Hard Time Killin' Floor Blues

Today is tax day, and as promised we will take a look into the burden of the working man. Here is one of my favorite old blues tunes, Skip James' "Hard Time Killin' Floor Blues"

"Hard Time Killin' Floor Blues" by Skip James
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rv-_mzVBSF8

 Like many of you I was first introduced to this song through the movie O Brother Where Art Thou?, in which it was performed by Chris Thomas King. Check that version out here. The movie came out at a time in my life that I was really into movies, and I saw it on the night it opened. The soundtrack was so impressive to me that I went out the next day and bought it. I must not have been the only one because despite rumors that the soundtrack tested bad because it was "too twangy," the album has been certified 7x Platinum. T-Bone Burnett, the album's producer has since won many awards, been the mastermind behind many excellent soundtracks and collaborative releases featuring American roots music.

Skip James wasn't quite as successful. He was a blues musician active mostly in the nineteen-thirties. He recorded a handful of songs for Paramount, and while his songs were depression era appropriate, they did not sell well. This was most likely due to the fact there was a depression going on. James' work would probably have been lost if it were not for the British interest in the 1960's of early American blues music. The resurgence into this American art form brought Skip James into relative popularity for the last few years of his life.

The haunting style and dark honesty of "Hard Time Killin' Floor Blues" is what drew me to it, and it is from this song that I gained my love of old time country blues. The song starts with James' iconic fingerpicking. We hear only a few seconds of guitar before James' high, aching call comes in. "Hard times are here an' everywhere you go times are harder than ever been before." If you are hurtin', and many are these days, this statement feels as prominent today as it did in 1931. "Now people are driftin' from door to door, can't find no heaven don't care where they go." James wails because he knows what it is like to drift like the wind, thin and empty, from door to door.

"Let me tell you people just before I go these hard times'll kill you just dry long slow." It's here to stay. If it hasn't hit you yet, it's coming and there's no preparing for it. There's no real way to survive it. It's all about enduring with the faint hope that you can deal with it.

"If I ever get off of this killin' floor I'll never get down this low no more." A killing floor is the area in a slaughterhouse where the animals are killed. Today this is automated, but in the thirties this was mostly done by individuals. It was a physically hard and brutal on the psyche, but work is work. In this context one wonders if James is working on the killing floor, or waiting there. Does he want out of the only dead-end job he can find, or does he hoping to escape the hammer?

"And if you say you had money, you'd better be sure. These hard times will drive you from door to door." So no one is immune, it gets us all eventually. That sense of self protection, that light at the end  of the tunnel, the hope of escape itself is essentially futile. 

"Sing this song and I ain't gonna song no more. These hard times will drive you from door to door." So I'll leave you with this, dear reader, things are bad right now and they are going to get worse. The common man's definition states that a recession is when your neighbor loses their job, a depression is when you lose yours too. There is a good possibility there will be a lot of us going door to door in the next few years, so make sure you're kind no matter which side of the door you are on.

As always feel free to comment here or at suicidesongs@communistdaycarecenter.net

Another Delay

Greetings Dear Readers,

For a second time I am going to have to delay a release of Suicide Watch Songs. It has been an incredibly trying couple of months for me and there just are not enough hours in the day nor enough mental capacity in my head to accomplish everything I need to get done. Please do not think that I take this lightly. I understand that delays hurt readership and create mistrust within a small but faithful group of readers. Believe me when I say that I hate having to do this. Thank you once again for your patience.

jeremy

On Any Other Day

For this April fool's we'll take a look on the lighter side, because, as you know, the rest are complete bullshit. You want something corny? You got it.

"On Any Other Day" by The Police from Regatta de Blanc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mXsXZ_FNRzo

Some of you may not know that members of The Police other than Sting actually wrote songs for the band. In fact, Stewart Copeland, the writer of this song, has been noted as stating that all three members contributed the same amount of songs, "Sting just wrote all the hits." Copland's tunes have a tongue-in-cheek irony to them. The characters aren't exactly self-centered, but they are self-oriented that they don't quite understand the universe around them.

In this case our protagonist sees his world as something that happens to him, not something that he can interact with or change in any way. He has a high opinion of himself. "There's a house on my street and it looks real neat. I'm the chap who lives in it. There's a tree on the sidewalk. There's a car by the door." It is all very self assuring. He is giving us a setting and placing himself squarely in it. The following line has been described by Copeland himself as being nonsensical. "And when the wombat comes he will find me gone. He'll look for a place to sit."

The chorus kicks in "My wife has burnt the scrambled eggs, my dog just bit my leg, my teenage daughter ran away, my fine young son has turned out gay ..."  His life is starting to fall apart. Things aren't supposed to work out this way. 

The verse structure now moves to a call and response. It's a series of horrible events and painful reactions to them. "Cut up my fingers in the door of my car. (How could I do it?) My wife is proud to tell me of her love affairs (How could she do this to me?)"  Uggh, life is soooooo hard.

"My wife has burnt the scrambled eggs, my dog just bit my leg, my teenage daughter ran away, my fine young son has turned out gay, AND IT WOULD BE OK ON ANY OTHER DAY!" Is it just that everything is seeming to go wrong on this one day, or does this day hold some kind of significance that compound the horribleness of these events?

Our protagonist continues "Throw down the morning papers and spill my tea (I don't know what's wrong with me)." He's coming apart. "The cups and plates are in a conspiracy (I'm covered in misery)." He's gone nuts.  As we head into the final chorus and fade we hear an odd set of vocal overdubs. Turns out that these are a weird truncation of 'happy birthday,'  changed from original to avoid paying copyright royalties. A quick side note is that the tune 'happy birthday' is not owned by two little old ladies and their family, but rather by the publishing house Warner Chapel itself. The exorbitant fees that are people always attribute to not being able to use the actual song? That's the result of a greedy corporate decision. 

Anywho, there's our answer. It's this guy's birthday and all this crap is going bad for him. All this would be fine, cup and plate conspiracy and all, on any other day. 

Have a good April fools everyone. Feel free to comment or complain here or drop me a line at suicidesongs@communistdaycarecenter.net. Also, I have not yet decided on this year's working man tax day song, so if you have a suggestion let me know.