Wage Slave

[ODH]

I didn't vote the for the Work and Pensions fest and I didn't feel all that inspired by it, to be honest.  Then a several things happened at the same time

• The words Wage Slave popped into my head and I remembered I'd thought they'd make a good song title / subject
  
• About the same time I did a search on my pie-pod for possible fest cover candidates, the song 'The Working Man is Pissed' by (80's Californian punks) Minutemen came up
• Also there was the post from Redler about the Finnish Punk entry for the Eurovision
• And what also occurred to me was being struck by the Oxfam report that 50% of the world's wealth will soon be in hands of 1% of the population

All these things went together and this song came of out of the furnace.

There's a smattering of four letter words, if you're touchy about that knid of thing...

Wage Slave

Nick / odh original

Wage slave
I'm a wage slave
I'm a slave

Monday morning 6 am I'm heading out to work
Monday, Tuesday, 10 hour shifts; risk and Gantt and PERT
Wednesday, Thursday Friday man this shit begins to hurt
My hands are ripped and bloody now from scratching in the dirt (metaphorically)

WS...

I can't stop this
There's no rest
(I) live one pay check
to the next
vultures are
overhead
I'm servicing my debts

At the coal-face I arrive
have to do this to survive
pay the bills;
stay alive
Work the nine to five

WS...

And where does it end?

Half the world's money is owned by 1% of it's people
And those super rich are getting richer
So in 20 years?
Do the super rich 1% now own 70%?  80%
And in 100 years?
Is all the wealth owned by one individual?
And the other circa 50 billion wretched souls that cling to the earth are now his slaves?
What happens when we get there?
What happens on the way?
Our children and theirs will have to figure that one out.
Has debt replaced religion, giving meaning to our lives?
Fear of default, fear of falling?
Is there a better way?

[Greeny]

Love the lyric, swagger, stop-start delivery, spoken section... everything! A really intelligent and perceptive song. Already onto listen number 2, as there's lots to take in. It's soooo tight and on the button, and comes over like a mini opera with all the twists and turns.

Outstanding work, Nick.

[Hook]

wow Nick, really cool song. I dig all the different style & delivery changes & what great lyrics. These fests always have little bits of inspiration in the, even when we don't win the vote (I got many more grumpy songs in me then works songs).

"And where does it end?"
Fest On Brother!

[danieldesete]

Man what a perfect post for a work fest !

A punk song with brains !

Everything is so clever here, the bass line, the changing rythme, the changing vox... 2'30 isn't enough : I'll be back for more soon

daniel

[Flash Harry]

right up my street - real snarly attitudinal late 70's punky delight, we need more of this today, some rebel rousing songs to stir the blood.

And tartan trousers....

Magic Nick, just the very thing. Send it to Tom Robinson at 6 music - he'll love it and you might get some air time.

[SwanSong]

Wonderful song for the fest very creative lyrics and nice
effects all around great instrumentation beside the vocals
always being good keep rocking NEIL !!

[Redler]

Wow! i'm liking this a lot!! Nice mixture of punk and new wave. This has a vibe from the OI punk era from the early 80's (on the "180" bpm spots), imo.

You've done excellent song; 2½ minutes includes so many fine elements! Great arrangement!!!

How you did the drums? They sound like a real ones!

Refreshing performance! =>piepod

[ODH]

Thanks for the comments, all

How you did the drums? They sound like a real ones!

GarageBand drums; Classic Studio Kit for the first half and drum loops (60's Shuffle) in the second.  In fact all the instrumentation is GB, including the guitar.  As often happens, I put the guitar parts down as a guide for the real guitar which would follow then decided I liked the GB part enough not to change it.

Here's an MP3 version if you prefer that flavour

[Mike_S]

Very good Nick. Really enjoyed that. Love the kind of punk feel for the 1st half of the song but really love the strange almost prog rock feel it takes towards the end makes the whole thing slightly odd in the best possible way. Very good indeed!!

[Redler]

GarageBand drums; Classic Studio Kit for the first half and drum loops (60's Shuffle) in the second.

I have GB on my iPhone, too! I haven't got familiar with it, yet. At first glance, it seemed a bit tricky...must search some  tutorial vids on YouTube...