A Million Inconveniences

Photo Source: Vox, Who has died from Covid-19 in the US? 2/16/21 

 by Doug McIntosh & Paul Hobbs

Around January of 2021, I was thinking of different blog ideas to write about when I came upon the idea to create a concept album of satirical song titles. I'm not a musician but I thought I'd create a concept album called, Songs That Piss People Off. I ended up writing 12 song titles and then it just sat in my Blogger draft box for months. 

At some point, I shared the titles with Paul as we have collaborated on several posts together here at Monday Monday Music, as well as creating several videos together of Paul's music for Youtube.

One of my original titles for this made-up concept album was 400,000 Inconveniences because at that time that was the round number of people in the United States who had died from Covid-19. 

As time went by, that number had moved past 500,000 and was well on its way to a million.

I'll let Paul pick it up here.

As the dreaded milestone of one million Covid deaths approached Doug suggested I write a song for which he would create a video to commemorate the horrific occasion.

I started by thinking how the country’s reaction personified the Trump presidency for me. He had reinvented American exceptionalism as American spoiled brat-ism, where we treated non Americans suspiciously and refused to do anything for the common good. No one can tell me what to do. I live in the land of the free. I’m free to think only of myself. The ultimate selfishness manifested itself in refusing to wear a mask to protect against the spread of Covid. I took some time to set up this pervasive attitude before settling into the Covid prevention resistance, which was really the essence of the blog in the first place.

Here's Paul's lyrics for the song, followed by his composition and recording that I made into a still photo Youtube video.

A Million Inconveniences

It very rarely rains but

You’re keeping your front lawn green

Some tyrant city councilman’s

talking bout recycling

You’re not one for following rules

They’re just for misinformed fools

You say, Don’t inconvenience me 

I live in the land of the free

My uncle fell and hit his head

Died waiting for a hospital bed

They’re filled with anti-vaccine casualties

Preventable tragedies

If you care about your fellow man

At least wear a mask and wash your hands

You say, Don’t inconvenience me

I live in the land of the free

I live in the land of the free

You’ll lose your job before you’ll ever get the shot

Or you can wear a mask and test twice a week

But no sir you will not

You think these events are coincidence

But we just hit one million inconveniences

Yeah we live in the land of the free

Land of the free

Now they’re clogging our main arteries

Shutting down commerce between countries

Some of our brilliant politicians say

We should do this in the USA

There’s a strain on our

hard to maintain hospital system

Emergency room nurses are overworked and it’s impossible to replace them

You tried to see your father before he died

But with no vaccine they wouldn’t let you inside

You said, Don’t inconvenience me

I live in the land of the free

Hey don't you inconvenience me

I live in the land of the free

Land of the free

I live in the of the free

The timing of this blog and song comes with the fact that around 300 people a day are still dying of Covid-19, and so let's just take a moment to pause and acknowledge that a 1,000,000 people in the U.S. have now died from this virus to date. 

Take care my friends.