Yes, it’s been ten years.\u00c2\u00a0 And I’m not one for lists.\u00c2\u00a0 But in magazines and newspapers decade-ending rankings have started to appear.\u00c2\u00a0 Best movies, best TV shows and best songs.\u00c2\u00a0 So I thought I’d weigh in.<\/p>\n
Some have maxed out all their credit cards<\/span> I’ve had a rough year.\u00c2\u00a0 Financially.<\/p>\n After a disastrous nineties, I owe nothing.\u00c2\u00a0 I live on a cash basis.\u00c2\u00a0 I saved every damn cent I could, figuring it’s hard to make a living on a freelance basis, and then the bottom fell out.<\/p>\n I’m not complaining.\u00c2\u00a0 I’ve got my cash hoard.\u00c2\u00a0 But it’s depressing.\u00c2\u00a0 Because almost everybody I know is broke, or close to it.\u00c2\u00a0 I’ve even got a friend who put her stuff in storage and is bouncing from guest bedroom to guest bedroom, she just can’t find a job.<\/p>\n They don’t exist.\u00c2\u00a0 Even if you want to work, you can’t.<\/p>\n Your best bet is the network, those people you’ve known for decades.\u00c2\u00a0 You can call and lean on them, if they still even have their jobs.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, Goldman Sachs is paying record bonuses and their Chairman Lloyd Blankfein says the firm is doing God’s work.\u00c2\u00a0 He must pray to a deity I’ve yet to encounter, one who wants to see the populace suffer. Used to be Wall Street helped build America, now traders just profit off exotic investment instruments. Meanwhile, if we didn’t prop up AIG, the banks would be bankrupt and their employees would be just like us, without a job and with no prospects.\u00c2\u00a0 Hell, did you see that story in the "New York Times" about ex Lehman Brothers employees?\u00c2\u00a0 They can’t work.<\/p>\n Not that I’ve got sympathy.<\/p>\n Will work for food<\/span> By time you read this our President, Barack Obama, a man who ran on the mantra of hope, may be getting us deeper into Afghanistan.\u00c2\u00a0 Isn’t Al-Qaeda in Pakistan?\u00c2\u00a0 And, if the Soviets couldn’t win there, why should we?\u00c2\u00a0 A country owned by China with disastrous financials (that’s us, in case you didn’t recognize your homeland).<\/p>\n And if you join the armed forces to serve your country, to pay your bills, you’re entering the Hotel California.\u00c2\u00a0 It seems you can never leave.\u00c2\u00a0 You wish you were a rock star, high on dope, as you jumpily wait for people to attack you one more time.\u00c2\u00a0 Coming home to a country that pays you lip service, but doesn’t give a shit.\u00c2\u00a0 If you come home at all.\u00c2\u00a0 And if you do return, you’re probably so traumatized you figure suicide is the best solution.<\/p>\n In Dayton, Ohio<\/span> Not only have they ditched music in schools, now they’re closing the libraries.\u00c2\u00a0 Guess everybody’s got to sit in front of the TV, paying media giants to have crap shoved down their throats.\u00c2\u00a0 Elvis Costello sang about vapid radio?\u00c2\u00a0 Well, they killed radio and now have us anesthetized in front of the flat screen, selling us products we don’t need, that we put on credit cards that charge 29%.\u00c2\u00a0 As for holding back…\u00c2\u00a0 Didn’t they say it was American to shop, that we were entitled?\u00c2\u00a0 If we sacrifice, maybe that means the future truly is bleak.\u00c2\u00a0 So, we consume until we go bust.<\/p>\n I try to have hope.\u00c2\u00a0 Can’t say that I achieve this state every day.<\/p>\n But one thing that helps me get through is James McMurtry’s "We Can’t Make It Here".\u00c2\u00a0 Not only my favorite song of the twenty first century, but my most played.\u00c2\u00a0 With over 200 plays in my iTunes library on the computer I superseded in 2006, and over 100 more since.<\/p>\n Sure, the lyrics are poignant, they’re poetry.\u00c2\u00a0 But there’s a hypnotic groove that hooks me, that makes me want to play the song again and again.<\/p>\n There’s an authorized electric version, but I prefer the acoustic take.\u00c2\u00a0 Which James used to give away for free on his site, but now you can hear as backing to a clip on YouTube: <\/p>\n You don’t have to pay a scalper to see James McMurtry.\u00c2\u00a0 He’s gonna play in the bar in your hometown sometime next year.\u00c2\u00a0 But the paper won’t make a big deal, there won’t be a buzz.\u00c2\u00a0 But the paper is going extinct and we haven’t yet made a complete transition from Kara DioGuardi crap to real music.<\/p>\n Is it only about the money?\u00c2\u00a0 What happens when the money runs out?\u00c2\u00a0 Then what?\u00c2\u00a0 When no one listens to Top Forty, when no one wants to go to the show.\u00c2\u00a0 When the old criteria die, it comes down to the music.<\/p>\n James McMurtry got a break at the beginning.\u00c2\u00a0 He did a number of albums on Columbia, his first was produced by John Mellencamp.\u00c2\u00a0 But when his deal was done he didn’t give up and go to law school, he didn’t get an MBA, he didn’t don a suit and go straight, no he went indie, he kept writing, he kept playing.<\/p>\n And if that ain’t twenty first century, I don’t know what is.<\/p>\n In the next month, we’re going to be deluged with statistics.\u00c2\u00a0 Telling us who the winners were.\u00c2\u00a0 People who provided fodder for the system, that you consumed, shat out and forgot.<\/p>\n But great art is unforgettable.<\/p>\n "We Can’t Make It Here" is unforgettable.\u00c2\u00a0 Just as powerful as "Eve Of Destruction", but sans camp, it doesn’t slide off of you, it penetrates your core.<\/p>\n How did we get here?<\/p>\n To a country where there are winners and losers.\u00c2\u00a0 And the winners feel entitled.<\/p>\n It’s not only Wall Street, the music game is not much different.<\/p>\n The stars can’t sell recordings anymore so they’ve jacked up the price of concert tickets to the point where the average attendee only goes to a show once a year.\u00c2\u00a0 Isn’t that like only having sex once a year?\u00c2\u00a0 Aren’t you entitled to more?\u00c2\u00a0 Don’t you want more?<\/p>\n Those left at the label complain that the audience is a bunch of thieves.\u00c2\u00a0 Never mind the overpriced CDs they sold with only one good track for over a decade.<\/p>\n And the wannabes only want to know, which way to riches?<\/p>\n Every day they e-mail me…how can I make money?<\/p>\n If I had the answer to that, I’d be rich myself!<\/p>\n But I do it because I want to, it’s my passion.\u00c2\u00a0 That’s why I write.\u00c2\u00a0 And as long as people read, I’m going to proceed.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s fine with me that you’re partaking for free, because first and foremost it’s about communication, hell, it’s about attention, and I’ve got yours, and believe me, nothing thrills me, nothing satisfies me more.<\/p>\n I may be a lone voice in the wilderness, I may be the only person who says this, but I truly believe James McMurtry’s "We Can’t Make It Here" is the best song of this nascent century.\u00c2\u00a0 It doesn’t only sound good, it’s got something to say.<\/p>\n
Some are working two jobs and living in cars<\/span>
Minimum wage won’t pay for a roof, won’t pay for a drink<\/span>
If you gotta have proof just try it yourself Mr. CEO<\/span>
See how far 5.15 an hour will go<\/span>
Take a part time job at one of your stores<\/span>
Bet you can’t make it here anymore<\/span><\/p>\n
Will die for oil<\/span>
Will kill for power and to us the spoils<\/span>
The billionaires get to pay less tax<\/span>
The working poor get to fall through the cracks<\/span>
Let ’em eat jellybeans, let ’em eat cake<\/span>
Let ’em eat shit, whatever it takes<\/span>
They can join the Air Force, or join the Corps<\/span>
If they can’t make it here anymore<\/span><\/p>\n
Or Portland, Maine<\/span>
Or a cotton gin out on the great high plains<\/span>
That’s done closed down along with the school<\/span>
And the hospital and the swimming pool<\/span>
Dust devils dance in the noonday heat<\/span>
There’s rats in the alley<\/span>
And trash in the street<\/span>
Gang graffiti on a boxcar door<\/span>
We can’t make it here anymore<\/span><\/p>\n\n
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