Monday, August 22, 2011

Song Assassin: Guest Blogger Tim Benker!

A guest assassin will skewer one of his favorites today.  The Blogger:  Tim Benker.  The song:  Steve Miller's "Take The Money And Run" 

I have known Mr. Benker for a long, long time.  He was my first comedy friend as we started out in the biz on the same day back in January of 1982.  Here he does a great job of picking apart this classic!

                 Here's the song!  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mTti_fYPiWY&feature=fvst

Take the Money and Run

"Take the Money and Run" is a song recorded in 1976 by the Steve Miller Band. A song about two young bandits, and featured on the album Fly Like an Eagle. The song peaked at #11 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100.


The song also shares the same basic chordal structure with Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Sweet Home Alabama" and Warren Zevon's "Werewolves of London”

The lame story is not as big a mess as how the author attempts to tell it.

This is a story ‘bout Billy Joe and Bobby Sue
It is a story that starts by telling you that it is in fact, a story...the names in the story are quite androgenous so it is either about two hillbillies of undisclosed gender...that could be brother and sister... or it is about two southern lesbians
Two young lovers with nothing better to do
This could confirm the hillbilly brother and sister theory.
Than sit around the house, get high and watch the tube
Sounds like a full rich day for hillbillies
Here’s what happened when they decided to cut loose
They headed down to Old El Paso
Whoa...settle down you two!!  Cuttin loose in Old El Paso!!!  When I want to “cut loose”, I know Old El Paso is the first place I want to go...to buy more drugs, and to buy a jar of Salsa!
That’s where they ran into a great big hassle
When sung in the original recording, the line sounds like “they ran into a great big asshole”...I hear that and I envision them physically  with big bags of money and guns drawn running straight into a giant anus....that or getting into a car wreck with Newt Gingrich.
Billy Joe, shot a man while robbing his castle
I don’t think THEY ran into a great big hassle, the guy they robbed and shot was the one who had the great big hassle run into HIM...Billy Joe was the hassle-er. Also, I have been to El Paso a few times, and the only castles I ever saw was at the mini golf  place, or the mini hamburger restaurant.
Bobby sue, took the money and run
This is not a typo...Bobby Sue took the money, past tense and run...in present tense...She’s good, she managed to change tense in the middle of a single action...She could have “taken the money and ran”, but that would screw up the chorus....She could “take the money and runs” but that would sound like she stole diarrhea. The only thing we know for sure is Bobby Sue did indeed, run off with the money grammatically incorrect fashion..

Go, On take the Money and Run
This is a bold endorsement of the heinous and felonious actions of Billy Joe and Bobby Sue...Go on, shoot a man in cold blood, rob his castle, you have nothing better to do , Go on, take the money... take it!!! get the hell out of here...it’s okay!!
Go On take the Money and Run
The encouragement is repeated  in case the murderers didn’t think of this exit strategy themselves...then blasphemed:
OOO Lord! Go On take the Money and Run




Billy Mac is a detective down in Texas
Another bi-monikerred  southern guy enters the story...and in case of confusion, we get clarity on which state in the union Old El Paso is located.
You know he knows exactly what the facts is
Billy Mac does not know what the facts are, but he definitely knows what the facts IS....that the kind of detective he are. Or maybe he knows what a FAX is...even though they hadn’t been invented yet in 1976.
He ain’t gonna let those two escape justice
At least that’s what it says in his Texas detective oath
He makes his living off of other people’s taxes
This says to me, Billy Mac works for H&R Block on the side for extra money...

It’s in this verse where the author of the song does not take poetic license,  but rather, he is beaten by the poetic police and has his poetic license revoked. In an historical move, the author rhymes Texas, Facts is, justice and taxes...Could he have been with Billy Joe and Bobby Sue getting high while he wrote this verse?
He would have had better luck rhyming this verse had he started with “Bernie Mac has a defective pound of Tampax”


Bobby Sue, oh she slipped away
Well, you see, she escaped justice right there...
Billy Joe caught up the very next day
Another escapee...
They got the money, hey, you know they got away
Where the fuck is Billy Mac?? They got away! All his crap about letting those two escape justice is just that, crap! We need another detective for a missing person case..... Did Billy Mac just give up? Is he on another case? Or is the author holding out on us and secretly wrote a verse where Billy Joe and Bobby Sue come face to face with Billy Mac and they offer him a he chunk if he buried the guy they shot and to let them off the hook for robbery, and he took the deal  as long as his name  didn’t get another mention in the song...
They headed down south and they’re still running today
They started out in Texas and they headed down south from there...our fugitives are currently living in a penguin colony in Antactica, and are going nowhere,  much like the story in this song. Ooh, Lord!


Go On, take the Money and Run

Thursday, August 11, 2011

Song Assassin: Diary

                                    Song Assassin:  Diary
The target for today is a sweet little ballad written by David Gates of the popular group, Bread.  “Diary” was released on April 22, 1972 and made it all the way to number 15 on the pop charts (say that last sentence in a Casey Kasem voice).  If you are not familiar with the song, or if you’d just like to hear it again, here’s where you can find it:
                                Diary
I found her diary underneath a tree.  Ok, we begin the song with carelessness.  She just left her diary underneath a tree?  Was this accidental?  Is she just that trusting?  Did she just think, “I’ll just leave my diary with my most private thoughts, here underneath this tree.”  I’m sure it will be fine.” And really, who actually keeps a diary?  Why the hell would you set yourself up for the humiliation of having some douchebag finding it and making a song about it?  I’ve never known anyone who had a diary.  The only people who kept diaries were TV characters… and I guess ladies in songs.
and started reading about me. Is that what you did, you pompous ass?  You started reading about YOU? I would think that her diary would be about HER!  Secondly, why would you just pick up her diary and start reading it, you dick?  You care so little about her right of privacy, and the fact that you are invading it, that you are telling everyone, IN SONG, that you are reading her diary?
The words she'd written took me by surprise. 
Did they?
You’d never read them in her eyes.
Really?  So you are not just an expert at reading other people’s personal stuff, you are also skilled at reading eyes?  Wow!  Why you ARE a catch, aren’t you? 
They said that she had found the love she waited for.
Wouldn't you know it, she wouldn't show it.
This should be your first clue, dumbass!  If she didn’t show you that you were the love she’d waited for, why would you believe that she was writing about you? The song should be over here, Dr Deduction!  She found the love that she’d waited for, but shows no indication, in her eyes or anywhere else, that she’s all that crazy about you. 

When she confronted with the writing there,
kind of a weird combination of words.
simply pretended not to care.
She PRETENDED not to care?
I passed it off as just in keeping with
her total disconcerting air
is that what you did? You passed it off as just in keeping with her disconcerting air?
*Disconcerting air kind of sounds like another term for the aftermath of someone passing gas.  “What the hell is that, Bill? Was that you?  Dear God that is some disconcerting air!”
 “Obviously this chick’s crazy about me.  The fact that she admittedly ‘doesn’t show it’ means nothing.  She is writing about me in this diary that she left underneath the tree.  It’s all about me.  It’s that disconcerting air of hers that makes it look like she couldn’t give a rat’s ass about me.  You know those women and their disconcerting airs”
And though she tried to hide
the love that she denied,
wouldn't you know it, she wouldn't show it.
Not to beat a dead horse here Chalmers, but it surely doesn’t appear that she has too much love to throw your way.  Denied or otherwise.
And as I go through my life, I will give to her my wife
Wait, she’s your wife?  Are you really married to her or is this just the way you see things shaking down?  Does it say somewhere in this diary that she’s waiting for Mr. Privacy Invader to pop the question?

all the sweet things I can find.
All the sweet things you can find?  So you are looking for sweet things?  And when you find them you will give them to her?  That’s so sweet!  Now put down her fucking diary!
I found her diary underneath a tree
and started reading about me.
You still feel no guilt here, do you?  And so far, you still think this is all about you?
The words began stick and tears to flow.
Ok, here we go.
Her meaning now was clear to see.
NOW it’s clear to see?
The love she'd waited for was someone else not me.
This is where the bells and whistles start going off like when someone said the secret word on Pee Wee’s Playhouse!

Wouldn’t you know it, she wouldn't show it.
Actually, I WOULD know it!

And as I go through my life, I will wish for her his wife.
So now she’s HIS wife?  You’ve given up that easily?  I guess it’s time to go find another diary, carelessly left out somewhere for the world to read.  Certainly when you find it, it will undoubtedly be about you.
all the sweet things that she can find
Oh I see, now that you have graciously bowed out, she must find the sweet things herself.  You’re on your own, bitch!  Find your own sweet things.  I was going to find them for you, my wife.  Whatever!
All the sweet things they can find. 
Ok, you know what? Why don’t you just get him to find them with you?  Your loss!”

Seems to me she left the diary out on purpose.  She was gambling on the possibility that he knew how to read.