songs out there that stole a little bit here and there), and a simple ("Heard it in a love song" x3, then "Can't be wrong") but catchy as all hell chorus. As is often the case with classic songs, the band manages to sing and play the tale without its getting mawkish, which is no easy feat in a pop song--Gray's vocals are a testament to the song's heartbreaking honesty. Put it all together and it's easy to see why Southern Rock captured American's attention for a few years from the late 60's to the late 70's--there were a lot of damn good songs that came out of the movement, and "Heard It in a Love Song" is most definitely one of them.
Lyric Sheet: "Don't sneak out that door/Couldn't stand to see you cry/I'd stay another year if I saw a teardrop in your eye..."
I don't mean to look a gift horse in the mouth (both literally and figuratively), but Doug Jones win this past Tuesday in Alabama was a fluke--if Roy Moore wasn't a pedophile, despite his hateful viewpoints he likely would have won by a large margin.
Still, it is a lesson for Democrats--in Jeff Sessions last campaign for Senator in Alabama, he ran unopposed. Can you imagine how sick we all would have been if after the allegations of sexual impropriety on the part of Roy Moore came to light we had had no candidate running against him?
Second, there is a limit to what the American people will accept in their candidates. The bar may be high in Alabama (pedophilia, for Christ's sake?), but it's not in states where the citizens are just a bit more sane like Michigan or Ohio. I'd guess in states hit hard by the Great Recession the republicans current tax bill will play about as bad as child molestation in Alabama.
A win in either the House or the Senate in 2018 effectively means the end of the Trump Presidency--it's time to go for the jugular.
A tad over the top, but we've earned the moral high ground
I've never been a big fan of the "when they go low, we go high" (with all due respect to Michelle Obama) strategy--there's just too much at stake and frankly winning is too important to get bogged down in what often amounts to technicalities (and going low has never seemed to hurt republicans all that much electorally, to boot). But the calls for--and eventual acceptance of--the resignations of Al Franken and John Conyers over their sexual harassment transgressions is the right move at the right time. It may be tremendously cynical (we live in a cynical world), but the most important part of Al Franken's resignation speech was when he contrasted himself resigning with pervert Donald Trump staying in the White House and pedophile Roy Moore remaining in the U.S. Senate race in Alabama.
The contrast is stark--we don't accept sexual assault. Republicans do.
I like the way that will play in the 2018 elections.
A few years back I was killing time before going to bed watching one of those ubiquitous VH-1 One Hit Wonder retrospectives, and they were interviewing the guys from Marcy Playground about this week's tune--and unlike so many other bands, they were thrilled to death with everything their one hit had brought them and were truly grateful for the opportunity to play music for the rest of their lives that having a hit single had given them. It was just a breath of fresh air--a bit of insight that those of us who are amateur (key word) musicians (and would give an eyetooth for the thrill of having a hit single) could really appreciate.
Marcy Playground formed in 1994 in New York City via Minneapolis (lead singer John Wozniak's home), bounced around clubs and half-assed studios for a few years, and then released their debut album in 1997--with the single that would allow them to keep playing music for a living for the next 20 years (and counting). There isn't a lot of success to report--they've only released a grand total of 4 studio albums (none of which have sold into the millions), have no record breaking world tours, no Grammy Awards, and most certainly won't be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Still, they released a single that has brought joy to millions and that's a pretty damn good legacy in my book.
For those wondering...the band name comes from a park at the school John Wozniak attended when he was a wee lad in Minneapolis.
Released in 1997 on their oh-so-imaginatively titled debut LP, Marcy Playground,"Sex and Candy" would rise to #8 (with a bullet!) on the Billboard Hot 100. It was an even bigger hit on the Modern Rock Tracks (see also, Alternative) chart, reaching #1 and staying there for a then record 15 weeks (and breaking the record of another FNJ fave, "Wonderwall" by Oasis). They've released thirteen other singles over the course of their career...and not a single one of them has hit the charts. C'est la vie!
I was originally going to note that "Sex and Candy" was one of those songs that may not be for everyone, but as I was doing my weekly half-assed research I noticed that Rolling Stone hated it and since Rolling Stone hasn't been musically relevant since, oh, the 70's, I figured it was probably a much better single that I was giving it credit for. Backed with a lightly picked guitar and some modest yet potent drumming, John Wozniak drops some blue eyed soul vocals on us as he drawls his way through the way one can be having a perfectly uneventful day and a woman can suddenly come into the picture and make that day so much more memorable. As I've listened to it this week one of the things that I noticed is how well Wozniak makes use of cadence--the way he slows certain lyrics, or stops for a pause, or drags out a line, and I realized it as one of those magical little moments that make a good song a great song. And a hell of a one hit wonder for Marcy Playground to call its own.
Lyric Sheet: "And then there she was/Like double cherry pie/Yeah there she was/Like disco superfly..."
Mitch McConnell yesterday called on Al Franken to resign, without a hint of irony that his party has a moral degenerate in the White House who bragged on tape about sexually assaulting women, and is pouring money into the campaign of Trump's fellow moral degenerate, Roy Moore, who is a known child molester.
The other day I got an e-mail from some liberal group, and in the subject line it noted that I would not believe how low the republican party had gone. And you know what? I thought it was the goofiest subject line ever--I absolutely will believe how low the republican party will go. They have absolutely no shame.
But I still believe there are enough Americans to make them pay for their hypocrisy and their utter disdain of the American people.
And here's hoping the voting public makes me look clairvoyant come next November...
Not your grandpa--just another rich, white asshole
Iowa's idiot senior Senator, Chuck Grassley, was quoted this week claiming the estate tax penalizes people who save their money, quite unlike the rest of us who spend all of our money on "...booze or women or movies."
You know, I do spend a bit of my money on a woman--surprisingly enough, my partner likes to eat and have a place to live. And about once a year we can afford to go to the movies. And while I don't drink anymore, at one time in my life I enjoyed the occasional beer. You know what those things are called?
Being an American.
And for all Grassley's 'aw,shucks, folks" pretending, the plain truth of the matter is that he--and the party he represents--is an elitist who looks down his nose at those of us who work for a living just like every other rich, white asshole.
As far as I'm concerned, Grassley can go fuck himself.
A few years back I attended my oldest son's graduation from law school in Washington, D.C., and for whatever odd ass reason (especially considering it's on the opposite coast), it made me quite nostalgic for my birthplace in the San Francisco Bay Area which in turn led me to realize that after forty years of living in the midwest I really didn't like living in the midwest all that much, and thus began a fervent desire to move back to my home state of California (I play the lottery as much to retire as to move back to my home state). Not coincidentally I'm sure, it was about the time that this week's tune went from a song I liked to one that I adored....
The Mamas and the Papas formed in 1965 and by 1968 managed to create a legacy that lasts to this very day. One of the original purveyors of what would come to be known as folk rock, the Mamas and the Papas released only five albums before breaking up (though the band would reunite in various incarnations off and on through the nineties, they never made another studio album)--and those five albums resulted in 40 million copies sold, six top ten singles, a Grammy Award, an album on Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time, a single on Rolling Stone's list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time, and their eventual induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1998. Sadly, fame also took its toll--John Phillips (heroin) and Denny Doherty (alcohol and various drugs) suffered from addictions for years and both died relatively young (Phillips in 2001, Doherty in 2007). Cass Elliot also had her demons and died of heart failure in 1974 at the age of 38, leaving Michelle Phillips as the only surviving member.
Released in 1965 on their debut album, If You Can Believe Your Eyes and Ears (#127 Greatest Albums), "California Dreamin'" (#89 Greatest Songs) would go on to reach #4 (with a bullet!) on the Billboard Hot 100. Though "Monday Monday" was their biggest hit, "California Dreamin'" (written by John and Michelle Phillips) remains their signature song and has also been inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.
Fun Fact: When "California Dreamin'" was originally released it garnered little attention in California and actually became a hit thanks to a radio station in Boston that broke the song nationally. So many cool kids in Boston....
Oddly enough, "California Dreamin'" is a song about a young man missing California on a wintry day in New York City. The lyrics are sparse--the chorus is only seven words repeated often (the song itself is a mere two minutes and forty four seconds long), but so much is packed into those so few words--especially about the power of one's home. I'd like to tell you about the instrumentation, but other than the flute solo (these last few weeks have seen a slew of odd instruments in pop songs here on FNJ) and a teensy bit of acoustic guitar, I don't really recall--mostly because the harmonies are so other worldly that they literally carry the entire song. If a scientist ever set out to clone the perfect harmonies, the DNA of "California Dreamin'" would be all he'd need. And for me, it will always be a beautiful reminder of how much I miss living in California, even all these many years later.
Liner Notes: "I'd be safe and warm if I was in L.A./California dreamin' on such a winter's day..."
Unfortunately (and I truly hope I'm wrong), to me it's beginning to look more and more like Democrats are going to be having a couple of big sads in the next couple of weeks. With Murkowski and Collins looking more and more like yes votes on republicans' Let's Fuck The Middle Class Tax Cuts, and Roy Moore pulling ahead of Doug Jones again in Alabama, we may be in for a karmic bite in the ass after our big victories across America earlier this month.
If they should come to pass, remember this: Democrats are going to have a field day in 2018 (and likely 2020) with ads all across America reminding Americans that republicans passed a wildly unpopular bill, and as if that wasn't enough, that they supported a child molester to help ensure they could give tax cuts to the richest of the rich Americans. Americans overwhelmingly support raising taxes on the wealthy and corporations, and unless there's a sea change in America's moral fiber, I'm pretty sure that even more Americans, amazingly enough, aren't too fond of pedophilia either.
Trump may have unwavering support among his base, but they only make up 30-35% of Americans--that leaves a good 65% of Americans to open a can of whoop ass on republicans in next year's mid-term elections.
And poof...control of the House will be gone, and with it, any chance of Trump accomplishing anything for the last two years of his Presidency.
Donald Trump tweeted today about the U.S. Senate race in Alabama and said that Democratic candidate Doug Jones was a "Schumer/Pelosi puppet." If that means A) He's not a child molester, B) He doesn't want Vladimir Putin to be the President of the United States, and C) He's not going to give our hard earned dollars to rich people, I think we all should be Schumer/Pelosi puppets.
Truth be told, my love affair with this week's tune began the first time I heard the chorus, when the word "dancing" was rhymed with the city of "Lansing." Whether this was because I live in Michigan, or because it's incredibly clever, only the Gods of Pop Music know for sure....
The Magnetic Fields are the brainchild of one Stephin Merritt, and were formed in 1989. Merritt is an offbeat songwriter, and the band helps to showcase his lyrical talents. Near as I can tell, the band has had zero in the way of what would be considered mainstream musical success--no hit singles, no million selling albums, no Grammy nominations let alone awards, and no record breaking world tours. Nevertheless, they've released eleven albums over the course of their twenty-eight year career, the latest being released just this year. Their album 69 Songs (which oddly enough, features 69 songs spread over three CDs, including this week's tune) is considered their best album and was released to extreme critical acclaim in 1999, including finishing second in the hipster's newspaper of choice, The Village Voice, year end Pazz and Jop poll. The three CD box set sold a whopping 83,000 copies (still 83,000 more CDs than I've ever sold). Sadly, they are another in a long line of bands that had their been world enough and time, I may have become a huge fan of, but I'll settle for having heard their delightful 69 Songs album, and the joy it brought me for months on end.
"Nothing Matters When We're Dancing" was never released as a single, though if it could have been transported back to the 40's or 50's and been given to Frank Sinatra or Tony Bennett or Nat King Cole it probably would have rocketed up the charts. Featuring a deliciously strummed ukulele (another of those not oft used instruments that in the right place can take a song to another plane), Merritt's distinctive baritone, and some oh so perfect harmonies in the chorus, the song tells the tale of two old lovers lost amongst each other as they dance to the last song of the night in some old dilapidated dance hall. I'd be the first to admit it's not going to be everyone's cup of tea--a balls out rocker it ain't--but every time I hear it it adds a little sunshine to my day and I'll be singing it over and over for days on end. Sometimes a pretty song is just a pretty song....
Lyric Sheet: "And nothing matters when we're dancing/In tat or tatters you're entrancing/Be we in Paris or in Lansing/Nothing matters when we're dancing..."
The journey that The Carpenters took as a band, from syrupy sweet, goodie-goodie, middle of the road musicians that none of the cool kids listened to, to a band that was covered (mostly excellently) by a number of alternative acts on If I Were a Carpenter(that many cool kids listened to) was most certainly not the road most traveled. And I would be remiss if I didn't admit that I pretty much followed the same path with their music--in their heyday I thought their music was pure shit, but as I've aged, I've come to appreciate just how good of a pop band they really were.
Formed in the mid-sixties in Southern California, brother and sister Richard (piano and producing) and Karen (drums and lead vocals) Carpenter had a hell of a run until the early eighties. Between 1969 and 1981 they would release ten albums (five of which went platinum), toured extensively (performing over a hundred per year between '71 and '75), and for most of those years, it was hard to go more than a month or two without a hit Carpenters single on Top 40 radio. Over the course of their career, they would sell over 100 million records, win three Grammy Awards, have 3 #1 singles, five #2 singles, and numerous gold and platinum albums. Sadly, as is often the case, fame took its toll--Richard developed an addiction to Quaaludes in the late seventies, and Karen suffered from anorexia nervosa, complications from which would lead to her death from heart failure at the far too young age of 33 in 1983. As noted above, their legacy has grown exponentially through the years--Richard for his production skills (I'd always thought he was window dressing for his younger sister, but after doing my half-assed weekly research, I realized he was really the brains behind the group's success), and Karen for her other worldly vocals. Petitions have been started to get the band inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, but supposedly they're not rock and roll enough for the Hall--as compared to those balls out rock and rollers and Hall inductees Abba and Madonna...
Fun Fact: Early in their career the Carpenters took a job on Main Street in Disneyland playing 20's music in one of the shops. As time wore on, folks would ask them to perform more modern numbers, which the Carpenters gladly obliged. Unfortunately, this did not please the folks running Disneyland, and the Carpenters were fired for being "too radical." Betcha Black Sabbath never got fired from an amusement park...
Released in 1971 on their oh-so-cleverly named Carpentersalbum, "Superstar" would go on to reach #2 on the Billboard Hot 100 (it couldn't surpass Rod Stewart's classic "Maggie May"). It was written by Bonnie Bramlett (of Delaney and Bonnie fame) and Leon Russell (of Leon Russell fame), and has been covered by artists too numerous to mention--though the Carpenters version is considered the definitive version.
"Superstar" tells the lonely tale of a groupie sitting at home listening to her love interest on the radio and wishing he were with her--which, as is often the case in the life of a groupie, ain't gonna happen. From the song's beginning--a yearning oboe (an oboe! this is why I love music so much--who'd ever think of an oboe in a pop song?), to the yearning horns, to the yearning orchestra, to Karen's Carpenter's yearning vocals--it's a song about, well, uh, yearning. There's a nice back and forth between the slow pace of the stanzas which builds to the crescendo of the chorus (which, by my unofficial count, holds the record for the most uses of the word "baby" in a chorus: seven)--but in the end it all works because of Karen Carpenter's wondrous vocals. She captures the sorrow and resulting loneliness of unrequited love about as well as any pop singer ever has, and it turns what could have been a desultory song into a classic about love, music, and loneliness.
Lyric Sheet: "Your guitar, it sounds so sweet and clear/But you're not really here/It's just the radio...
There's just no way around it--his sexual assault charge by Leanne Tweeden is colossally unbecoming and while his second apology is better than his first, in the end we as Democrats are running in post Donald Trump's victory elections on the idea that we represent American values better than republicans. We're not racists. We aren't misogynistic. We respect the LGBQ community. We're the party of inclusiveness, not assholishness. Franken has betrayed this and without his swift and decisive removal we are going to appear to be just like republicans. Party before country.
And that doesn't even cover what it means to the women in our party, who quite frankly, deserve better than what Franken has done.
A quick resolution will show that we don't and we won't tolerate such behavior.
So, apparently Vladimir Putin told Donald Trump that Russia didn't meddle in our last Presidential election, and despite the overwhelming evidence from our intelligence agencies, Trump told reporters this past weekend that he believed him.
Trump is either the dumbest son of a bitch to ever hold the office, or he just doesn't give a shit about the future of America or Americans.
Either way, for all of its faults, right now the Democratic Party and its leadership is all that's standing between America and utter catastrophe.
Angered by the fact that Keurig, the maker of fancy coffeemakers, had pulled their advertising from Sean Hannity's shitty Fox News show because Hannity defended known child molester and current Senate candidate from Alabama, Roy Moore, republicans have taken to making videos of themselves smashing Keurig's coffeemakers.
You know, for a party that prides itself on being the party of Big Business, it's followers really don't know shit about how to run a business...because I can guarantee you that Keurig made exactly the correct business decision in pulling their advertising, as surprisingly enough, there isn't a business school in the world that teaches that supporting pedophilia is good for business.
Even worse, these idiots are telling the world that they personally think child molesting is A-OK. Seems to me like something that their employers and neighbors would certainly want to know....
Every now and again a song comes along that literally within 30 seconds completely blows you away and you know that you are going to adore said song for literally the rest of your life. Such was the case for me with this week's tune--though it was about twenty years after its release (and for the umpteenth time, thanks to my beautiful daughter for burning a copy of it for me). I was a fan of the band prior to this song (especially their album Tim, and the singles "Merry Go Round" and "Talent Show'), but this song--and its complementing album--made me a fanatic.
The Replacements formed in 1979 in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and would go on, much like the Ramones to punk rock, to be one of the forefathers of alternative music. Unfortunately--again just like the Ramones--this would translate into very little commercial success and the band was disbanded by 1991 (though they'd have the obligatory--unless it's The Jam--reunion tour in 2012). In some ways the band was its own worst enemy--the Replacements developed a reputation for being very inconsistent with their live shows and were known for playing (badly) while piss drunk, as well as performing shows where they'd play nothing but half-assed cover versions of songs by artists like the DeFranco Family and Bryan Adams (they so pissed off Saturday Night Live with a drunken shit show in 1986 that they were permanently banned from the show) . In the end, they managed six albums, were considered a great live band when they were in the mood, and settled for being one of the most influential bands to come out of the 80's, though lead vocalist Paul Westerberg has had a modicum of success on his own (his "Dyslexic Heart" was featured on FNJ earlier this year).
Released in 1984 on their Let It Bealbum, "I Will Dare" was the first single from the album, and both album and single went absolutely nowhere commercially. But like Vincent Van Gogh and his paintings, time was much kinder to the song and the album's legacy--"I Will Dare" is in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as one of the 500 Songs That Shaped Rock and Roll (though the band itself--is there no justice?--is not), and Let It Be is listed at #241 on Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time, and regularly makes top ten lists for albums of the 1980's.
Fun Fact: For those wondering, the Replacements titling of the album as Let It Be is both an homage to the Beatles and a big fuck you to the music establishment. The band seriously considered naming the follow up album Let It Bleed (classic Rolling Stones' album, for those not familiar), but for unknown reasons chose not to. If nothing else, the Replacements had plenty of chutzpah....
Fans of Friday Night Jukebox (both of you) will recall that emaycee loves him some jangly guitars and "I Will Dare" is awash with them (courtesy of Peter Buck, who himself at the time was the lead guitarist of another up and coming band, REM). Westerberg provides some cocky lyrics and a scowling vocal (he can scowl with the best of the scowlers--Jagger, Dylan, Joe Strummer, and Mr. Johnny Rotten). He also plays Mandolin on the song. The rest of the band powers the song's swagger, providing the drive and the bop til you drop catchiness of the single. In the end, it's a coming of age wonder of the brashness and boldness of youth, as performed by a brash and bold band coming of age itself--three minutes and nineteen seconds of the best that rock and roll has to offer.
Lyric Sheet: "How young are you/How old am I/Let's count the rings/Around my eye..."
Enjoy (and know that the whole album is most definitely worth your while):
The devil gets his due: for the first time since 1989, Democrats have won the Virginia governorship, the New Jersey governorship, and the race for mayor of New York. We picked up at least twelve House seats in Virginia, won both the Lt. Gov. and AG elections there as well, won the special election in Washington state (giving us control of all three legislative branches in both New Jersey and Washington state), and passed the Medicaid expansion in Maine.
It doesn't quite make up for last November's election debacle...but it's a fucking good start.
We're returning to the British Isles again this week (so many cool kids in England!) for a band that has had great commercial and critical success there and even less commercial success in the states than recent Friday Night Jukebox inductee Keane (or The Jam or The Waterboys....).
The Kaiser Chiefs originally formed in 2000 as Parva, bounced around with one LP for the next three years, and after being dumped by their record label, reinvented themselves as the Kaiser Chiefs and rose to meteoric success in their native U.K. They've released six albums, two of which went to #1, two of which went to #2, and one each that went to #4, and #10 on the UK Albums chart. Here in the states they've only managed to put two albums on the Billboard 200 (and both peaked at middling spots--#45 and #55). They've won three Brit Awards, had an album nominated for the Mercury Prize (a sort of British Pulitzer for English and Irish LPs), a #1 single ("Ruby"), and have toured extensively since their major label debut in 2005. All told they've sold over ten million albums and carved out quite a niche for themselves in their homeland.
Released in 2005 on their first album as the Kaiser Chiefs, Employment, "You Can Have It All" was actually the fifth single released from the album in the U.K., and was never released as a single here in the good old U.S.A. (and we're all the poorer for it). The U.K. single was actually a special limited edition Christmas release and was limited to 2000 records--needless to say, if you ever come across this baby in some used record shop, buy it! Some Brit kid will probably give you good money for it...
While some say the band is influenced by the punk movement of the late 70's and the new wave movement of the late 80's, I've always thought they would sound right at home with any number of bands that came out of the alternative scene of the early 90's (and many of which were influence by the same). And "You Can Have It All" would have made more than one playlist on the numerous Alternative radio stations that grew out of that scene. It's a slow paced song, relying heavily on the band's harmonies (compared to the Beach Boys, though I don't quite hear it) which are out of this world, telling the tale of a man who sees a woman on the bus and is letting her know that she can have it all (hence the title) and what she is going to miss should she leave the bus without him. It's either love at first sight or he's a stalker, but what the hell, it's catchy as all hell either way. The song concludes with the "you can have it all" chorus which I have been singing over and over for the last four days--it's ear candy that will add an extra bounce to your step and leave you feeling lighter than air...or not.
Rap Sheet: "I'll tell you what it's going to be like/I saw you on the bus and that was that/There's more to this than passing by/There's more to this than meets the eye..."
At a point in our history where Democrats are poised to make substantial gains against the dystopian nightmare that is the republican party, Donna Brazile (former Chairwoman on the Democratic National Committee--and one who helped lead us into stunning and unprecedented losses in 2016) has come out with a book in which she claims the Clinton campaign rigged the DNC in her favor (must come as a big surprise to the three million plus more Democrats who voted for Secretary Clinton over Bernie Sanders--of which I was not one) in the 2016 Democratic primary. Not really sure what Ms. Brazile was hoping to accomplish with her claim, but the one thing it has accomplished is reigniting the Hillary v. Bernie wars, which at this point in time should the the least of our fucking concerns.
The Democratic Party slogan: We Argue Over Semantics!
The republican party slogan: We Just Win Elections!
Back in the day before there were computers and video games and a thousand TV channels, families used to entertain themselves in ways that may seem somewhat quaint today. One of the ways my family entertained ourselves when I was but a wee lad was by singing together (and, no, in case you were wondering we were neither as cool, nor as talented, as the Partridge Family...if you're of a certain age). And one of the songs I remember us doing was this week's tune, with my sister on guitar (she took lessons for about two years and even today, when she picks up a guitar once every fifteen years or so, she's much better than me) and the rest of us singing along to one of my Dad's favorite tunes. In fact, for many years I was considerably more familiar with our rendition than with Ms. Joplin's much celebrated version.
If ever there was an artist who lived up to the ideal behind a "tortured artist" it was Janis Joplin. Born and raised in Port Arthur, Texas, Joplin was ostracized and bullied in high school for being just a tad on the different side, and after a year of college got the hell out of Dodge and headed for the San Francisco Bay Area--where she quickly developed problems with both alcohol abuse (Southern Comfort) and drug addiction (heroin). After a knockout performance (Joplin is still considered one or rock's truly great live performers) at the Monterrey Pop Festival in 1967 with Big Brother and the Holding Company (Joplin was also great at surrounding herself with bands with cool names--as the aforementioned band as well as the Kozmic Blues Band and the Full Tilt Boogie Band), Joplin's career went into the stratosphere and she released three albums over the next three years with varying degrees of success, though her star continued to rise. Sadly, while in the midst of recording her fourth album, Joplin overdosed on heroin and died on October 4, 1970, just two weeks after Jimi Hendrix succumbed to the same fate. Her last album, Pearl(and her nickname, one of rock's great nicknames), would go on to be the most successful of her career and add to a legacy that would end up with her election to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, as well as being considered one of the truly great rock and roll female vocalists of all time. It's easy to see why such flamboyant female vocalists as Stevie Nicks, Madonna, Amy Winehouse, and Lady Gaga (among several others) owe her a serious debt of gratitude.
Written by one of America's great songwriters ("Help Me Make It Through the Night," "For the Good Times," "Sunday Morning Comin' Down" and many others), Kris Kristofferson (who is really worth a listen if you give yourself some time to get used to his scratchy vocals), "Me and Bobby McGee" was released on her previously mentioned Pearl album in 1970, and would go on to become her only #1 (most assuredly with a bullet!) single on the Billboard Hot 100. Recorded just days before her death, it would also go on to rank #148 on Rolling Stone's list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.
Fun (if somewhat sad) Fact: "Me and Bobby McGee" was the second single to reach #1 posthumously on the Billboard Hot 100--the first being the utterly delightful "(Sittin' On) The Dock of the Bay" by Otis Redding.
Opening with just Joplin playing an acoustic guitar, "Me and Bobby McGee" weaves the tale of two ill-fated lovers roaming across America looking for a home who eventually part ways, leaving the narrator to spend the rest of her life ruing the day. About a minute in, the Full Tilt Boogie Band kicks in and the song takes it up a notch, becoming a bluesy, spiritual, pop song ruminating on the nuances of lost love. The song is notable for having one of the most memorable lines ever written for a song ("Freedom's just another word for nothin' left to lose..."), Joplin's beyond incredible vocals, and for being covered by literally thousands of artists. The last minute of the song showcases the Full Tilt Boogie Band turning it into a, well, full tilt boogie--and at close the song becomes a masterful performance for a masterpiece of songwriting, and one of rock's quintessential numbers.
Lyric Sheet: "Busted flat in Baton Rouge, headin' for the trains/Feelin' nearly faded as my jeans..."
At least these guys would make the NHL watchable...
Considering that a) there are more African-Americans on your average NFL team's starting defense than there is in the entire National Hockey League, and b) that the majority of players in the NHL aren't even Americans, it was somewhat surprising that NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman was even asked about the NHL's reaction to the anthem protests in the National Football League. Nonetheless, Bettman's response was typical, showing complete ignorance to the racism in America which stirred the protests in the first place, and toeing the line of what the lily white and ultra wealthy owners in the NHL would prefer: fans don't come to games for protest rallies.
Which should come as quite the relief to the three Americans that actually still watch hockey.
He's actually nicer than your average republican...
It really isn't a small thing, but once again republicans have voted for Big Business and it will cost average Americans dearly. In the dead of night on Tuesday, republicans repealed a Consumer Financial Protection Bureau rule that made it easier for the little guy to sue banks (via class action lawsuits) and prevented banks and financial institutions from making their customers accept forced arbitration clauses, which means...if Wells-Fargo opens fake accounts in your name unless you have the wherewithal to afford a lawyer on your own (not most of us) that can compete with a multinational corporation's massive legal department, you're fucked. Or if Equifax manages to get hacked and gives away all of your personal information, and they want to take you to binding arbitration...you're fucked.
"Christian" Mike Pence cast the deciding vote that made it much easier for banks to screw Americans--if there's a special place in hell for Christians who are anything but, Pence will be the first one admitted.
This is another in a long line of republican actions that don't get much press coverage, like their passage of right to work for less laws in numerous states, which show their true loyalty to an unfettered capitalism which results in all of us having less legal recourse against Corporate America and and a lot less money in our pockets.
By the way, thanks to republicans, credit union here I come!
This week we'll feature Coldplay's less handsome, somewhat dorkier, and definitely less successful younger brother and his career making hit single...
Sadly (or not), in doing my weekly half-assed research for this week's post, I discovered that the history of Keane is decidedly not that, uh, keen. Nothing bad, like being supporters of say, Donald Trump, but just a wee bit on the dull side. Give them credit, though, for forming as a band in 1995 (give or take) and slogging it out until their big break with their first major label release in 2004 (after being discovered by...the same guy, Simon Williams, who discovered their big brother). Piano player and chief songwriter Tim Rice-Oxley was heard playing by Chris Martin of their big brother and was offered a spot in Coldplay, which he wisely turned down to stick with Keane since Coldplay eventually did away with their keyboardist position. They are a rarity in pop music as as they are a piano first band, and while the guitar has gotten a bigger role through their career, it's still a background instrument. Other than that, they've released four studio LPs, an EP, sold over ten million records (which seems slight compared to their big brother's 90 million, but anyway you slice it, it's ten million more records than emaycee's ever sold), and had five major tours. While they've been much more commercially successful in their native U.K., they've also had more success here in the states than I would have guessed with two of their albums reaching the top ten (#4 and #7) on the Billboard 200.
Fun Fact: In 2008, Q magazine asked its readers to vote for the the best British albums ever, and Keane placed two albums (Hopes and Fearsand Under the Iron Sea) in the top twenty--joining the Beatles, Oasis, and Radiohead as the only artists with two albums in the top twenty. Pretty heady company there...
Released in 2004 on their aforementioned Hopes and Fears LP, "Somewhere Only We Know" would become a career making single for Keane. Though it only reached #50 (with a bullet!) on the Billboard Hot 100, it rose all the way to #3 on the UK Singles chart (so many cool kids in England)--and its success paved the way for future tunes to come.
Keane has stated the song is more of a symbol or a metaphor rather than having a specific meaning, though I've always kind of thought of it as a song about a couple struggling with their relationship trying to find their way back to a place where the relationship was flourishing. As I completely forgot the piano in last week's tune as I raved so much about Norah Jones' vocals, I don't want to make it two weeks in a row without noting that some succulent piano work helps carry "Somewhere Only We Know," as well. In fact, there are only two instruments featured in the song--piano and drums. Like last week's tune, though, it's the vocals that really shine. Tom Chaplin uses his voice to just the right effect, and doesn't turn an epic ballad into an overwrought pop song as happens far too often in the pop music world. Every now and again a good ballad helps get you through a bad day, and "Somewhere Only We Know" is one of those good ballads that's gotten me through many a bad day.
Lyric Sheet: "Oh simple thing where have you gone/I'm getting old and I need something to rely on..."
Note that at Wednesday's Detroit Pistons home opener in their new downtown Detroit stadium, a surprise appearance by Eminem was met with wild cheers, while a Jumbotron shot of Kid Rock was met with boos.
Though I've always suspected Kid Rock's considering a run against Senator Debbie Stabenow in 2018 to be more of a way to sucker republicans out of their money than an actual bid to be in the U.S. Senate, he might just want to reconsider if he's actually planning on challenging Sen. Stabenow.
Seems that the folks in Michigan aren't all that fond of folks who support racist assholes.
It's reached a point with the police in America where every time there's an officer involved shooting, within minutes some police officer spokesman is on the air telling us why exactly it was the blind and deaf quadriplegic's fault he got shot 47 times in the back by a cop. And it's also reached a point where the spokesman's comment is met with either intense anger or a roll of the eyes--and the end result is that less and less Americans have either any trust or respect for America's police forces.
Cue to the pathetic spectacle that was General John Kelly yesterday trying to defend Donald Trump's showing us yet again that he's a cretin without an ounce of empathy in his callous comments to the widow of La David Johnson, who was one of the four American soldiers killed recently in Niger. Even setting aside the fact that Trump had time to golf four times in between the soldiers' deaths and his calling of their families (beyond unacceptable), Kelly's performance should give pause to every single American. He lied about Rep. Frederica Wilson (and make no mistake, his comments were meant to appeal to republicans' racist base), noted that there was a time when women were sacred without the slightest sense of awareness that his fucking boss was caught on tape saying how he grabbed women by their *****, mentioned Gold Star families without the slightest sense of awareness that his fucking boss has completely disrespected Gold Star families again and again, and then gets a pass because he's in the fucking military.
If there is any good that can come out of another mess created by the kings of incompetence, it's that maybe finally we on the left can begin to counter the support our troops bullshit that we've been fed for far too long, when in reality it has nothing to do with supporting our troops and everything to do with stifling criticism of the republican party. And if the end result is the same for our military as that of our police officers, they, too, will have no one but themselves to blame for defending the indefensible.
A little known yet completely uninteresting fact about emaycee is that that he loves him some female vocalists--and from Rosanne Cash to Mary Chapin Carpenter to Reba McEntire to Patty Loveless, from Joni Mitchell to Carole King to Janet Jackson to Liz Phair, and from girl groups like The Angels, The Go-Gos, and The Bangles, he's had plenty of good ones to choose from. So he never had a chance from the very first time he listened to this week's tune--and especially when you throw in that the singer in question is both a brunette and beautiful...
Norah Jones was born Geetali Norah Shankar--and for those of you who know your music you'll note her birth surname is the same as that of Ravi Shankar, her father and famed Indian sitarist whose influence on sixties music (thanks largely to George Harrison) you either loved or hated. Jones was largely raised by her mother, concert promoter Sue Jones, in Grapevine, Texas where she honed her craft in high school and college. In the early 2000s she moved to New York City, developed a reputation as a jazz chanteuse, and released her first album, Come Away with Mein 2002. It would go on to reach #1 on the Billboard 200, win five Grammy Awards, and eventually sell over 27 million copies. It also launched quite the career for Jones--she's since released five more albums (four of which went platinum), sold 25 million more records, won four more Grammy Awards, and had numerous fabulously successful world tours. She's collaborated with too many artists to count, done some incredible cover versions (her version of Randy Newman's "I Think It's Going to Rain Today" literally brings tears to my eyes), and acted in a few movies. Be willing to bet that not too many other folks from Grapevine, Texas have had quite the career success that Ms. Jones has...
Also released in 2002, "Don't Know Why" was the first single from Jones' debut album. The song would only reach #30 (most assuredly with a bullet!) on the Billboard Hot 100, but would go on to win Grammy's for both Record of the Year and Song of the Year. Surprisingly, for all the success Ms. Jones has had in her musical career, it is the only single of hers to crack the top 40.
While I love the underlying motif of the song--a woman has chosen not to meet someone she truly cares for at a rendezvous and really doesn't know why (hence the title) though she is already ruing it and knows she probably will for the rest of her life--it's Jones' vocals that are the whole song. One cannot train oneself to sing like Jones does--it is a gift from the Music Gods and I can goddamn guarantee you they pat themselves on the back every day for the abilities Ms. Jones has. Her vocals capture the heartache, the sorrow, and the confusion of her decision about as perfectly as any emotion has ever been captured in any song (only slight hyperbole). I discovered it on VH-1 back in the day when television music channels were still pretending to care about music, and it was--and remains to this day--a breath of fresh air every time I hear it.
Lyric Sheet: "When I saw the break of day/I wished that I could fly away/Instead kneeling in the sand/Catching teardrops in my hand..."
After years of reports of serial sex abusers at Fox News and their sexual deviant President, Donald Trump, republicans are thrilled that a Democratic donor, movie producer Harvey Weinstein, is currently in shit deep trouble over his sexual assaults.
Let me school them in why there is no there, there: A) Unlike republicans, Democrats have immediately and definitively disavowed Weinstein, B) They have returned all of his donations, C) Weinstein is not the leader of the Democratic Party, D) Democrats have not sent out a media whore like Kellyanne Conway to defend Weinstein's sexual perversity, and, most importantly, E) Weinstein is not the President of the United States.
While I had to look up what a cypher was and am woefully behind the times on hip hop and rap, I had a three word take on Eminem's bitch slap of Donald Trump at last night's BET Hip Hop Awards: Beyond fucking brilliant.
The best four minutes of art since the inauguration of Donald Trump--enjoy:
Leaving aside the million dollars of our taxes that Mike Pence spent for his publicity stunt in the shithole that is Indiana yesterday, the thing that most stands out from his walking out on the 49ers protest yesterday is the sheer and utter incompetence that came with it. Notifying the media beforehand that it was likely Pence's stay at the game would be short and his flying cross country (again, at a cost to us of over a million dollars) was beyond stupid. These fucking people can't even do a PR event right and we're supposed to trust them to run our country?
By the way, if you want to read a thoughtful piece on what Pence's walkout really meant (can you say systemic oppression, boys and girls?), read what 49ers safety Eric Reid had to say.
Finally, I can honestly say I've never been prouder to be a lifelong 49ers fan. NINERS!!!
Leaving aside the fact that Arizona Rep. Paul Gosar claim that George Soros financially backed the Nazis and White Supremacists in Charlottesville proves he's crazier than a shit house rat, when you are happy to let a hostile foreign government interfere in our elections simply because your party won you have absolutely no moral standing to impugn any political actions utilized by your political adversaries.
Besides, at least George Soros is an American citizen.
In all honesty, if I'd never seen the movie Almost Famous, there is no way "Tiny Dancer" would have been this week's featured tune. I knew the song in a small way, but it was a minor hit from a thousand years ago. But once you see the bus scene in Almost Famous where the band and its followers sing along, you'll never forget it--hell, the Beautiful Girl downloaded it from Kazaa (remember that one?) the very next day after she'd seen it.
Elton John is another in a long line of rock and roll stars whose resume is a bit long for a brief recap. Nonetheless, he has released over thirty albums, sold over 300 million records, won five Brit Awards, five Grammy Awards, an Academy Award, and a Tony. He was elected into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1994, has numerous songwriting awards and honors with his partner, lyricist Bernie Taupin, has six albums on the Rolling Stone list of the "500 Greatest Albums of All Time," and has been given a knighthood by Queen Elizabeth. He also had thirty-one consecutive years (1970-2000) with at least one single on the Billboard Hot 100, is the first person to ever have an album debut at #1 on the Billboard 200, and has the greatest selling single ("Candle in the Wind") ever in both the U.S. and the U.K (33 million copies). And truth be told, since 1975 everything he's done has been utter shit to my ears, but much like Rod Stewart (who at least had "Downtown Train" in the eighties) that doesn't take away from the several great years he had from 1970-1975 (he was as big a rock star as there was in that time) that made him a rock and roll icon.
I would be remiss if I did not mention that John is a noted humanitarian and has done much in the battle against AIDS (including having the go to after party for the Academy Awards--surprisingly enough, I've never been), as well as being a leader in LGBT community and a voice for their equal rights.
While "Tiny Dancer" has become a classic and concert staple through the years, it didn't have typical success--originally released in 1972 from the 1971 album Madman Across the Water (one of the better album titles in the rock era), it only reached #41 (with a bullet!) on the Billboard Hot 100 and was never even released as a single in the U.K. (thought it made it to #19 in Canada thanks to all the cool Canadian kids). Still, it's been certified platinum here in the states and silver in the U.K. even though it was not a single (not exactly sure how that worked....). Unlike many hit singles, as well, it clocks in at over six and a half minutes which is three and a half minutes longer than your average Top 40 radio usually played back in the day.
Lyricist Taupin has said the song was trying to capture the spirit of California in the early seventies as evidenced by the many beautiful women he met there--which I can attest to, though, being a dork, I never actually met them, I just admired them from afar. In listening to it over the past couple of days, what stands out most to me is its simplicity--while there's a touch of guitar, some drums, and some strings, it's mostly John's piano playing which stays with you. And then there's the vocals--John manages to convey both the joy and the sorrow that is at the heart of the song, and bounces from storyteller with the staccato breaks to emcee of the upcoming wonder to pop star extraordinaire as he's singing for the tiny dancer to hold him closer. "Candle in the Wind" may have sold 33 million copies, but "Tiny Dancer" should have--it's Elton John's masterpiece and a timeless classic celebrating the loveliness that is women.
Liner Notes: "Jesus freaks out in the street/Handing tickets out for God/Turning back she just laughs/The boulevard ain't that bad..."
The average American gets paid just enough so he doesn't quit his job, and works just hard enough so he doesn't get fired.
"When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying the cross." Source unknown
Uncle emaycee Wants You For the Coming Class War! Enlist today....
Capitalism: Give a man a fish, feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you can exploit his labor, become filthy rich, and keep the poor bastard living paycheck to paycheck for the rest of his life.
