Here we are with my first completed collaboration! This is a song that began about 15 years ago as a punk-rocker inspired by the early 1990's music Mo Tucker, former dummer for the Velvet Underground. I can't do much with it acoustic solo, but I hooked up here with a bunch of awesome musicians and created this VU-meter-busting full band version.
Special thanks to Jerry and Walter for their rock-solid drums and bass, which laid a firm foundation early in the recording process, to George for thinking up new electric rhythm guitar chords that added to the song's feel, and to Mark for his smokin' lead guitar.
The Band:
"DangerousDave", Decatur, Georgua, USA: Acoustic guitar, harmonica, vocals
"Jman", San Diego, California, USA: Drums
"bp1964", Torrence, California, USA: Bass guitar
"Guitar George", Scarborough, North Yorkshire, United Kingdom: Rhythm electric guitar
"mlc", Houston, Texas, USA: Lead guitar
The Song:
The Bandits These Days
Words and music (C)2007 by David Langford Smith
Daddy always said, "Work hard and save.
If you can do that, you'll see better days.
Give A hundrend-and-ten. Go the extra mile,
But watch out for the ones with the alligator smiles."
I clock in on time every day.
But the good life feels like it's a world away.
Save a little when I can
In the company stock savings plan.
Chorus
The bandits these days don't have to carry guns.
They just talk fast then they turn and run.
Is it greed or are they insane
To think it's all just a game?
My house is what they call a manufactured home.
The floors are plywood. The walls styrofoam.
One paycheck away from living in the car.
Someday they'll go and push me too far.
Now they say this job is gone
Just deal with it and move on.
Stock savings plan, it's worth nill.
But the CEO will take a hundred fifty mill.
Repeat Chorus
New politicians won't change a thing.
They slap your hand. They dance and sing.
They say one thing and do the other.
Thank you sir, can I have another!
Machivelli would sure be proud
The way they talk, so smooth and loud.
It's not the people who are in command.
But the men who grease the palms of their hands.
Repeat Chorus
