As my regular readers (all three of them) know, Labor Day is my favorite holiday of the year. It's a day when we celebrate not only our working-class roots, but also the labor unions who have done so much to give us at least a fighting chance (forty-hour week, paid overtime, paid vacations, pension plans, health benefits, paid holidays, right to strike, ad infinitum). And with billionaires, led by the orange ferret headed buffoon Donald Trump, trying to radically alter America's social structure--to give themselves even more money and the rest of us even less--it's especially important to remind our fellow Americans how much labor unions have given to us and how important they will be to the resurrection of our democracy.
As is my yearly wont, I like to celebrate by sharing a tune, which prior to today (if memory serves) have all celebrated labor unions. Today's tune (which I discovered on some now long forgotten top ten list of songs that celebrate workers), from the Rolling Stones, no less (who set out to write a working-class anthem and succeeded quite magnificently, if you ask me) is a toast to the working man. "Salt of the Earth" is the last song on the Stones' classic LP (he says, though he's never heard it...) Beggar's Banquet, and, somewhat fittingly enough because of its reverence for the common man, is much like a hymn (including a gospel choir). The lyrics, for those interested, can be found here.
Like a complete unknown, like a...guy who's late once again....
Amazingly enough, my introduction to this week's tune would have been my sophomore year of high school, which coincidentally would be the year it was released. It was quite ubiquitous on my music radio of choice (or not choice as we didn't have FM radio in the family car and good luck getting an FM station on our portable radio unless the skies were bluer than blue) WLS-89 AM out of Chicago. It's also one of those songs that not only did I like when it was originally released, but as I--and the song--have aged my appreciation for it has only grown....
Billy Preston was born in 1946 in Houston, Texas, and by the time he was ten he was playing keyboards (a prodigy, he was self taught) for gospel groups. At sixteen he had backed Little Richard and Sam Cooke, and by the end of the sixties had played with the Beatles and the Rolling Stones. He went solo in the early seventies, had a string of hit singles through the early eighties (and won two Grammys), and then, sadly, his life took a series of unfortunate turns. Preston suffered from sexual abuse as a child, which may have led to his cocaine addiction, had the relationship break up from hell, was charged with drunk driving (more than once), assault, and insurance fraud, struggled with his homosexuality vis-a-vis his strong religious beliefs, and by 1997 found himself sentenced to four years in prison for cocaine possession during his probation for drug charges. Preston would serve eighteen months of the four years and get himself finally cleaned up. Through it all, Preston continued to tour and play keyboards for a plethora of stars (probably easier to list the ones he didn't play for than the ones he did). For his solo career, Preston released twenty-three studio albums, four gospel albums, one live album, and forty-six singles (two #1 singles, one #2, and two #4's). Unfortunately, Preston's drug addictions eventually caught up with him and he fell into a coma in late 2005 from complications of kidney disease and never recovered, passing away in 2006. Preston was posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2021.
"Nothing from Nothing" was the first single from his 1974 LP, the rather youthfully entitled, The Kids & Me.The single would hit #1 (with a bullet!), and the album would become the highest charting of his career, reaching #17.
Fun Fact: "Nothing from Nothing" was the first song played in the first musical appearance on Saturday Night Live when the show debuted in 1974.
Fun Fact #2: Preston is the only artist to be listed as a co-performer by the Beatles. Their single "Get Back" was credited as The Beatles with Billy Preston.
Opening with a snippet of carnivalesque reverie, "Nothing from Nothing" rolls right into some funky ass keyboards (quickly easy to see why Preston was considered one of the best keyboard players ever), and Preston adds to the fun with some funky ass vocals (nailing both the rhythm and the blues). A little further down the line a funky ass horn section joins the rollicking express and gives us a funk/pop/soul delight. Preston and co-writer Bruce Fisher heap on some nice wordplay in the lyrics, as well. Not really sure what the song is about (bringing something to the table if you're serious about a relationship with the protagonist?), but I don't know if it's all that important as long as the song moves you. In the end, it's another in a long line of glorious tunes from my favorite rock and roll era, the seventies--and for me, the more's the merrier.
Lyric Sheet: "Don't you remember I told ya/I'm soldier/In the war on poverty/Yeah, yes I am..."
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.
