Friday Night Jukebox, Vol. CCLV--The Producers: What She Does to Me (The Diana Song)

A million years ago when I first started managing a music store, CBS Records and its affiliates used to send every store a promotional copy of every single they released for public consumption.  As you might imagine, my store received hundreds of promotional 45s every year, and which ever ones the people who worked for me didn't want, I'd take home and my first wife and I, being poor newlyweds with a baby on the way, would listen to each of them for an evening of cheap entertainment.  You'd be surprised though how many of them actually turned out to be decent little singles--just like this week's tune.

The Producers formed in Atlanta, Georgia in 1981 and thanks to some success through the southeastern U.S., were able to cobble together a ten year career.  The band does occasionally reunite for one off affairs in Georgia, but for the most part its members have moved onto other bands/vocations.  The Producers released three albums during their initial run, and had an unreleased album hit the shelves to little fanfare in 2001.  They also still have an unreleased album from 2012 just waiting in the vaults for a little magic to help it see the light of day.  They only had one album and one single chart over the course of their career.  While two of the band's original members are still making music, two have joined the mundane masses, one driving a taxi and the other as the owner of his own cleaning service. 

"What She Does to Me (The Diana Song)" was released in 1981 on the band's cleverly named debut LP, The Producers.  The song reached #61 (with a bullet!) on the Billboard Hot 100, and the album hit #163 on the Billboard 200.  As noted above, these were the only chartings the band ever had...and still two more than I've ever had.

A couple of years after the Producers debuted, Rolling Stone released a record guide, entitled appropriately enough, The Rolling Stone Record Guide.  Under the entry for the Producers, the critic noted that they were the kind of band that made him wish he'd devoted his life to baseball after all...which in light of my love for "What She Does to Me" seems a bit harsh.  Frankly, the song was another in a long line of great 1980's power pop singles, and as the YouTube video notes, is a lost gem from that era.  It's a tale of a woman torn between two lovers (actually based on one of the band members' wife), and the torment of one of her paramours knowing that even when he's with her, his competition is right there, too.  The band has some nice guitar work throughout, the drums drive the single into the fast lane, and the band as a whole does a great job of conveying the angst of falling in love with someone and knowing that no one else makes you feel the way he or she does.  No, the Producers will never make anyone forget the Rolling Stones, but they did put together a hell of a song about the pain of love, and one great song is a hell of a lot more than any Rolling Stone critic ever had.

Liner Notes:  "He's looking over my shoulder/Though I'm with you tonight/He knows that he'll have you tomorrow/And you'll be holding him tight..."

Enjoy:

Fuck Donald Trump,
emaycee

Scruples? They don't need no stinking scruples...

Today's republican party

When your political party has fallen as far as the republican party has, to a place where your point man for your President's impeachment is a man (though he's not one in any sense of the word), Jim Jordan, who has been credibly accused by two people of enabling years of the sexual abuse of dozens of young men while he was a coach at Ohio State University, it's pretty much time to give the whole pious prudes, God fearing Christians shtick a rest.

From convicted child molester Dennis Hastert, to Roy Moore, to Jim Jordan, to John Engler (he represented Michigan St. in their sexual abuse scandal involving hundreds of young women), to, more than likely, Donald Trump, the republican party has become a cesspool for the perverted.

To be clear:

Socialism?  Better than perverts.

Green New Deal?  Better than perverts.

Open immigration?  Better than perverts.

Raising taxes on the wealthy?  Better than perverts.

Medicare for all?  Better than perverts.

Whatever claim republicans might have one time made to moral superiority to Democrats has pretty much flown right on out the window. 

If republicans can be this spineless in the face of the abuse of children, they are not a party to be trusted with the future of our republic in any way, shape, or form.

Fuck Donald Trump,
emaycee

The blind leading the blind

It's coming sooner than you think

News this past week that Facebook CEO and future victim of the coming class war Mark Zuckerberg had a secret meeting at the White House is definitely cause for alarm, as I think it's safe to assume that how to bridge the gap between rich and poor wasn't on the discussion list.  It's become obvious that Facebook is little more than the Fox News of social media--just another division of the republican party.

It's really hard to underestimate the utter tone deafness of these people--billionaires have become almost as hated as politicians in America, and giving them even more of our money and not throwing a few crumbs to the rest of us has all the earmarking of a disaster in waiting.

Because there's going to come a time when it's food for my kids or an extra billion to the eighty billion you already have, and the end result will not be pretty for the eighty billion dollar man (or woman).

Fuck Donald Trump,
emaycee

Not so supportive after all

Another American hero

Amazing, isn't it, how supportive of America's military the republican party is when it supports their racist agenda (see also, Kneeling in the NFL or Kaepernick, Colin) but when an American soldier is actually doing what he's supposed to do in being honest, courageous, forthright, and protecting America's best interests, as Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman did this week in Donald Trump's impeachment inquiry, his family has to live under 24 hour surveillance because of all the threats from the republican party's followers, even more so now with the news that the U.S. Military is thinking of moving them to a military base to insure his family's safety.

How obtuse does our national media have to be to not be screaming this hypocrisy from the rooftops each and every day?

It's reaching a point where it's virtually impossible to have any respect for anyone who votes for a republican candidate--and to wonder if there is a shred of actual patriotism left in their being.

Fuck Donald Trump,
emaycee

There goes my hero

A true American hero

Once again this past week, the NFL completely embarrassed itself (but it's a toss-up whether Jay-Z embarrassed himself more) in setting up a phony workout for Colin Kaepernick and having the much smarter Kaepernick see through it  and shove the NFL's hypocrisy up its ass just one more time.

But I'd like to point out something that was not reported on by any national sports outlet (so much for journalistic integrity...)--at his workout, Kaepernick sported a shirt with the name Kunta Kinte on it.

For those not familiar, Kunta Kinte is a character in Alex Haley's novel Roots who was kidnapped to America as part of the slave trade.  Once under his master's thumb, Kinte refused to be called by his slave name, Toby, and would only answer to Kunta Kinte until it was literally beaten out of him.

By wearing that shirt, Kaepernick made it perfectly clear that he was only going to return to the NFL as a free man, and not as the slave the NFL would have preferred.

Kaepernick has easily been the most courageous and inspirational American of the last decade, and the NFL is much poorer for not having a man of his character and talent among its players.

Fuck Donald Trump,
emaycee

Friday Night Jukebox, Vol. CCLIV--Fatboy Slim: Praise You

I was introduced to this week's tune by the music video for it (seen below--well worth watching for the humorous approach it takes without turning the song into a novelty hit), with a big assist once again from my darling daughter for making a tape of the album for me to enjoy the song more than just when the video was playing on Much Music.

Fatboy Slim, born Quentin Leo Cook (aka Norman Cook), began making music in the late 70's as both a DJ and in various bands in England before becoming the bassist for the Housemartins where he enjoyed his first commercial success.  Cook was in a couple more bands (frankly, Cook has been in more bands than a cat has lives and it's a bit much to cover all of them in a paragraph) before taking on the persona of Fatboy Slim (moniker chosen because Cook liked its oxymoronic nature) and having even more commercial, as well as critical, success.  Cook would go on to release four albums as Fatboy Slim before moving on to more bands and more commercial success.  For his career, Cook has used 24 aliases and been in nine different bands, and holds the Guinness Book of World Records for the most top forty singles under different names.  He is credited with popularizing the big beat genre of music (and yes, I had to look up big beat music), and has won ten MTV Video Music Awards and two Brit Awards.

Fun Fact:  The Housemartins were a Socialist Christian band (take that American Evangelicals), and their first album had the message "Take Jesus--Take Marx--Take Hope" on its back cover.

"Praise You" was released in 1999 as the third single from the album You've Come a Long Way, Baby.  It would go on to be a #1 single in the UK (Cook has enjoyed considerably more success in his native UK than here in America) and Iceland, #4 in Canada, #6 in Ireland, and, ahem #36 (with a bullet!) on the Billboard Hot 100 in the United States (apparently not nearly enough cool kids here in the States).  The album was also #1 in the UK, though only reaching (says the man who has had soooo many albums hit the top 40) #34 on the Billboard 200.

It takes an incredible amount of musical talent to take something so complicated as making a record and make it sound so incredibly simple...but Fatboy Slim pulls it off with honors on "Praise You."  Cook uses less than twenty-five different words for the lyrics and repeats the music again and again, but when you've got an admirable aspiration (praise) and a fantastic groove you're often going to have a hell of a hit single.  The music is no more than piano, bass, and drums (there may be a synthesizer/organ toward the close), but it's more than enough to drive the melody and the funk.  The lyrics may or may not be a reference to God/Jesus (a lover perhaps?), but it makes no matter.  Fatboy Slim has created a gem of a song that once again serves as reminder why I've devoted so much of my life to listening to music, and makes it all the worthwhile.

Rap Sheet:  "We've come a long, long way together/Through the hard times and the good/I have to celebrate you baby/I have to praise you like I should..."

Enjoy (for those wondering just how funky emaycee is, just take a look at the dancers in the video and know that they are much better than I...):

Fuck Donald Trump,
emaycee

Homeless on the range

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The latest victim in the republican party's war against humanity are the homeless.  Fox News, taking its cue from Adolph Hitler's adopted son Donald Trump, has been excoriating the homeless as proof positive that Democratic policies of socialism and safety nets are a massive failure, and as a means to drive a bigger wedge between urban and rural Americans.

Leaving aside the fact that homelessness is proof positive of the failures of both capitalism and free markets to lift all boats in a rising tide (among many, many others), apparently conservatives are worried that promoting hatred among their followers toward Muslims, Latinos, African-Americans, Women, and the LGBTQ community isn't going to be enough for Herr Trump to win re-election so they're adding even more Americans to their campaign to Make America Hate Again.

Before you know it, they'll be down to nothing but white males...oops, too late.

Fuck Donald Trump.
emaycee