It's Convention time in the US of A...
DON HENLEY "Workin' It" (live)
Ah, it's open season here my friend
It always is; it always has been
Welcome, welcome to the U.S.A.
We're partying fools in the autumn of our heyday
And though we're running out of everything
We can't afford to quit
Before this binge is over
We've got to squeeze off one more hit
We're workin' it
Workin' it
Soon you will be dancing face-to-face
With the limits of ambition and the scars of the marketplace
Welcome to the land of flame and fizz
Where you will learn that packaging is all that heaven is
We got the little black car, the little black dress
Got the guru, the trainer, the full court press
We got the software, hard drive, CD-ROM
We got the exploitation.com
We got the pager, cell phone, bootleg methaqualone
The media, the message: you are what you own
We got the agent, lawyer, lapdog, voyeur
Talk show, book deal, round mouth, square meal
We're so busy covering our asses, we just can't commit
“Oh, back off, don't bother me, baby
Can't you see I'm workin' it”
Workin' it
It's plain to see Miss Liberty has not yet come of age
But, she loves to feed the animals as long as they're locked up in the cage
And everybody knows the girl's got balls of brass
Aw, kiss my ass
(Solo)
We've got a whole new class of opiates
To blunt the stench of discontent
In these corporation nation-states
Where the loudest live to trample on the least
They say it's just the predatory nature of the beast
But, the barons in the balcony are laughing
And pointing to the pit
They say, “Aw look, they've grown accustomed to the smell
Now, people love that shit
And we're workin' it.”
Workin' it
We got the short-term gain, the long-term mess
We got the suffocating, quarterly consciousness
Yes man, run like a thief
New York to Hollywood, hype and glory
Special effects, no story
Yes man, run like a thief
Workin' it
Workin' it
Well, you don't know who the enemy is
You don't know
You don't know who the enemy is
Company man
“Eight for me, one for you”
(Workin' it)
“Very fair”
Business as usual, business as usual.
Labels: Smoke filled rooms and nominations, USA
posted by Father Park at 8/26/2008 06:18:00 PM
7 Comments:
Needless to say, I disapprove of this blog publishing yet another stream of foul abuse against the greatest free-market economy the world has ever seen.
And needless to say, Don Henley is the self-loathing-American-in-chief.
One need go no further than 'The Boys of Summer', with its stream of whining, self-pitying nihilism.
Appalling.™
He's a songwriter and a half. My Thanksgiving from the same album is a treat. Words for a certain poster (or two):
Have you noticed that an angry man
Can only get so far
Until he reconciles the way he thinks things ought to be
With the way things are
Henley shared the writing credit with Glenn Frey for 'The Last Resort', so it's hard to say who wrote what. But it's hands-down one of their finest lyrics ever. How 'bout just these last few bars...
You can leave it all behind
and sail to Lahaina
just like the missionaries did, so many years ago
They even brought a neon sign: "Jesus is coming"
Brought the white man's burden down
Brought the white man's reign
Who will provide the grand design?
What is yours and what is mine?
'Cause there is no more new frontier
We have got to make it here
We satisfy our endless needs and
justify our bloody deeds,
in the name of destiny and the name of God
And you can see them there,
On Sunday morning
They stand up and sing about
what it's like up there
They call it paradise
I don't know why
You call someplace paradise,
kiss it goodbye
It's a fair bet that English Major - Don "take it easy" Henley - wrote the lyric. As he does for the greater part of his solo material - hence Danny Kortchmar, Stan Lynch, Mike Campbell and others amongst his retinue. Which is not to say he does not write music - more often the lyric.
And yes, I've always liked that piece. That, A New York Minute and Heart of the Matter.
Ever heard Dirty Laundry? It's on that site the video comes from. Listen to that and you'll never look at the evebning talking heads with a straight face again - if one ever did.
The slack bugger's due another album: that last Inside Job is now eight years gone. That bloody quick.
Gimme What You Got (from the equally excellent End of The Innocence) is also a goody:
You got the price of admission
You don’t have to ask permission
To take somethin’ from another man
You cross a lawyer with the godfather, baby
Make you an offer that you can’t understand
From main street to wall street to washington
From men to women to men
It’s a nation of noses pressed up against the glass
They’ve seen it on the tv
And they want it pretty fast
You spend your whole life
Just pilin’ it up there
You got stack and stacks and stacks
Then, gabriel comes and taps you on the shoulder
But you don’t see no hearses with luggage racks
Gimme, gimme what you got
I said gimme, gimme what you got
I said gimme, gimme what you got
By the way, you back to goatin' about Fridays or am I still fishin'?
What say we alternate between Goat & Fish Fridays? I'll do a Goatie this Friday, etc.?
Also been toying with the idea of doing the occasional Rabbit Friday, thus sparking a blogwar with Caz... "Duck Friday!" "Rabbit Friday!" "Duck Friday!" "Rabbit Friday!" etc.
Has it really been 8 years between albums for Henley?
I'm guessing maybe the intervening Eagles' Long Road Out of Eden had something to do with that... I wasn't totally impressed with Long Road, but found Henley's and Joe Walsh's contributions were certainly the highlights, e.g., 'Waiting in the Weeds', 'Frail Grasp', 'Last Good Time', etc.
Yes it has been that long. Positive incontinence when it came to producing work, in the eighties - I Can't Stand Still ('82); Building The Perfect Beast ('84) and End of The Innnocence ('89) - was replaced by an eleven year wait for the belter Inside Job. That last due to a dispute with a recording company (and the Eagles' reunion I suppose).
I wanna know the excuse for this recent eight year wait! He produces better stuff solo. Wouldn't mind a tour either though I suspect the cultural philistine that occasionally is the Australian audience would pay only for the convocation rather than a lone eagle.
The Friday thing sounds good: I'll just have to remember my week...
Post a Comment
<< Home