Looking for a little hope in the wasteland that is American politics these days? Here's some: more than half of the eighth graders at a school in New Jersey refused to participate in a photo-op with Speaker of the House Paul Ryan, most of them citing that they didn't want to be photographed with a man who put his party before his country.
Out of the mouths of babes, eh?
And these kids don't live in a vacuum--keep in mind that "more than half" is more than enough to win elections. Republicans have not only succeeded in energizing the left, they're starting to energize the center as well.
I keep telling the Beautiful Girl that we shouldn't be surprised that the last couple of years have taken so many of rock and roll's greats, and that it will probably be the norm for a number of years to come. It's not that I want to see any of them depart this vale, but so many of them are starting to reach that age--late sixties, early seventies--when whether we like it or not, Mother Nature is going to turn on the lights to let us know the concert is over.
Greg Allman passed away this weekend (I wrote about the Allman Brothers "Melissa" many moons ago on Friday Night Jukebox) at the age of 69. He was one of the great purveyors of blue-eyed soul (along with Van Morrison, Boz Scaggs, and Daryl Hall back in the early days of Hall and Oates), and the Allman Brothers gave a lot of people a lot of joy through the years, including me.
This morning while I was mowing the lawn (hot fun in the summertime) I turned on the iPod and listened to some of their old classics and pondered not the transience of life but rather celebrated great music. I don't usually smile much while I'm cutting our grass, but I did today....
I know I've already featured this one, but it's easily one of my twenty-five favorites of all-time--when Greg Allman sings the word "Lord" it's almost enough to make me a believer. Enjoy:
Regular readers (both of you) know that I've already jumped on the Kirsten Gillibrand for President in 2020 bandwagon, but she is really distinguishing herself as the feistiest of Democrats, even among her colleagues in what is being called the "Hell-No Caucus." Gillibrand has voted for exactly one of Trump's nominees (Nikki Haley for U.S. ambassador to the U.N.) and was the only Senator to vote against Secretary of Defense Gen. James Mattis (and how prescient will that look as Mattis and Trump look to escalate and/or start wars anywhere to detract from the administration's historic incompetence).
And how's this for her reasoning: "If they suck, I vote against them. If they're worthy, I vote for them."
There's an awful lot of suckitude in Trump's nominees, and Gillibrand is showing the fortitude to tell it like it is.
In the immortal words of the great Ray Charles, "Hallelujah, I love her so...."
One of the first recollections I have of this week's tune is of an air band formed in the year of its release by me (air guitar), my brother (air drums), and my brother's friend (air guitar as well) and it being one of the essential songs in our air repertoire on those few nights our parents went out and gave us the run of the house.
And yes, yes--my time as a Prince of Dorkdom began very early in my life.
Originally formed in 1971 in Winnipeg, Manitoba as Brave Belt (first good career move: renaming band), Bachman-Turner Overdrive had a string of hits from 1974 to 1977 that are still staples of AOR radio to this day. Led by Randy Bachman (who also had some success with the Guess Who), BTO released nine studio albums, had twelve top 100 hits, five live albums, and, uh, eleven compilation albums (the cash must be good when you're a great singles band). In the years since their heyday, they've had roughly a zillion lineup changes, several lawsuits, and much bad blood, but they're still touring and releasing the odd single. They also have been inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame, and they won several Junos (Canadian Grammy) in the 70's.
Fun Fact: Elvis (Presley, not Costello) was a big fan of this week's tune and supposedly did a cover version of it that will probably never be released. Bummer--it might actually be worth a listen and it certainly couldn't be any worse that some of the shit cover songs music industry cretins have released through the years....
Released in 1974 from their cleverly titled second LP, Bachman-Turner Overdrive II, "Takin' Care of Business"is considered "the Provincial rock anthem of Manitoba" (hey--you take your accolades where you can get them in this goofy old world) and is one of the ten most covered rock songs of all-time. It reached #12 (with a bullet!) on the Billboard Hot 100 and celebrates what has been a theme of FNJ numerous times this year: being a musician is a much better career than being a retail manager (duh!). Opening with some killer three chord guitar riffs, joined by a honky tonk piano, and some deft solo guitar, and livened by power drumming throughout, "Takin' Care of Business" is a joyous romp through the perks and promises of being a musician. Bachman's throaty vocals are both light-hearted and encouraging--hell, he even tells you if you get sick of the 9 to 5 grind, that you can pick up a guitar and be a musician, too (hey, who needs this "slavin' job" anyway?). It's a power pop gem and a perfect encapsulation of so much of what was right about music in the 1970's.
Lyric Sheet: "Get a second-hand guitar/Chances are you'll go far/If you get in with the right bunch of fellows...."
Enjoy (and please note that I own a 45 just like the one that provides the background for the video--can you say "old fart" boys and girls?):
Well, it looks like we've lost another one--Democrat Rob Quist has been defeated by Greg Gianforte in Montana's special election for the House seat vacated by Ryan Zinke, by approximately seven points.
I know this one was a long shot--Trump won here by 20 points and Quist made a nice run and kept the race reasonably close. I also know that the mountain is high in these deep red states, and it's going to take us a while to get to the top...
...but goddamn it, it'd sure be nice to just once win one of these fuckers, wouldn't it?
Former Colorado state legislator and preacher Gordon Klingenschmitt stated in a recent broadcast that the Democratic Party requires its members to be "demon-possessed" and to "serve the devil."
Which probably comes as a great surprise to a) our religious members whom I'm guessing pray to their God often, and b) our atheistic members because you know if we don't believe in a mysterious being in the sky who does magic tricks we're certainly going to believe in a mysterious being who lives below the earth in a fiery pit and does magic tricks.
You know what's really frightening? That enough people supported this idiot to put him into Colorado's state legislature: you have to be a special kind of stupid to believe the shit he's slinging.
And on those nights when you're tossing and turning at 4:00 am and wondering exactly how in the hell we ended up with Donald Trump as President...folks like Gordon Klingenschmitt are probably the answer.
This week's tune--which is the most recently released of the 125 songs covered thus far here on FNJ--follows in the tradition of other troubled youth songs ("I Don't Like Mondays" by the Boomtown Rats,"Jeremy" by Pearl Jam, among several others) except for one major difference: you can dance to it. Considering the gun violence epidemic that currently is ripping so many of our youth to pieces, if we can get them dancing instead we might eventually make some progress...
Foster the People was formed in 2009 in Los Angeles and shortly thereafter received international acclaim following the release of their first song, "Pumped Up Kicks." They were quickly signed to a recording deal after a homemade version of the song went viral, and have parlayed that into two albums with a third on its way later this year. The song also garnered them three Grammy nominations, numerous music festival invitations, and a steady stream of touring. And in thirty years if I'm still here and haven't run out of tunes for Friday Night Jukebox (not bloody likely) I'll probably be marveling over how the members of Foster the People managed to turn one song into a thirty year career...
Fun Fact: The video for "Pumped Up Kicks" has received over 284 million views on Youtube. That's enough views that nearly every American could have seen it once. I know, I know--fascinating, my God...
Officially released in 2010 on their TorchesLP, "Pumped Up Kicks" (for those who are old like me and may not know, "pumped up kicks" are nice/expensive tennis shoes) went on to become quite the sensation, ending up at #3 (with a bullet!) on the Billboard Hot 100. The song is really a one of a kind single--driven mostly by its bass guitar and its drums, it is as funky as a pop song can get. It features vocals that sound like they've been recorded in a tin can (but it works), followed by a catchy as all hell chorus, all dedicated to a young man having homicidal fantasies which may or may not come to fruition. And despite the rather upbeat music, there is a certain eeriness to the song and its lyrics that take it to another level rather than being just another misguided pop song. There's even a section where the chorus is whistled and, once again, despite the oddness, it works. I remember being taken the first time I heard it and it still sounds as good to me today as it did back then. Every now and again a heretofore unknown band creates a magical song, and Foster the People were lucky enough to do just that with "Pumped Up Kicks."
Rap Sheet: "I reason with my cigarette/Then say, "Your hair's on fire, you must've lost your wits, yeah?"
While I wouldn't place a wager on its ending, the Trump presidency is in serious trouble after the revelations of these past couple of weeks. But as bad as Trump has been as President (it may be the worst four months in the history of the American presidency), should Trump get impeached and Pence assume the presidency it is a guarantee that Pence will be worse.
You read that right: Pence will be worse.
Because as disastrous as it is, Trump's utter incompetence and abysmal approval ratings are keeping republicans from enacting much of their agenda. They are simply too busy trying to deal with his rank lunacy, and the cries from the Liberal wilderness are more likely to fall on deaf ears with a President who isn't hated by everyone but republicans.
With Pence in the White House, every christian wet dream that the DeVos family has ever had will be enacted. With Pence in the White House, every union smashing, wage busting, poor people crushing, and America destroying tax cut fantasy the Koch brothers have had since time immemorial will come to pass.
Donald Trump's buffoonery has helped keep them in check. With a (seeming) return to normalcy under Pence, their psychopathic selves will doom all of us.
Therefore, in order to survive, it is vital that we make sure people equate everything Donald Trump does...with Mike Pence.
I've been having a hell of a time lately of writing posts for this blog--with a wife and two children with pre-existing conditions, the repeal of Obamacare and the passage of the AHCA in the House, while still a long way from being a done deal, is a lot closer to bringing misery to those I love. Watching republicans show their complete and utter contempt for this country (I lived through Watergate, and whatever fault republicans of that era may have had, they realized the consequences of what Nixon had done and put their country before their party) just so they can pass tax cuts for the wealthy and shred the social safety net for working men and women has left me feeling a lot like Sisyphus.
For those not familiar, Sisyphus, in Greek mythology, was condemned for an eternity to push a boulder up a steep hill, only to have the boulder hit him on its way back down again and again. And that's the way the political situation has seemed to me over these past few weeks: utterly hopeless.
But as I was cutting the grass yesterday, listening to songs shuffle on my iPod against the roar of the lawn mower, Johnny Cash's version of Tom Petty's "I Won't Back Down" began to play, and it dawned on me that even if we lose, over and over again, for history and posterity it will be enough to say that we didn't stop fighting.
Seems New Jersey republican congressman Rodney Frelinghuysen, in a letter to Lakeland Bank seeking campaign donations, complained that one of their employees was an activist against the Trump agenda of tax cuts for the rich, fascism, white supremacy, rank incompetence, and general idiocy. The employee was later called on the carpet by her boss and the company's CEO, and because of the blowback, she eventually resigned.
Believe it or not, I really like this campaign tactic from Rep. Frelinghuysen. Outside of family, there are few things that are more important to average Americans than their job, as it is their means--and often their children's sole means--of survival. Now I've read some comments on this, and while republicans were generally supportive, unfortunately for Rep. Frelinghuysen, they only make up 40-45% of voters. And I'm pretty sure that other 55-60% of voters are going to be extremely bothered by having to wonder if by not falling in lockstep with a candidate they are going to lose their jobs.
Somewhere, right now, I'm sure there's some smart son of a bitch in New Jersey already preparing ads for October and November of 2018 reminding that 55-60% just how much Rep. Frelinghuysen cares about their families' welfare vis a vis whether or not they agree with him politically.
They could probably use some footage of some reality show host saying "You're fired...."
Back in the day when I was still a young man managing a Camelot Music store, I made mention to my then boss about what shit a particular song was (if memory serves, it was Stars on 45 and their hit song, the oh-so-cleverly named "Stars on 45 Medley"--horrifyingly dreadful would be a vast understatement as to its artistic worth), and my boss got all defensive and said I was wrong because so many people had bought the song. He wasn't a very good boss and he was an even worse purveyor of pop music, and he was also dead wrong: beauty may be in the eye of the beholder, but shit music is shit music no matter how many people buy it.
I make mention of this because this week's tune happened to end up on some half-assed critic's top 20 worst songs of all-time list that I'd seen at one time or another, and it got me to thinking what with nearly everything released by Madonna, Michael Jackson, and Abba being utter shit, the disco craze, and the umpteen brutal and completely unnecessary cover versions that become hits, among many, many other bad songs, I could literally think of thousands of songs that were considerably worse than this one.
And having a certain fondness for it, I added it to the FNJ pantheon of pop.
There really isn't much to tell about Dishwalla--they formed in 1993 in Santa Barbara, CA (lucky bastards), had a big hit a couple of years later, and have managed to make a career out of said hit. They've now released five albums (one just this year), continue to tour, and have done a number of charitable concerts for worthy causes. They are also--which has been a theme of a number of FNJ bands this year--another group that is nearly twenty-five (or 35, or 45) years down the road and still making music because they managed to compose a single song that made the top 40. If only I'd had a scintilla of music talent....
Of all the songs featured thus far on FNJ, this one is probably the lamest--but just because the cool kids aren't listening to it doesn't mean it's not a damn fine little tune. Released in 1995 on theirPet Your FriendsLP, "Counting Blue Cars" would go on to reach #15 (with a bullet!) on the Billboard Hot 100. It is what it is--a nice catchy pop song, with some heartfelt vocals, and an earthy guitar on top of some driving drumming . But what really made "Counting Blue Cars" more than just your average pop tune, though, was the sheer number of people who absolutely lost their shit (I remember this because I was still in the music biz in '95) because in the song Dishwalla had the audacity to suppose that God was a woman. The horrors--because it's okay to believe in an all powerful, all knowing, mysterious being in the sky who can do magic tricks, but believing that this all powerful, all knowing, mysterious being in the sky who can do magic tricks is a woman is just a bit beyond the pale.
Sometimes it's just the sheer absurdity of it that makes life worth living--and a good pop song that celebrates such absurdity worth listening to again and again.
Lyric Sheet: "Tell me all your thoughts on God/'Cause I would really like to meet her/And ask her why we're who we are..."
The day after Hitler/Trump was elected, I told the Beautiful Girl that I never believed for a minute that the powers that be in the republican party wanted Trump anywhere near the Presidency and that's why they worked their magic and got Trump to pick Pence--beloved by both the religious right and Corporate America--as his VP. The minute Trump ran into trouble they'd either force him to resign or impeach his ass and let the right wing wet dream becomes President #46.
Never in a million years did I dream they'd actually sink to the bottom of the ocean floor with the mother fucker, but that's what they're on their way to doing. McConnell, Ryan, the lot of them--dancing around a ticking time bomb like he's a pocketful of posies. Unscrupulous, heartless, ruthless...but I never would have pegged republicans for being foolish.
Friday, Wednesday--sometimes life gets in the way...
So, an eon ago when I was doing my half-assed research for this week's tune, I read that one of the knocks against Bush when they were in their heyday was that they sounded too much like Nirvana/Pearl Jam. And after I was done reading, as I am wont to do, I gave this week's song a listen, and I swear it hadn't been playing thirty seconds when the Beautiful Girl asked, "Are you listening to Pearl Jam? It sounds like Pearl Jam."
In fairness, back in Alternative Music's wondrous nineties run, about half the bands with records out sounded like Nirvana or Pearl Jam....
Formed in 1992 in London, Bush had a nice run in the nineties garnering several hit albums (including a #1) and several top ten singles. They broke up in 2002, reunited in 2010, and have been together since, recording three more albums. Time has been kinder to the band--their nineties material has gotten a better shake from the critical press in recent years (oddly enough, I picked up a copy of their debut album for a buck at a thrift store last year and was amazed at how much better it was than I remembered from its initial release--I spent several weeks listening to it). At any rate, they're twenty-five years down the road and still making music,and you can't beat that.
Fun Fact: If last week's tune was notable for being about worrying, this week's is notable for being about...um, a laxative? Glycerine is actually a clear odorless sweet-tasting liquid that is used in many food products, soap products, anti-freeze, diesel fuel, and suppositories. Fascinating, my God...
Released in 1995 from theirSixteen StoneLP, "Glycerine" would eventually reach #28 on the Billboard Hot 100. For me, the song is most memorable for three things: showing the pulsating beauty of three guitar chords, Gavin Rossdale's otherworldly vocals, and the fact that I have no fucking clue what it means in the end. "Glycerine" is obviously about a relationship, but whether it's failed or failing (or neither) is never made clear (though it may be desired)--and maybe that's the point. Even the best of relationships are never simple and neither is "Glycerine." Still, as with much of the best of pop music, it's exact meaning is unimportant--as long as it fills the holes in the head and the heart it's done its job.
Lyric Sheet: "It might just be/Clear, simple and plain/Well, that's just fine/That's just one of my names..."
For some reason that I can't quite comprehend, there seems to be some angst on the left over whether or not republicans are going to nuke the legislative filibuster as well. I mean, I understand the desire to stop bad legislation, but let's face it: the Senate is broken (as witnessed by the obstructionism of republicans all through President Obama's two terms) and if we intend to pass any legislation of substance again, the filibuster needs to go. It's bad enough that that Wyoming, with all of a half million people, still gets the same two votes as California and its forty million--there's no need for letting a minority of Americans kill good legislation as well.
My guess is republicans will eventually kill it (and I wouldn't be surprised in the slightest if TrumpShitcare is the legislation that they do it over). Mitch McConnell has proven himself over and over to be little more than a waterboy for the wealthy and if it means more money for them, he'll bend over backwards to give the rich even more than they already have.
And in four years--if Trump continues his historically bad approval ratings there's a good chance we'll control all three branches again--we can move forward without a bullshit sixty vote threshold on such legislation as single payer healthcare, a $15 minimum wage, a significant and job creating infrastructure plan, among many others, and only need fifty-one votes to pass all of them. The best part? When republicans complain, we can tell them to look in the mirror--they'll be the ones who created the Democratic monster.
Snapshot #1: Tom Perez, chairman of the DNC, this week called Donald Trump's budget "shitty."
Oh, the horrors...
This caused The Washington Post to ask Perez about his choice of words--to which Perez rightly responded that Trump has said far worse. Which in turn caused CBS' John Dickerson to pen this ludicrous piece decrying the Democrat's use of language and, in a nutshell, said Democrats were no better than Trump if they resorted to expletives.
Snapshot #2: When speaking before the NRA this past week, Trump referred to the 2020 Presidential election and suggested his opponent could be Elizabeth Warren (we can only hope) whom he referred to as Pocahontas. This is no different than calling an African-American politician Uncle Remus or Asian-American politician Charlie Chan. And yet where was the outrage from The Washington Post and John Dickerson?
Completely non-existent.
And to sum up our national media in a word: shitty.
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.
