Donald Trump's chief economic adviser and former Goldman-Sachs president Gary Cohn this week noted that with the extra $1000 a year Americans who make $100,000 a year would be getting from Trump's tax cuts for the wealthy, they could buy a new car.
Who knew there were cars coming out that cost $1000? Hell, we'll take three--my wife has never driven a new car, I haven't driven one since 2003, and our son will be 16 in a couple of years. After the trade in for our current cars, we'll end up making money and having no car payments!
What's that? There aren't new cars that cost a thousand dollars? Well, shit.
Who could have ever guessed that a rich prick in the Trump administration had no clue about the economic realities facing 90% of Americans?
A Friday Night Jukebox on a Friday night? Be still my beating heart....
I came across this week's tune on some sort of compilation album (name long forgotten) released a thousand years ago when in Louisville, KY working on a store remodel back in my Camelot Music days. It was one of those tunes that after the second or third listen I just couldn't get out of my head (but in a good way), and when I got back home to St. Louis I immediately bought it on a .45 single. Can you say "He's old!" boys and girls?
The Swingin' Medallions were formed in 1962 in the major metropolis of Greenwood, South Carolina. They are purveyors of beach music, which was born in the mid-40's around the Myrtle Beach (South Carolina) area, and revolves around the dance known as the shag (or Carolina shag), and remains popular today primarily in the Carolinas, but also in pockets of the deep South (the things you learn on Wikipedia). While some major pop/R & B groups have performed numbers that one can dance the shag to (the Temptations, the Four Tops, the Foundations classic "Build Me Up Buttercup"), the core bands remain regional favorites in the Carolinas. Some of the original Swingin' Medallions (there were 8 all told, near as I can tell) still perform together to this day throughout the South (there's a video of them singing with Bruce Springsteen in South Carolina a couple years back that isn't worth a listen because someone posted it from their phone and if you turn the volume up to 80 on your computer you can almost hear the lyrics), and they are another in a long line of bands featured on FNJ this year who have made the mostest out of their one hit single. And good on them--who wouldn't rather spend your Saturday night singing for a bunch of happy college kids rather than stocking grocery shelves?
"Double Shot (of My Baby's Love)" was released in 1966 and appeared on their very aptly named debut album, Double Shot (of My Baby's Love). It would become the band's only chart success, reaching #17 (with a bullet!) on the Billboard Hot 100. And just to show you how far we've come, the song was actually banned on many radio stations because it discussed drinking and sex. The horror!
If "Louie Louie" by the Kingsmen and "96 Tears" by ? and the Mysterians got married and had a baby, it would probably be "Double Shot (of My Baby's Love)." How's that for an intro? Truth be told, the reason I say that is every time I hear it it reminds me of the two--it's got the mirth and frivolity of "Louie Louie" and the organ reminds me of "96 Tears." Still, the song stands very well on its own, a paean to a good lovin' woman, replete with some fine harmony vocals, plenty of hand claps, a catchy as all hell chorus with a lot of yeah, yeah, yeahs, and enough hootin' and hollerin' (as my dear old Dad used to say) in the background to keep even the most cynical of music lovers happy. All in all, like last week's tune from Kiss, this is a fun song, made to be enjoyed.
Lyric Sheet: "It wasn't wine that I had too much of/It was a double shot of my baby's love..."
You have to be a special kind of stupid to believe that Colin Kaepernick is not currently on a National Football League team roster because he's no longer the player he once was. There are at least four to five starting quarterbacks in the NFL (including the starting QB for Kaepernick's former team, the 49ers) right now that are not as good as Kaepernick, and that's not even counting the thirty-two for the most part no name backup quarterbacks employed in the NFL.
And it begs the question: what would you be willing to give up to take a knee for your beliefs?
Granted, Kaepernick signed a very lucrative contract a few years back and likely isn't going to be homeless any time soon. Still, he spent a lifetime preparing to become an NFL player, realized his dream, and then lost his dream because he had the courage to stand up for his beliefs, the courage to say that African-Americans deserve better than they are receiving from their country and its leaders.
He started a movement, one that's making America and Americans better.
And that's a hell of a lot more than one can say about that son of a bitch Donald Trump and his minions.
Once again republicans have controlled the narrative and turned what was a protest about racial inequality in America into a controversy about the flag and free speech. Turn to most any channel, read most any article, and what they're screaming about is patriotism vs. free speech rights. Colin Kaepernick did not take a knee for free speech (though his actions very much are)--he took a knee to call out African-American citizens being gunned down by our police with impunity. To call out unemployment being greater among people of color. To call out poverty being greater among people of color.
Remember that every time they cry about respect for the flag, or question the patriotism of those who originally took a knee, they are telling you that a piece of cloth is more important than an American life.
And we need to punch back by telling them it isn't.
Alas, my introduction to this week's tune came not from the original, but from a cover version by The Who...which my youngest son thoroughly loved, especially their version from the Isle of Wight Festival in 1970. I had mentioned to him that it had originally been done by Eddie Cochran (which I'd heard a time or two, but wasn't really familiar with), and at some point he asked me if we could find his version on Youtube. We did...and it was love at first (give or take) listen. We both listened to it two or three times a night for the next month.
Eddie Cochran began his musical career as so many others have done by forming a band when he was in high school at the wee age of fourteen. A multi-instrumentalist (though he is remembered most for his guitar playing), Cochran would go on to become one of the forefathers of rockabilly, an innovator in the studio, and an influence to a number rock and roll stars higher than most republicans can count. Though he would release only one album in his lifetime, and have 7 singles reach the charts, Cochran was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987. Sadly, Cochran's musical career was cut short when he was killed in April of 1960 when the taxi he was riding in while on tour in England blew a tire and ran into a pole. Cochran's last act was a heroic one--when he realized the car was going to crash he thew his body in front of his girlfriend to protect her. Cochran was thrown from the taxi and died of massive head injuries later the same night. He was twenty-one years old.
It would be all but impossible to understate the influence that "Summertime Blues" has had on rock and roll--there are probably fewer bands who have not covered the song than there are those that have. Released in 1958, the single would reach #8 (most assuredly with a bullet!) on the Billboard Hot 100. More telling is the fact that two more bands would take the single into the top 30--Blue Cheer took the song to #14 in 1968 (wasn't all that crazy about their version), and the aforementioned Who version went to #27 just two years later.
To call "Summertime Blues" the "Smells Like Teen Spirit" of the 1950's would be flattery of the highest order to both tunes. Cochran tells the tale of summertime angst--and what a bummer it is to have to work a job for money when there's so much other fun to be had when the weather's warm and you're out of school for three months. The song lasts a mere one minute and fifty-three seconds, but it packs an opera's worth of highlights into that short time span, from Cochran's wondrous rockabilly guitar work (I defy you to name a guitarist who hears it and doesn't immediately try to learn it--I did!), to his fuck this bullshit vocals, to the hand claps (and I loves me some hand claps in songs), to the use of a deep voice each time an adult speaks to Cochran's desires. I would honestly say it holds its own with the great early rock and roll tunes like "Rock Around the Clock," or "Johnny B. Goode" or "Blue Suede Shoes." It is a timeless classic that came, like those songs, at a time when American kids were first beginning to question authority and find their place in a rapidly changing America.
Lyric Sheet: "A-I'm a-gonna raise a fuss/I'm a-gonna raise a holler/About a-working all summer/Just to try to earn a dollar..."
Enjoy (and note Cochran trying to keep from laughing each time his band mate does the adult voice):
Bonus Video (because you can never get enough of The Who--well at least I can't):
News that the Koch Brothers have threatened to withhold hundreds of millions of dollars in campaign contributions if republicans don't repeal Obamacare and pass tax cuts for the Koch Brothers, and the republicans response of "Yes, sir, may I have another?" isn't surprising in the least. But it does open an opportunity for Democrats to ask Americans just what it is they are getting for republicans fealty to the rich--because from where I'm sitting it sure seems like it's just one big shit sandwich, i.e., the more bread you've got, the less shit you've got to eat.
I'm pretty sure that government of the rich, by the rich, and for the rich isn't a government that most of our three hundred thirty million citizens are much interested in supporting.
As part of their efforts to show how pro life they are in letting thousands of Americans die from lack of healthcare, republicans are claiming that the block grants feature of the disastrous Graham Cassidy healthcare "bill" would be to allow for more innovation in how health insurance is provided.
After thirty-five years in Corporate America, let me tell you what passes for innovation in the business world:
1) Pay CEOs more
2) Slash employees
3) Slash expenses
4) Lobby for corporate welfare
5) Blame underlings when "innovation" doesn't make the company successful/more successful
You can keep your fucking innovation--I'd much rather have my Obamacare.
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.
