Some songs ought to be outdated
So, I'm still in Zappa mode - I currently making my way through the 6 volumes of 2 CD You can't do that on stage anymore albums.
One of many gems found in this collection is a a 10 minute performance of Dickie's Such an Asshole (a Watergate-era song), performed by the band best know from the "Roxy & Elsewhere" album. This is amazing stuff. The band is impossibly tight, the performance magnificent. The use of Bruce Fowlers trombone alone - as both melody and rhythm - is mindblowing. More than anything, the performance is effortless, so light and bouncy.
Anyway - while I was listening I was IM'ing with lcohen and we were commenting on how sad it can be to note that political satire from 35 years ago is still spot on. The song comments on abuse of power and the workings of a paranoid ruling class. It has a chorus going "The FBI / are gonna get your number", and ends in
the man in the white house
he's got a conscience
he's got a conscience as black as sin
all I wanna know
is how that asshole managed to get in
I guess Marx was right when he remarked that history repeats - the first time as tragedy, the second time as farce.
One of many gems found in this collection is a a 10 minute performance of Dickie's Such an Asshole (a Watergate-era song), performed by the band best know from the "Roxy & Elsewhere" album. This is amazing stuff. The band is impossibly tight, the performance magnificent. The use of Bruce Fowlers trombone alone - as both melody and rhythm - is mindblowing. More than anything, the performance is effortless, so light and bouncy.
Anyway - while I was listening I was IM'ing with lcohen and we were commenting on how sad it can be to note that political satire from 35 years ago is still spot on. The song comments on abuse of power and the workings of a paranoid ruling class. It has a chorus going "The FBI / are gonna get your number", and ends in
the man in the white house
he's got a conscience
he's got a conscience as black as sin
all I wanna know
is how that asshole managed to get in
I guess Marx was right when he remarked that history repeats - the first time as tragedy, the second time as farce.