One of these days I’m gonna do a whole week on why I think Fat Mike is one of the most underappreciated songwriters alive. But today, I’ll just post this tender confection and tell you why I love it.
1. The break between the first chorus and second verse has the good-time-vaudeville vibe of their live shows
2. The title character’s description of a Grateful Dead show (Plenty of good vibes and decent drugs / Stinky people give you hugs) is a perfect description of Burning Man
but most of all,
3. It looks at a man who wears Birkenstocks and a tie-dyed Rancid shirt and asks the question we all would wonder: “Is he a jerk?”
NOFX – Jeff Wears Birkenstocks? from el perfecto Punk In Drublic
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
Just the other day I was discussing Bad Religion with a friend and I told him that I could probably go the rest of my life without the band ever releasing new material again. Why? Because there’s so much of it that I haven’t given honest time.
Continued by saying that the same could probably be said for NOFX, the only difference being that I enjoy NOFX way more than B.R. His response was the “Bad Religion’s lyrics are genius”… which is understandable, but it’s also a stock-answer. I responded, “I play pool cause I’m no fool. I play pool, cause I’m cool. I play pool after school, I play pool all the time.” Fat Mike, Genius.
Clearly I was being a bit cheeky, but there are plenty of examples of great songwriting… even fun, goofy stuff stands up. Take this for example. A basic, throwaway song by many people’s standard, but I think it’s fantastic:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8uOS4YmKt3A
I always really enjoyed the “Drugs are Good” lyrics.
I wish I had listened to that song before I put my trust in hippies. I had to learn the hard way.
Fortunately I heard “Always Hate Hippies” before I got too deep into that mess.