Monday, 11 January 2021

Positive Songs For Negative Times #36: Stick That!

 


As Alyson observed last week, my blogging time has been rather curtailed at the moment by work and lockdown pressures. A member of staff at my workplace died of covid last week. Not someone I knew, but still. Despite that, our department has a Quality Review this week.

I'll pause while you take those two facts in, compare them, and scream at the screen. Or maybe that's just me.

Still, I think what we need right now is some more Positive Songs For Negative Times.

Here's Eric Church, the place where outlaw country collides with rock in the best possible way these days. I would declare this the first great single of 2021, except it's another 2020 latecomer... from way back in July, so I don't know how I missed it back then. Oh, wait, maybe I do...

I think Eric's plea here is for songwriters to write more about the world around them. To be honest, I'm not sure I want to hear anymore about the world around me right now. I come to music for escapism. The last refuge.

(Turns out this is one of the first songs Eric has ever recorded that he didn't write. And there's quite an interesting story behind it if you have the time.)

Still, it's great to hear him belt out, "Stick that in your country song!" with an angry snarl. (Wait till it gets going, you'll see what I mean.) I'm just leeching off his energy for a while...



6 comments:

  1. Fierce stuff and well worth sharing.

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  2. Fucking hell Rol- the fact you're having a review during lockdown when a colleague has just died is an outrage. And sadly typical of the times we live and work in.

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  3. I read the link and loved this line:
    'I've always had a soft spot for teachers and their level of compensation versus their effect on lives...' - So true.

    Sorry to hear about your workplace colleague, it's getting closer to home, one of our friend's dad has just died of Covid-19. And, a Quality Review! It beggars belief. Hang on in there Rol, I am full of admiration for those having to juggle work and life in general at the moment. I think I absented myself from the workplace at just the right time.

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  4. Negative times, indeed, Rol. Really good for morale, I'm sure.

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  5. Quality Review, it's the kind of bollocks that drives people out of teaching

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