I was doing my exercise today, pounding my treadmill. I use headphones and an old IPod loaded with stuff I like. I put it on shuffle so that I get a bunch of different songs in no particular order – variety and the unexpected!
This is what I got today:
Doors – Soul Kitchen
Jet Harris/Tony Meehan – Diamonds
Fugs – Mr Mack
Little Richard – Reddy Teddy
Beatles – Across the Universe
Beatles – I Should Have known better
New York Dolls – Personality Crisis
Eric Burdon – Winds of Change
Traffic – Who knows what tomorrow may bring
Jefferson Airplane – Triad
Doors – Unhappy Girl
Frank Zappa – Cosmic Debris
David Gray – My Oh My
Cramps – Goo Goo Muck
Led Zeppelin – Whole Lotta Love
Hank Snow – Moving On
Rolling Stones – Harlem Shuffle
Captain Beefheart – Petrified Forest
Larry Williams – Don’t Bug Me Baby
Jimmie Rodgers – TB Blues
Edgar Broughton – Evil
Frank Zappa – Titties and Beer
Roy Harper – I Hate The Whiteman
Chuck Berry – It Wasn’t Me
Beatles – Here comes the sun
George Harrison – All Things will pass
Bob Dylan – When the ship comes in
Jack Kerouac – Leavin’ Town
Wreckless Eric – Whole Wide World
An interesting mish-mash (certainly took my mind off my body complaining as I pounded away!)
I thought this was appropriate in this hopefully election year. The Fugs were a highly political and cynical band. I loved their anarchy, madness and enthusiasm. They just did it.
There were no holds barred and no subjects too extreme. The Fugs were a law unto themselves. This song is about the mess that politicians have made of society. We live in the mess they create for us and it could be so much better.
If humanity stopped wasting most of its resources on war, greed and power and started dealing with the real issues of poverty, inequality, environmental destruction and overpopulation we could have a brilliant life for everyone. They’d rather have power for themselves.
I thought it was most appropriate at this time with the telling line: ‘Where you end up voting for the lesser of two evils?’
The hypocrisy and stupid lies of politicians shine down through the annals of history.
Wide Wide River
River of shit River of shit Flow on, flow on, river of shit Right from my toes On up to my nose Flow on, flow on, river of shit I’ve been swimming In this river of shit More than 20 years And I’m getting tired of it Don’t like swimming Hope it’ll run dry Got to go on swimming Cause I don’t want to die
(spoken with gospel sound in background): Who dealt this mess, anyway? Yea, it’s an old card player’s term, but sometimes you can use the old switcheroo and it can be applied to … Frontal politics What I mean is … Who was it that set up a system, supposedly democratic system, Where you end up always voting for the lesser of two evils? I mean, Was George Washington the lesser of two evils? Sometimes I wonder … You got some guy that says “For God sake, we’ve got to stop having violence in this country.” While he’s spending 16,000 dollars a second snuffing gooks.
(gospel sound musical ending with: A wiiiiiiiiiiiiide, big brown river, yea, bringing health, wealth, and prosperity to every man, women, and child. Spoken: Oh I can feel another 1000 years Of the flapjacks of Sorrow! Unless! Unless we make 2000 A.D.! 2000 A.D. Our glorious deadline A glorious deadline to make the World a better place! Or else the flapjacks of sorrow Are going to slide down our throats Slide down our throats For another millennium Of pain and war and oppression And all our children’s children’s children’s Children’s children children Shall have to wade and to swim In the same grim river In which we now swim Sing along with us Sing sing sing sing sing sing sing sing!
