Song Post of the Week number 1 – I’m Working For Walmart

I’m Working For Walmart

People have been asking me to play blues.  Problem is, my life is pretty happy right now.  So I started to think about what would give me the blues.  Turns out the working at Wal*Mart is near the top of my list.  I debuted this song at a concert in Ann Arbor where I was performing with Berkeley, CA based singer-songwriter Roy Zimmerman.  After the performance a friend of mine, Dave, came up to me and chatted about it.  Dave took an“early-out” from one of the big auto companies.  An “early-out” is where they give you a bunch of money to voluntarily quit and never come back again.  Dave said, “You know those WalMart greeter jobs are actually pretty hard to get!”  Sign of our times, I guess.

A lot of people that used to have higher paying unionized manufacturing jobs now have minimum wage service sector jobs that you can’t even live on.  Someone told me that when you apply to work at Wal*Mart, they also give you a form to fill out to collect food stamps.  I don’t know whether that is true or not.

I wrote this song from the point of view of a displaced higher wage manufacturing sector worker who has to work for almost nothing at Wal*Mart because there is a lot of that happening here in Michigan right now, and I wanted to put a local Detroit connection into it.

I heard about this book called “The WalMart Effect” by Charles Fishman (google it if you are interested in learning more).  It talks about the effect Wal*Mart has had on everything: what it does to a community when it comes in; focus on price above all else; effects on the supplier chain; to compete with them everyone has to produce the same stuff with the same features and price so selection is less; and on and on. It details how the company’s penny-pinching mindset and mania to reduce prices has driven suppliers into bankruptcy and sent factory jobs overseas. I didn’t actually read the book, just skimmed it and pulled of some of the salient points.  I really don’t read much anymore.  Like most of you, our instant-gratification, connected, cell phone, beeper, pager,  twitter, facebook, cable, CNN, blogosphere society has mostly destroyed my attention span.

What?

Oh yeah, the Walmart song.  It is a condensation of the book into a 4 minute song, so you don’t have to read it, or feel guilty about not reading it.

Musically, it is a cross between a Bob Dylan folk blues rant and a crappy pop song by the rock band, Genesis.

Track Credits and Status
Words and music – Steve Deasy
Guitar – Steve
Electric Piano – Steve
Bass – TBD
Harmonica – Steve
Lead Vocal – Steve
Drums – Steve
Lead Guitar – TBD – waiting for Buddy Hall to send me something

TBD can either mean “To Be Done” or “To Be Determined”, take your pick.

Love,

Steve

Song a week and an essay per week

Hi Folks.  Steve Deasy here again – working on my next album.  I thought it might be interesting to write weekly essays and post audio files as I work on my 3rd album.  Each week I will write about whatever is in my head about what the song is about, why I wrote it, and what influenced it musically.  Although admittedly this will give way more insight into how my mind works than any sane living person ought to know, it might be interesting.  So check back at least once per week and read and listen.

Also, each time a song has more done to it, i.e. overdubs, additional harmonies, et cetera, I will always keep the latest out there for listening and free download for all you brave souls that are willing to follow this blog and watch the CD progress.  It will be your reward.  Put it in your iPods and mp3 players. Burn them to CD.  I don’t care.

Some people wonder why I would put stuff out there for free download.  Well, unless you follow this blog, you probably don’t know about it, and I think the idea of bootleg versions of Steve Deasy music running around is kind of cool.  When I release the CD officially, there will be links to listen to them, but the old rough stuff will be gone.

Oh I almost forgot, comment people!  I want to know you and your thoughts.  The first time you comment, it will not immediately post until a moderator sees it.  However, subsequent posts will go through without this step.  We don’t want a lot of spam comments, and if they get through they may be deleted if we do not know you.  This blog is for Steve Deasy and his friends – it is not the place to promote your next project or website or CD.

I want to get of the grid – write and perform music full time.  Please follow my blog.  Demand me to play in your area at eventful.com ( I really will pay attention).  Add me on twitter and Facebook.  My posts will also go to MySpace, but as Dustin Hoffman in the movie “Rain Man” would say, “MySpace sucks worse than K Mart.” Add me as a friend, you cannot ‘become a fan’ – don’t want it that way.  We are equals – I won’t be your fan, and I don’t want you to be mine.

There is a scene in the movie “Pecker” in which Christina Ricci’s character says to Pecker, whose photography is becoming popular, “Don’t become an asshole, Pecker…DO NOT become an asshole.”  If I start to get popular, I will try not to become an asshole.

So comment on my site!  Come to my gigs and introduce yourself.

Best,

All of us at stevedeasy.com

Hi All, This site is going through reno…

Hi All,

This site is going through renovations right now. The unfrozen caveman songwriter enters the blogosphere. Please check this site out constantly and add comments. You don’t have to register to add comments, but you do have to leave your email address. The first time you leave a comment it will be approved by the administrator, but any subsequent posts will not need to go through that. We just need to know you are a real person and that you’re ok. You can listen to music for free – just click on music under site navigation.