Weird Song of the Week - The Redundancy Edition

 

The Redundancy Edition

Friday 14 August 2020

I was made redundant on Wednesday.  That means I was laid off but with a package.  My work decided to consolidate two teams into one:  my team which is a team of Business Analysts, and a team of testers.  Both have managers so with the consolidation, they only needed one manager so I was given my marching orders.  I was told at 3:30 in the afternoon and I was also told that was my last day.  Yes, illion is a real class outfit.  However, because my role was no longer required, I was classed as redundant so I got a payout which wasn’t too bad.  But no amount of cost savings or office politics can stop the weirdness from continuing.  This column started as a way to waste time at work and I will continue to uphold this worthy goal.  On a serious note, I do believe it is important to have a good time at work on occasion and perhaps even a few laughs and this column has provided this as well as the ability to waste some time.  And so with that, let the weirdness continue.

 

It should come as no surprise that this week’s column deals with songs about work.  I admit I will show my age here because the songs will be from a number of years ago.  But hey, I did have Jay-Z not too long ago so hopefully the younger readers will continue to think of me as an old guy who is sometimes hip.

 

Some songs celebrate work.  Other songs celebrate working hard at work, and others talk about hardship and the desire to leave work.  In this very difficult time, when 1 million Australians are now unemployed, and God only knows how many Americans are as well, I cannot forget Bruce Hornsby’s classic song The Way It Is.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GlRQjzltaMQ

 

This song is one of my favorites and it is so apt for today because it speaks about people who just cannot get work, or who are discriminated against because of their color.  These people are told this is the way it is, but as the song says, don’t you believe it.  It is even more apt now after President Trump said of the outbreak of COVID-19 in America, “It is what it is.”  This is a common American expression.  Those of you who have watched the recent movie The Irishman will know this expression as “It’s what it is.”  Apparently, that’s what you say when you decide to whack someone.  I highly recommend the film though it is long, and it is hard to accept Robert De Niro as Irish.

 

The Way It Is has a little weirdness.  In Australia, the channel 9 news has their sports report as does all news, and on weekends, they do a scoreboard update where they do a rapid fire recap of games around the world.  The Way It Is has been the soundtrack of that segment ever since I have been in Australia, which is 31 years now. 

 

I love Bruce Hornsby’s style.  He is the chord master of rock music.  Another song of his I love is The End of the Innocence which Don Henley of The Eagles sings. Hornsby wrote the music and Henley wrote the lyrics.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o5lqR6bCXPc

 

This song has nothing to do with the topic of work except perhaps tangentially, but it is such an awesome song I couldn’t resist.  The blend of piano and synths is amazing.  I love doing this song as a cover as well.  It is one of my favorite covers in fact.  But, as they say, back to work.

 

 

Another song that speaks to unemployment is Blue Collar Man (Long Nights) by Styx.  I’m speaking of the group of course, and not the river.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CDM6v1XhWEg

 

As a keyboard player, sorry I mean as one who plays keys because I want to sound cool today, I love this group.  Aside from the fact they made good music, the keys are phenomenal.  This song has a good message, that there is dignity in being a blue collar man.

 

People react to grinding hard work which is often unsatisfactory in different ways.  Some people just want to party hard while not at work, and Nothing but a Good Time by Poison captures this well.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nC9P8-B42cA

 

 

If you are in a band and are looking for a fun cover to bang out, you know, when musicians can actually bang something out on stage in front of fans, this is one of those songs.  Everyone loves it and it is fun to play.

 

Some songs speak of having fun at work, even while working hard.  The song Carwash by Rose Royce comes to mind here.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PkxaunLybuM

 

The movie that featured this song was fun as well.

 

Dolly Parton’s 9to 5 expresses what we have all experienced at work, the idea that we work hard and are unappreciated.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UbxUSsFXYo4

 

And for the record, Dolly Parton is one hell of a song writer.  In fact, she is probably one of the great song writers of her generation and I think this quality of hers is often unknown or unappreciated.

 

After such a day at work, where you are unappreciated and life generally sucks, it is good to relax.  In Honey I’m Home co-written by Shania Twain, you get this from a woman’s point of view.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a-P-bcMbK1I

 

I confess when I first heard this song I could have sworn it was a remake of an older country song written from the man’s point of view.  After all, the typical household of yesteryear has the man coming home after a hard day at work and telling his wife to serve him and “pour me a cold one.”  But this is not so.  This is an original composition.  I’m sure Shania had this in mind when she wrote it as a number of songs on her wonderful Come On Over album take tropes traditionally expressed from the male point of view and turns them on their head and expresses them from a woman’s viewpoint.  I remember when I was at work once and I said to those around me that my heart throb was coming to Melbourne.  They asked me who that was and I said, Shania Twain.  They had no idea who I was talking about.  Hey she was popular in the 90’s, that’s not really that long ago is it?

And then you have songs which talk about how life sucks at work with one reason being that your bosses cannot appreciate you are worthy of a much higher position.  My favorite song in this genre is by Jim Croce and is entitled Now I got them steadily depressin', low down mind messin' Working at the Carwash Blues.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zomwyZEYZNE

 

This wonderful YouTube clip shows him doing a live performance.  Man there’s an artist who died far too young.  He was killed on a plane crash on my birthday in 1973, not a nice birthday present that’s for sure.  Since I believe I am a genius and should actually be world dictator, I can appreciate the sentiment in this song.

 

And finally, you have songs about people who either quit their job, or got fired for being outspoken and who feel liberated.  And this brings me up to the Weird Song of the Week.  We have all wanted to say this to our employer at one time or another, we have all dreamt of saying it.  Some of us might even have said it.  At one time or another, we have wanted to tell our boss:  Take This Job and Shove It!  And personally, I would love to do this the way Johnny Paycheck does it.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gj2iGAifSNI

 

I certainly wanted to do this many times recently at illion, but they told me to shove it instead.  So what makes this song weird?  It is exactly that.  I knew if I did tell them what to do with themselves – and believe me I have a temper on me and it is quite on the cards for me to do such a thing – it wasn’t actually in my best interest.  If they tell me to shove it, they have to give me a payout.  If I tell them to shove it, I get virtually nothing but a trip to the unemployment line.  So as much as no one likes to be told to shove it, it works out much better for me if they tell me rather than me telling them.  So now they told me to shove it, but it cost them so I’m happy. 

 

In fact, most people love this song because, like winning the lottery, they dream of being able to tell their boss to do just that, along with a few suggestions as to where they can shove the job.  But just like the protagonist in this song, they don’t actually do it.  But as another famous song says But I Can Dream Can’t I.  OK, that’s a love song, but dreaming is better than just putting up with it.

 

Instead of getting the satisfaction of telling my employer to shove it, I get the satisfaction of being free.  This brings me to my all-time number one favorite song.  It is B.J. Thomas singing Raindrops Keep Fallin On My Head.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hziG9Nr6KHU

 

The song was written by Hal David and Burt Bacharach for the 1969 classic Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid starring Paul Newman and Robert Redford.  The movie tells the story of two outlaws in the wild west who try to go straight, but decide it’s just not for them.  If you haven’t seen the film, it’s worth seeing.  It is ranked as the 7^th greatest western and the 73^rd greatest American movie ever.  I don’t know if I agree with either ranking, but it is a classic movie and this song is part of it.  The single that topped the charts was released in early 1970.

As a six-year-old blind kid I wrestled with how unfair life was because I was inferior to all the other normal kids I grew up with.  But when I heard this song, it had a profound life changing effect on me and became, and still is, my personal anthem.  Raindrops keep falling on my head.  But that doesn’t mean my eyes will soon be turning red, crying’s not for me.  I decided that I would not feel sorry for myself but I would remind myself that I’m never going to stop the rain by complaining because I’m free.  Nothin’s worrying me.  And then I’ll play the trumpet just as this song launches into the great trumpet ending.  OK, I added the trumpet part 8 years later when I took up the trumpet in high school, but hey, playing the trumpet is good therapy too.

I will sometimes allow myself 2 minutes for self petty.  I actually put on a timer.  I will indulge for those two minutes to get it out of my system.  But once those two minutes are up and the timer goes off, that’s it.  I’m done with self pity over whatever is getting me down. 

I didn’t get dismissed because I told the boss he was sleeping on the job as the protagonist does in this song.  Instead I told him he was incompetent and unethical with the way he treated people.  He’s still there but you know what, I’m free.  Nothin’s worrying me.  The raindrops may be falling on my head today, but as this song also says, raindrops pass.  Just as happiness is fleeting and often passes, so too is affliction.  It’s too late to play the trumpet now without upsetting the neighbors, but I will play the trumpet in the next couple of days, and I will play Raindrops Keep Fallin’ On My Head to celebrate my freedom.

Oh and one more thing.  Now that I got my payout, my message to my former employer is, you can take this job and shove it!  That felt really good.  😊