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Download Woody Guthrie's "The Jolly Banker!!!"


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I would have felt really weird if I didn't donate the $2. Woody and his legacy has probably made a ton of music I listen to possible in some way. I've only gave the song one listen and I have not complaints. I think sometimes Wilco does this sort of song so effortlessly that you can miss its quality upon first listens. I also love the concept of using a 50 odd year old song to make a current statement. It makes it seem less reactionary and soap boxy in my mind.

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songs like this belong to the album "Random Wilco Shit"

 

LOL... Hilarious. I kind of like the idea of pinning it to a closely related album, but I actually titled mine Roadcase as well. I might add it to the end of W(TA) when it comes.

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I would have felt really weird if I didn't donate the $2. Woody and his legacy has probably made a ton of music I listen to possible in some way. I've only gave the song one listen and I have not complaints. I think sometimes Wilco does this sort of song so effortlessly that you can miss its quality upon first listens. I also love the concept of using a 50 odd year old song to make a current statement. It makes it seem less reactionary and soap boxy in my mind.

 

 

+1 x 10

:thumbup

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You know, I was thinking: now there are three jolly things: Santa Claus, bankers, and the Green Giant.

 

Hey, it's been a slow brain day. B)

 

This is a great example of an artist matching music to lyrics in the most appropriate way. If you don't like the song, what would you have done to make it better? It is easy to tear down what other artists do, but what would you do to make this song better & more appropriate to fit what Woody Guthrie had intended with the lyrics?

 

Nice job, Wilco.

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This is a great example of an artist matching music to lyrics in the most appropriate way. If you don't like the song, what would you have done to make it better? It is easy to tear down what other artists do, but what would you do to make this song better & more appropriate to fit what Woody Guthrie had intended with the lyrics?

 

Nice job, Wilco.

 

You didn't think I was disparaging the song, did you? :dontgetit Because I love the song & it's been humming in my brain all day long. I was just being silly.

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This is a great example of an artist matching music to lyrics in the most appropriate way. If you don't like the song, what would you have done to make it better? It is easy to tear down what other artists do, but what would you do to make this song better & more appropriate to fit what Woody Guthrie had intended with the lyrics?

 

Nice job, Wilco.

 

Wilco didn't write the music. Music and lyrics by Woody, unlike Mermaid Ave.

 

P.S. don't mess with kidsmoke, or we'll ALL get you.

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Ok, well. kidsmoke is genuinely touched by this. :cheekkiss

 

Since I was musing in here about things that are jolly I have realized that there are many jolly things I have haplessly forgotten, so see this thread:

 

http://forums.viachicago.org/index.php?showtopic=39802

 

Which gives vent to more things which are jolly. Perhaps not as jolly as today's bankers, but jolly nonetheless.

 

All I know is, I can't get this tune out of my head!

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Pitchfork Reviews Jolly Banker (Gives it a 7).

 

Don't let that quaint waltz-time signature or that singsongy chorus fool you: "The Jolly Banker" is a pretty pissed-off song. Woody Guthrie's Depression-era tune accused bankers of having pretty much every ulterior motive imaginable: "When money you're needin' and mouths you are feedin', I'm a jolly banker, jolly banker am I." It gets worse: "I'll come down and help you/ I'll rape you and scalp you." Like Guthrie, Wilco play it more as lightly satirical than as angrily outraged. As an acoustic guitar strums out a 3/4 beat and the organ and slide guitar careen gently into each other, the lilt of the melody first conceals the banker's wrongdoing, the finally reveals and contrasts their sinister extremes. It could have fit perfectly on either of the Mermaid Avenue albums, although this cover sounds more post-cratered-economy than pre-Y2K. Money where their mouth is: Wilco are offering the song free on the web site, with a suggested donation of $2 to the Woody Guthrie Foundation and Archives.
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