Today's Folk Plus I'm airing songs with attitude. This week in the mail I recieved the brand new live CD from Christine Lavin called "Getting In Touch With My Inner Bitch". The song is an honest representation of the dialogue we have between our polite selves and real inner feelings. This is a show to identify with the nasty side of yourself you may not want to show.
Also during this hour, I will air comments by both Chuck Brodsky and David Wilcox concerning listeners reactions to songs they find offensive - in particular Brodsky's tune "Blow `em Away" which is sung by both performers, penned by Brodsky. Also ahead are tongue in cheek tunes from Cheryl Wheeler.
Here is Chrisine Lavin live from Saratoga Springs' Cafe Lena.
1. Chrisitne Lavin - Getting in Touch with My Inner Bitch
Getting in Touch with My Inner Bitch - www.christinelavin.com
"Some people have an inner child...I've got
me an inner bitch and its hard to keep that inner bitch down"
2. Chuck Brodsky - No More Mr. Nice Guy
Letters in the Dirt - songs.com/cb
"I wanted to say no to him but that would have been
mean"
3. From an interview with Chuck Brodsky where I ask him if he is surprised at people being offended by his tunes:
Chuck: I am. It just shows that they are probably not listening carefully. The one tune in particular that people would be offended about would be "Blow `em Away". I think its real easy if you are not listening to all the words and you just hear a snippet here and there to think that I'm serious but if you really listening to the song, it is so over the top in so many places that the only conclusion you can come to, with a rational mind, is that this guy couldn't possibly be serious. Sometimes people just don't get it and they become irate. It was a big thing on the DJ's Internet list. People forwarded some stuff to me. So I've dealt with it a lot. It comes up from time to time. There are some DJ's that I know of that love to play that song to provoke a couple of phone calls here and there.
Angela: But that was never your intention, you weren't writing it to get people riled, it was more tongue in cheek.
Chuck: It was totally tongue in cheek. In fact, I had no idea what I had with that song when I wrote it. I wrote that long before I started to tour, and try to do music as a profession. I just had that song playing it at open mikes here and there. I wasn't getting out there into the world. I had no idea for years just what that song was.
Angela: And who hasn't whispered those things under their breath when they are trying to drive somewhere and someone is just not driving appropriately? Period.
Chuck: I just got a really interesting note from a friend of mine telling me that she finds the song theraputic when she gets into a traffic jam rather than getting all upset about it, she puts the CD into her CD player and finds a way to laugh about it.
4. David Wilcox -(Chuck Brodsky) Blow em Away
East Ashville Hardware - www.DavidWilcox.Com
5. Comments by David Wilcox about Chuck's tune.
David: I enjoy playing that Chuck Brodsky tune "Blow `Em Away". Occasionally people misunderstand and don't get that of course it's making fun of that position of being violent and all that. It's not as big of a trouble for me as other writers that use irony a lot like Randy Newman who is always being misunderstood. He is a great storyteller who is able to capture the essence of somebody else's point of view even somebody that he disagrees with. Sometimes the best way to show the folly of a certain position is to let it say its piece and show its own faults and weaknesses. So taking that point of view in a playful way in a funny song kind of wakes people up to say "Yikes we all do that to some extent". I guess that people who are offended by it are not comfortable in using language that way or I don't know. Its hard to believe that people could not be aware of irony as a literary thing but maybe they just don't get it. They're always at face value.
6. Cheryl Wheeler - Makes Good Sense To Me
Mrs. Pinocci's Guitar - www.personal.psu.edu/faculty/w/r/wrp103/wheeler/home.htm
"I'll be damned if I'll do my job, for a faggot
or some foreign slob"
7. Carla Ulbrich - What if your girlfriend was gone?
Her Fabulous Debut - www.carlau.com
"Why do you have that look on your face, its
not like I have any plans"
"Evil plans I could never carry out"
8. Camille West - Toe To Toes with The HMO
Diva's Day Off - www.songs.com/camille
"The problem goes on and on...Monday Tuesday...January...February....
You put me off far too long, I'll
fix your ass, I'll write a song"
9. Don White - Psycho Mom and Dad
Live at the Somerville Theatre - donwhite@pobox.com
"I'm selling you kids for a dollar a pound
to a couple of cannibals... I used to be normal...."
10 Rosalie Sorrells - Mahitabel's Theme
Always A Lady - Philo (Her mother
said that a Lady never does anything unintentionally vulgar)
"it has been my experience that marriage
means one dam litter after another"
"I did not do anything vulgar, I simply
removed his right eye with my left claw"
11. New Middle Class - I'm Talking To You
New Middle Class -NewMiddleClass@NewMiddleClass.com
"There's a sound that I hate when
you're scraping your plate and
I'm thinking that it may
be intentional" Info@NewMiddleClass.com
12. Ratsy - Just Because You're You
Squished Under A Train - www.ratsy.com
"I'd like to punch you in the face real
hard"
"Seems almost worth it, a lifetime in
jail"
13. Cosy Sheridan - Not Like You
Quietly Led - www.CosySheridan.com
"The one I love's gonna give me
straight answers, not like you" "I should not have to ask"
14. Trout Fishing in America - After You've Gone
Closer to the Truth - www.troutmusic.com
"No one can tell me how to act
I'll do exactly as I please"
"After you've gone the lawn will
be a jungle"
15. Andy Breckman - I Don't Want to Mow the Lawn
Proud Dad - Gadfly Records
gadfly1@aol.com
"I don't want to mow the lawn...it
won't make any difference when we're gone"
16. Utah Phillips - Dump The Bosses
Fellow Workers - Righteous
Babe Records Box 95 Ellicott Station, Buffalo, NY 14205
"Stiffen up you ornery duffer
and dump the bosses off your back"
17. Roches - If You Emptied Out Your Pockets Honey You
Could Not Make the Change
Seductive Reasoning - Columbia
Records
"I ain't got the belly for this
and you ain't got the brains"
18. Electric Bonsai Band - Nobody Love You Like You Do
I am Joe's Eyes - Yellow
Tail Records
"You're the only one who hasn't
got a clue"
19. Lucinda Williams - Changed The Locks
Rough Us - www.lucindawilliams.net
"I changed the locks on my front
door"
20. Dierdre Flint - We Fit Right
Shuffleboard Queens - www.deirdreflint.com
"Your voice is annoying ...I'm
well bred and your'e - well - not"
21. Devonsquare - If You Could See Me Now
Bye Bye Route 66 - Atlantic
"There ain't a thing in this world
I can't do without you"
22. Babes With Axes - One Size Fits All
Live Axe - www.efn.org/~gordon_k/babes.shtml
"My body and my attitude, neither
one is small"
23. Rachel Bissex - What's Right
I Used to Be Nice - www.well.com/user/pb/rach/
"so take your moral outrage and go, no one
asked you to read my hips"
24. Helen Lewis Moore - She's Not Me
Whenever The Music Plays -
"Here's a rule to live by...if she's
not me, she's not for you"
25. Aileen Vance - Talkin' Role Reversal
Sweet Life - avandt@cruzio.com
"I've been robbed" says the suit."
Two women cops answer:
"A guy who draws attention to
his financial status just brings it on himself"
26. Bruce Cockburn - Justice
Inner City Front - Columbia
"What's been done in the name...
of man? ...liberation? ...race? ...peace?"
"Everybody loves to see justice
done on somebody else"
27. Rebel Voices (J.Stecher/S.Lewis) - Day Care (Capital
Steps)
Warning: Women At Work -
741 18th Ave East Seattle WA 98112
"When the kid gets sick they think
my work should stop"
28. Steve Cohen - Silent Too Long
Silent Too Long -
members.aol.com/KeysCohen
"Don't ask, don't tell, never
worked for me that well"
"If I'm gonna die to keep you
free, first I'm gonna stand up for me"
29. John Forster - In The Closet
Helium - www.icu.com/johnforster
"You'll have to fight for
freedom in the closet"
30. Gerri Gribi - (Peggy Seeger) I'm Gonna Be An Engineer
Womansong Collection -
gribi@dct.com
"I'll fight them as an engineer"
31. Faith Petric - Gerital Gypsy
Faith's Favorites - faithpet@aol.com
"I don't want to stay in an old
folks hoax"
32. Chuck Brodsky - Talk To My Lawyer
Letters in the Dirt - songs.com/cb
"how was I to know the coffee
was hot"