Friday Night Jukebox, Vol. CXXXIX--Beck: Loser

If anyone ever compiled a top ten list of lines you'd never guess would be in a pop single, I'm pretty sure "Get crazy with the cheese whiz" would have made it--though in all honesty, pretty much every line from this week's tune probably would have made the imaginary list.

If I had to describe the music of Beck Hansen (heretofore simply Beck), I think I'd say it was commonly eclectic (if ever there was an oxymoron...)--he somehow manages to be creative and experimental while fusing multiple musical styles and still make it sound catchy for simple folk like me who grew up on Top 40 radio.  And while I haven't followed him every step of the way on his musical journey (Rolling Stone put his Odelay album in their list of the "500 Greatest Albums of All Time" and I hated it), he's certainly been worth the effort.  He's also made quite a career of it--he's released 12 albums (with a thirteenth to be released later this year), been a critical darling since time immemorial, won five Grammy Awards (including album of the year for Morning Phase), numerous other awards (too many to mention), sold millions of records and concert tickets, and still found time to produce other artists as well as collaborate with a who's who of popular music.  Not too bad for a guy who for all intents and purposes was homeless when his first single became a surprise hit.

Originally released by Bong Load Records (now there's a name) in 1993, "Loser" originally garnered airplay in Los Angeles (so many cool kids in California), moved on to Seattle (more cool kids), and by the time radio stations in New York (even more cool kids) started requesting it, Bong Load couldn't keep up with the demand.  A bidding war ensued for Beck among major record labels, Geffen won, and re-released the single and put it on his Mellow Gold LP.  It would reach #10 (with a bullet!) on the Billboard Hot 100 and launch Beck's musical odyssey.  

Beck freely admits that the lyrics to "Loser" are gibberish (he's even stated that if he'd known it was going to be such a big hit he would have made the lyrics more substantial), so it'll spare you my half-assed attempt at figuring out the song's "meaning," but I will say this:  gibberish or not, the lyrics are unforgettable.  And when you add in a wicked slide guitar, funky drums, and a touch of sitar (hello, George Harrison!), you end up with a brilliant slice of pop music pie--and that's even before I mention the We Share the Sentiment sing along chorus, and especially its first incarnation, which Beck beckons (such wordplay!) with a wondrous "Yo...cut it!"  Even though it's been almost twenty-five years since it's release, I've spent the last two days singing it over and over, enjoying it as much as when it was still brand new, and my youngest son finally asked, "Dad, what the heck is cheese whiz?"  Beautiful...

Fun Fact:  Beck came up with the "Loser" part of it because he thought his rapping of the song's lyrics sucked and he was a loser because he couldn't rap better.  I know--fascinating, my God...

Rap Sheet:  "And my time is a piece of wax/Falling on a termite/Who's choking on the splinters..."

Enjoy (and get crazy with the cheese whiz!):

Fuck Donald Trump,

emaycee

Worst. God. Ever.

Truer words, friends, truer words....

Paula White, another in a long line of pastors who got rich off the gullibility of others (which, one supposes, could be said about many a corporate CEO and Wall Street investor as well), said this week that resisting Donald Trump is an affront to God.

You know, if resisting the agenda of a man who coddles Nazis, equates peaceful protesters with white supremacists, wants to take health care away from millions of Americans, singles out Latinos as being rapists and murderers, thinks he has a right to sexually assault women, has been caught in well over a thousand lies just in the seven months he's been President, threatens to get us into a nuclear war over a pissing contest, and is enriching himself and his family at the expense of American taxpayers (among many others) bothers God, well then frankly God can kiss my ass.

Never in the history of civilized man has there been a God more pathetic than the God of American evangelicals.

Fuck Donald Trump,
emaycee

Friday Night Jukebox, Vol. CXXXVIII--Creedence Clearwater Revival: Fortunate Son

Two minutes and twenty-one seconds--that's how long it took for this week's tune to lash out at class warfare in America with a resonance that extends to this day, maybe even more so.  And after seven months of an orange Nazi in the White House, it's brutally obvious that the hubris of the wealthy elite, as angrily expressed by a band that was one part Bruce Springsteen and one part The Who, hasn't alleviated one iota in the past fifty years.

Creedence Clearwater Revival formed in 1959 and bounced around the San Francisco Bay Area for several years before getting their first big break in 1967 when they were offered a studio recording opportunity--if only they'd change their name from The Golliwogs (probably a good career move).  They settled on Creedence Clearwater Revival (check the Wikipedia link--the name's origin is not as interesting as you might think), and the rest is history.  Led by lead vocalist and lead guitarist John Fogerty, over the next five years CCR would have five top ten singles and six top ten albums before it all came crashing down.  The band had an acrimonious break up (Fogerty's brother Tom left the band first, and the brothers never really reconciled, even before Tom's death in 1990), followed by years of lawsuits and Fogerty's refusal to play with the two still living bandmates at their induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and are one of the few bands to have never had a reunion.  Fogerty went on to some success as a solo artist, the other two band members (Stu Cook and Doug Clifford, not that most people really care) continue on as Creedence Clearwater Revisited.  Still, their legacy is as one of America's great rock and roll bands (Rolling Stone listed them as the 82nd best rock act of all time), and they are still a staple of FM album oriented rock radio (if there's still anyone who listens to FM radio).

Released on their LP Willy and the Poor Boys (great album title, by the way) in 1969, "Fortunate Son" was actually the B side of "Down on the Corner" (back in the day it wasn't unusual for record labels to release two sided singles) and would eventually reach #3 (with a bullet!) on the Billboard Hot 100.  Its debut came at the height of Vietnam War protests and it was quickly adopted as an anti-war anthem (which it most certainly is) but I think that just calling it an anti-war anthem downplays its inherent theme of the rich getting richer while the poor shovel all of their shit.  Opening with thumping drums and an ominous guitar line, Fogerty literally tears the roof off the house with his fuck you vocals as he works his way through a series of scenes, each depicting the let them eat cake views of America's rich.  Fogerty saves the coup de grace for the chorus in which he lets it be known that he ain't like them, and unlike these fortunate sons, he's had to fight for what is his.  Much like Springsteen, CCR never lost sight of its working class roots, and the result was a masterpiece (#99 on Rolling Stone's "500 Greatest Songs of All Time) of political vengeance--we ain't like rich folk and because we ain't, America is the better for it.

Fun Fact (Well, maybe not for you):  Outside of San Francisco radio (another hotbed of cool kids), the first radio station to play CCR in heavy rotation was WLS in Chicago...which just happens to be the station that was my introduction to rock and roll's top 40 in the mid 70's.  Fascinating, my God....

Lyric Sheet:  "It ain't me, it ain't me, I ain't no millionaire's son, no..."

Enjoy:

Fuck Donald Trump,
emaycee

Monument-ally simple

Good riddance

Have you ever noticed that you never hear about people in Germany protesting the removal of monuments to Hitler or Goebbels or Himmler?  That's because the good folks in Germany had the sense not to erect statues of cretins who were a stain on humanity.

Too bad we can't say the same about our neighbors in the American South.

Fuck Donald Trump,
emaycee

Crocodile tears

Donald Trump addressing his fellow republicans

Can we stop pretending that Donald Trump is the first racist republican we've had in the White House?  From Nixon's Southern strategy, to Reagan's welfare queens, to Bush II's start of voter suppression tactics and callous response to Hurrican Katrina, the republican party has been at war with people of color for the last fifty years.

Trump is just the first to be overtly racist.

Fuck Donald Trump,
emaycee

Friday Night Jukebox, Vol. CXXXVII--Marshall Crenshaw: Someday, Someway

We'll spend another week in pop heaven as FNJ features a song by an artist who hails from my adopted home--and one who offers proof that Michigan has produced many a talented musician, and not just twits like Kid Rock and Ted Nugent.

I recently read someone who said that if we lived in a just world, Marshall Crenshaw would rule the airwaves and I nodded in agreement.  After spending his formative years here in the suburbs of Detroit, Crenshaw began his career as an understudy playing John Lennon in Beatlemania.  After eventually taking over the role and touring the country, Crenshaw left the troupe and formed a band in New York City and began his solo career in earnest.  In 1982 Crenshaw released his debut album and first single to critical acclaim--both would go on to be the most commercially successful of his career, though they were moderate sellers at best.  Crenshaw has gone on to release nine more albums, six EPs, wrote a book about rock and roll in the movies, and still plays 40-50 shows a year, most within driving distance of his home.  He's known for playing a mean guitar, too.

Every now and again you'll hear a song for the first time and think "Holy shit, what was that?" Invariably, it's a song you'll love for the rest of your life--and such was the case with "Someday, Someway" for me.  Released as the initial single from his very aptly titled first album, Marshall Crenshaw, it garnered enough airplay and sales to reach #36 (with a bullet!) on the Billboard Hot 100.  Opening with what a friend of mine called jangly guitars (if there was anything the 80's was good at, it was jangly guitars), Crenshaw forays into a power pop plea to the love of his life to tell him what's making her so sad--alas she won't and Creshaw is left to hope that someday, someway he'll understand and be able to return the love she has given to him.  Throughout, "Someday, Someway" swings and sways, a little rockabilly, and is given a pop sheen through Crenshaw's sincere vocals, power drumming (provided by Crenshaw's brother Robert), and a melody that I'm sure Jesus Christ himself would be humming for days if he'd ever heard it.  It's primal pop for people who worship at the altar of rock and roll....

Fun Fact:  Crenshaw was often compared (favorably) to Buddy Holly early in his career, and eventually would play Holly in the movie La Bamba.  Cool!

Lyric Sheet:  "Now after all you've done for me/All I really want to do/Is take the love you brought my way/And give it all right back to you...."

Enjoy:

Fuck Donald Trump,
emaycee

In the belly of the beast

Yes, Virginia, this is the republican party

Take a good look at the picture at the top--it's a shot from yesterday's White Nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Va., in protest of the removal of a statue of a traitorous racist, Robert E. Lee.

It is also a picture of today's republican party.  Not sure about that?  Among the people "representing" us in Washington, D.C. are a man voted down for a federal judgeship because of his racist views (Attorney General Jeff Sessions), a White Nationalist (Trump's chief strategist Steve Bannon), and a Nazi sympathizer (Trump adviser Sebastien Gorka).  We also have Trump, who singled out Latinos again and again as being murderers and rapists.

Still don't believe it?  Watch how many prominent republicans (McConnell, Ryan, virtually any Senator, or former major candidate like McCain or Romney) condemn an overtly racist rally.

There will not be a single one--because they don't want to piss off their base.

Losing elections to these people is not an option.

Fuck Donald Trump,
emaycee