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I'm the singer who went to rehab three times. I get a sense of my community sometimes. Most of my friends are fuck-ups, and I've always felt a little defensive of them... My thought with the record was to say your Thanksgiving isn't better than my Thanksgiving because you're rich or well-adjusted.
-Todd Snider |
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Photo by Senor McGuire
Interlude 1
JamBase: I like that partying is a theme on The Devil You Know. I like getting loaded, and I'm not too embarrassed about it. But more and more, I'm made to feel ashamed of that by our increasingly uptight culture.
A young Todd Snider |
Todd Snider: I feel that way, too. I had just gone to the hospital for drugs, but I wanted to make sure I didn't come out saying things like 'I'm taking it one step at a time, and everybody else ought to, too.' I consciously decided that even if I didn't party like I used to, I didn't want to stop altogether. I tell my 18-year old nephew to go out there and roar. Don't get in a wreck. Don't drive like an ass. And, don't be mean to no chicks.
JamBase: Good sound advice for an 18-year old. Tack on 'Don't kill anybody or yourself, and make sure you share whatever you've got.' That's the funny thing about all the major religions around the world. If you get away from the specifics, all the basic stuff resonates across the board. Don't kill, don't steal...
Todd Snider: ...forgive, love.
JamBase: If we focused on that stuff and got away from what Mohammad did at this mountain or what Confucius said was the proper way...
Todd Snider: ...we'd be 100-percent better. I was hoping to make that comment on Devil. Something good comes along that calms people and gives them hope. It's inevitable that if enough people are calmed and given hope, some asshole finds a way to pervert this good thing to control people and make money off them. It seems like every religion gets co-opted by some government. It ends up being poor, young people having religion shoved in their face so early they don't have time to ask themselves why they would die and kill for Jesus. They don't even know. They do it for the same reason they'd do things for Santa Claus. They're just not out there shooting people for Santa.
Workingman's Blues
Todd Snider by Jeff Fasno |
You can't talk to me like that boss
I don't care who you are
If you don't want to have to hang your own dry wall
Don't push me too far
After years of slugging away in bars and living rooms, Snider is starting to break through to a bigger audience. He recently performed his new tune "Looking For A Job" on The Tonight Show with lantern-jawed freak Jay Leno. It's a blue-collar anthem to rival David Allan Coe's "Take This Job and Shove It," and it culminates in this corker:
So you see, broke won't take much getting used to
Neither will a barb wire jail house wall
Watch what you say to someone with nothing
It's almost like having it all
Snider points out the hidden power in powerlessness – it's all in how you define it. It's his ability to shift our perspective from the usual cultural norms that makes Snider such a potent humdinger. Anytime an artist can rattle us out of our complacency and accepted truths, it's a good thing, even if the powers that be don't always appreciate it. Case in point, "You Got Away With It (A Tale Of Two Fraternity Brothers)," a thinly veiled swipe at George W. Bush on Devil.
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