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Our country stands next to Jesus like he's a Super Bowl trophy, but I ain't buying it. George Bush would give his left arm for that photo op.
-Todd Snider |
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Photo by Senor McGuire
"Our country stands next to Jesus like he's a Super Bowl trophy, but I ain't buying it. George Bush would give his left arm for that photo op [laughs]," says Snider.
Todd Snider |
Bush - a guy who drank too much, snorted too much and got by on lucky breaks and the kindness of family and strangers – has hounded recreational drug users, gays and anyone that doesn't look or act like him in a way we haven't seen since the '80s. Rather than really leading this country, he stands in judgment of it.
"And shaking his fist, telling us we've got to set goals and achieve, basically being all Republican and making punishments harder on people who get fucked up," continues Snider. "A guy who carried cocaine in his pocket for nine years wants to make it easier to put people doing it now in jail."
Snider isn't entirely comfortable with the spotlight that's swung his way. He thinks he looks like Charles Manson on television or video. And while it may seem like he's courting controversy, he's not. Truth just falls out of his mouth when he sings. When he talks about his Tonight Show appearance, he says, "I think I looked like a serial killer." And he seems far more excited about the after-show party on the roof of his hotel, where he and his friends caroused and played J.J. Cale's new album for hours until they'd cleared everyone else out of the pool area.
Todd Snider |
The afternoon before the Tonight Show taping, Snider and his quickly assembled pick-up band did a set for Rehearsals.com that also flipped his switch.
"It was real cool. They put us on a soundstage, and they recorded and filmed us for five hours. It's just a bunch of cover songs and a few of my songs. Now my manager wants to put it out. We did a few Billy Joe (Shaver) tunes. We did 'Two More Bottles of Wine.' We did 'Maureen' by John Prine. You know, kind of obscure stuff," enthuses Snider. "I didn't get to sing covers until I put out an album. Then, people would let me. If I was in some bar before I had a record deal and I did somebody else's songs, people hated it. I always figured it's because I can't sing. 'Do your own songs where you talk! Don't kill us trying to sing Sugar Mountain!' [laughs]. The talking blues, I do that a lot, but I like to sing too. And I never know if I'm in pitch, but everyone says I mostly am."
Interlude 2
Todd Snider |
JamBase: There's a general tendency to demonize what we regard as a personal weakness. I think Bush just hates himself so much, except now he's President and can project that self-hatred out on our whole culture.
Snider: I wonder what's gonna happen at the end of this, when he's gone. It's been an interesting six years, has it not?
He's fucked up a lot of things that are gonna take a lot longer to fix. I'm guardedly hopeful there won't be the same kind of administration after the next presidential election. There's a part of me that's scared to say it out loud but I hope we won't be dealing with the same kind of assholes in a few years.
You know Inside The Actors Studio? They always ask, "What do you hope God says to you when you get to Heaven?" If they asked me that, my hope is God would be saying, "Hold on! Hold on! Calm down. I can explain." Because that would mean there is an explanation AND I had the balls to demand it.
Higher Powers
Todd Snider by Senor McGuire |
For many, Heaven is portrayed with hard, inflexible words like "justice" and "power" and "vengeance," rather than ultimate compassion, which is even more important in a way than love because you can't get to love without compassion. One of the things that most appeals to me about Snider is how he's a skeptic who still believes. Snider comments, "There's something undeniably there. You can name it or don't name it. You can call it 'The Unknown.' It's what we don't know. We know that it's bigger than us. That's all."
Bigger things and immediate things – that's the swirl in Snider's music. He doesn't lose the day-to-day stuff when he looks heavenward. Snider understands that the pearly gates don't open for those who don't get a little dirt under their nails. When we talk about spiritual matters, his faith is expressed in simple, almost innocent ways, like when he remarks, "Jesus had some really great shit to say" or "When I pray it's 'Let us all in, Man.' That's enough."
He continues his hypothetical conversation with The Creator saying, "I was clinging to life. I'm not gonna tell you I wasn't clinging to that thing. I was. I kept going to doctors. Even when I wasn't sick, I went a million times. I wanted to stay, Man. Swimming is unbelievable. That shit, I can't believe it! But cancer? Come on, Man, let's talk. Let's sit down. Do you have a lot of people to greet today?"
When I point out that the Bible suggests God's day is a thousand years, Todd barks, "Give me five minutes! I just want to know the whole deal with war!"
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