There's too much on my mind There's too much on my mind And I can't sleep at night thinking about it. I'm thinking all the time; There's toomuch on my mind, It seems there's more to life than just to live it.
There's too much on my mind and there is nothing I can say.
There's too much on my mind and there is nothing I can do About It.
My thoughts just weigh me down and drag me to the ground, And shake my head until there's no more life in me. It's ruining my brain; I'll never be the same. My poor demented mind is slowly going.
Facing theworld ain't easy when there isn't anything going, Standing at the corner waiting, watching time go by, Will I go to work today or shall I bide my time? 'Cos when I see that union man walking down the street -- He's the man who decides if I live or I die, if I starve, or I eat. Then he walks up to me and the sun begins to shine, Then he walks right past and I know that I've got to get Back in the line. Now I think of what my mama told me; She always said that it would never ever work out. But all I want to do is make some money And bring you home some wine. But I don't ever want you to see me Standing in that line. 'Cos that union man's got such a hold over me -- He's the man who decides if I live or I die, if I starve, or I eat. Then he walks up to me and the sun begins to shine; Then he walks right past and I know that I've got to get Back in the line.
Get back, get back, get back, get back, get right Back inthe line.
When I first heard this song in 1970, roughly 40 years afterthe start of the Great Depression, I really had no idea what Ray Davies meantby the lyric “when there isn’t anything going.”
We're just Slum Kids, and we know it, And we never stood a chance. We were dragged up from the gutter, From the wrong side of the tracks.
So how dare you criticize, When you don't know what it's like To be dragged up from the gutter, From the wrong side of the tracks.
Why do rich kids get all the breaks, While the poor Slum Kids have to work, sweat, struggle and slave? Why, Lord, there's so much injustice in this world? Slum Kids never stand a chance.
Look at all the Slum Kidsall around you, Oh, they never stood a chance. We were dragged up from the gutter, From the wrong side of the tracks.
Notes:
1. Top illustration:Actual jukebox card for Days/She's Got Everything written by Ray Davies.
2. Bottom illustration: 1968 press release for Days/She's Got Everything issued by Miss P.A. Pretty, Pye Records press officer, London.
There were times when there was absolute compassion in the air.
Though it was really animal, truly animal.
It could not compare to times she cared,
Was in control
And less Emotional.
While the intellect controls the spiritual,
The animal respects what's natural.
Ying and yang control man's actions
And both extremes are a natural reaction.
It was really animal, truly animal,
Well there were times when there was absolute compassion in the air.
On reflection,
It was not all crash and bang,
Broken bottles and abuse.
Sometimes there were sunsets on the sands,
Holding onto caring hands.
But there were vampire fangs --
As the angels sang --
It was ying and yang.
It was truly natural, though it was really animal,
In a sense it fell into a truly natural romance.
Oh yeah,
It was really animal, truly animal,
There were times when there was absolute compassion in the air.
True love, True love, True love
Is really Animal.
*Reader Note:Aside from the Kinks full band version of the song linked above and Here,which was one of the group's final recordings from 1996 (though reunion rumors now abound in connection with the upcoming London Meltdown Festival in June), there is also a solo performance of Animal by Ray Davies that can be found on the Kinks Kontraband bootleg, which is well worthseeking out. The photographs included here were all taken by Jane Roberts at the La Brea Tar Pits Museum in Los Angeles, California in March, 2011.
They're pointing at a man standing high on a ledge
And somebody just cried out loud:
Don't
He's heard the cries of the lunatics facing defeat
The cheers of the winners
Who are dancing in the street
Perhaps the crime and corruption finally got through
And the violence of the city
Just broke him in two
Now a voice from the queue shouts:
Don't
Note: Not strictly relevant, but still kind of interesting, like the wonders of Phobia itself. Photo credit: Jane Roberts, Strange Phase Studios (Click on images to enlarge.)
Show me a man who says he can live without bread And I'll show you a man who's a liar and in debt. There's no one alive who can't be purchased or enticed There's no man alive who wouldn't sell for a price, Money talks and we're the living proof, There ain't no limit to what money can do Money talks, money talks.
Money can't breathe and money can't see,
But when I pull out a fiver people listen to me.
Money can't run and money can't walk,
But when I write out a cheque I swear to God I hear money talk.
Money talks and, baby, when you've been bought
You pay attention everytime money talks.
Money talks, money talks.
Money talks and there's no doubt about it Money talks and we can't live without it, What's the point of living unless you've got money? I just couldn't function without money. Money talks, money talks, Money talks, money talks.
Show me an upright respected man
And I'll have him licking my boots when I put money in his hand.
It rots your heart, it gets to your soul,
Before you know where you are you're a slave to the green gold.
Money talks and we're the living proof
There ain't no limit to what money can do.
Money talks you out of your self-respect,
The more you crave it the cheaper you get.
Money talks, money talks.
Money buys you time and people listen, Money can buy a smile and make life worth living. If you're ugly money can improve you. I just couldn't face the world without mazuma. Money talks, money talks.
February 24, 2011
Who Benefits From Government Unions?
ByMichael Barone
Everyone has priorities. During the past week, Barack Obama found time to be interviewed by a Wisconsin television station and weigh in on the dispute between Republican Gov. Scott Walker and the state's public employee unions. Walker was staging "an assault on unions," he said, and added that "public employee unions make enormous contributions to our states and our citizens."
Enormous contributions, yes -- to the Democratic Party and the Obama campaign. Unions, most of whose members are public employees, gave Democrats some $400 million in the 2008 election cycle. The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, the biggest public employee union, gave Democrats $90 million in the 2010 cycle.
Follow the money, Washington reporters like to say.
The money in this case comes from taxpayers, present and future, who are the source of every penny of dues paid to public employee unions, who in turn spend much of that money on politics, almost all of it for Democrats. In effect, public employee unions are a mechanism by which every taxpayer is forced to fund the Democratic Party.
So, just as the president complained in his 2010 State of the Union address about a Supreme Court decision that he feared would increase the flow of money to Republicans, he also found time to complain about a proposed state law that could reduce the flow of money to Democrats.
And, according to The Washington Post, to get the Democratic National Committee to organize protests against the proposed Wisconsin law. Protests that showed contempt for the law, with teachers abandoning classrooms, doctors writing phony medical excuses, Democratic legislators fleeing the state and holing up in a motel. The lawmakers played hooky without losing any salary, which is protected by the state constitution.
It's true that Walker's proposals would strike hard at the power of the public employee unions. They would no longer have the right to bargain for fringe benefits, which are threatening to bankrupt the state government, and they would no longer be able to count on government withholding dues money and passing it along to them.
But what are the contributions that public employee unions make to our states and our citizens? Their incentives are to increase the cost of government and reduce down toward zero the accountability of public employees -- both contrary to the interests of taxpaying citizens.
An argument can be made that higher pay, generous benefits and lavish pensions will attract better people to public employment. But where are the studies that show that citizens of states with strong public employee unions get better services than citizens in states without?
What citizens of states with strong public employee unions do get are higher taxes and enormous pension burdens that threaten to squeeze out funds for ongoing services, as even Democratic governors like Andrew Cuomo of New York and Jerry Brown of California have figured out.
That's why one of the great 20th century presidents was against unions for public employees who have civil service protections. No, not Ronald Reagan. It was Franklin Roosevelt who said, "Action looking toward the paralysis of government by those who have sworn to support it is unthinkable and intolerable."
So while the Wisconsin unions are defying the law, Scott Walker is in effect following FDR's lead -- and if he's successful, others may follow. That would be an enormous blow to the money power of the public employee union bosses.
Public opinion seems to be with the Republicans. Pollster Scott Rasmussen reports that 48 percent of voters support Walker, while only 38 percent support the unions.
This seems to be a sharp reversal of opinion over the last five years. Back in 2005, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger sponsored a series of ballot propositions that would have reduced the power of the state's public employee unions. The unions spent something like $100 million -- all of it derived from taxpayers -- on TV ads, and all the propositions were defeated.
Now hard economic times have left voters wondering why public employees pay practically zero toward their health insurance and pensions when they have to pay plenty themselves. Wisconsin, which led the nation on civil service a century ago and on welfare reform in the 1990s, may be showing the nation the way ahead once again.
Reading through my Kinks Preservation Society email update today about the latest in a long line of impressive events and honors intended to cement Ray Davies' "Great Man" status in contemporary Great British life (could an equestrian statue be next?), I felt a little sad realizing that I didn't like this trend and, of course, that each such milestone seemed to increase the distance between Ossified, Reified Today and Vital, Rocking Yesterday.
Obviously, Ray Davies deserves the honors he is receiving and all the respect in the world. (He already has the money and, if what he has isn't enough for him, it really should be, and he can always go out, satisfy lucky audiences with his art, and earn more). It's just that when Ray himself described the creepiness and moldiness of the rock-becoming-respectable phenomenon at the 1990 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame awards evening (the The Kinks' own induction ceremony) with his witty, unexpected "what a bummer" punchline, he nailed it, as he usually does.
Ray and Dave, Arthur photo sessions, 1969
Now that Ray been chosen to "curate" (formerly a very good, precisely applied word, that's recently been co-opted by today's "Mad Men" to add a touch of museum-quality dignity to any old activity involving the act of considering for inclusion) the 2011 Meltdown Festival in London, it feels more like another nail in the coffin than a welcome breakthrough. Rock and roll curated? Stop the world, I want to get off.
Unfortunately, what became apparent a long time ago (which anyone with ears can hear, which easily could have been foreseen) is that Ray Davies without Dave Davies is an incomplete artistic entity, a ghost of his former self, last year's pretty Postcard From London and Ray's great personal charm and sartorial splendor notwithstanding.
Ray obviously knows this and said as much many years ago at the time he was forced to record the soundtrack for his Return To Waterloo movie without Dave's participation. (For non-fans, Dave refused to play on the soundtrack because he felt the film represented an inappropriate diversion of attention from band activities.) Although it was fascinating hearing Ray play all guitars on the record, which was a superb collection of songs that provided the lyrical script to that otherwise silent movie, Dave's absence was palpable and left a cold void where there should have been fire, ice and tears.
The brothers always, always completed each other's thoughts, and Dave especially Ray's.
Silly as it may be that I'm still obsessed with The Kinks as a band, I've finally accepted that it's over, has been for a long time and will never happen again. The Louvin Brothers never re-formed. The Everly Brothers did and it didn't greatly matter. Ray was right to strike out on his own after the band plumbed the bottom of their commercial trough (promoting the excellent, but unappreciated Phobia record) and he has made a great success of his later career, including all the "great man/elder statesman" fol-de-rol. I will always try to keep listening with an open mind, but caring less and less I'm afraid.
This is why I'm grateful to have Doug Hinman's wonderful The Kinks -- All Day And All Of The Night, Day-by-day concerts, recordings and broadcasts, 1961-1996 (San Francisco, Backbeat Books, 2004), available to me always. Hinman, who is both a musician and a professional reference librarian, obviously gained the band's trust as no other journalist had ever before and was permitted to trawl through recording files, business records and band archives, producing a major archeological work covering the group's 35-year career.
His day-by-day (it feels more like minute-by-minute) chronology lets the group's story tell itself without any unwanted, irrelevant rock critical interference. If you read closely enough (text and indexes), most of your nagging questions (including those of the "why did they cancel this show? tour? again? variety -- highly relevant for this band) will be answered, the answers to certain questions suggesting recurring behavior patterns answering others.
The book is coffee-table size, beautifully laid out and produced and would make an excellent Christmas gift for yourself, if you don't have it already, for treasured friends, and for children you know who will one day thank you for thinking ahead.
Note to readers: The following link isn't directly Kinks-related, but is something I wanted to share and seems appropriate to link to this London-est of rock bands. The London Daily Photo blog is a treasure, a gift that keeps on giving:
