Songs That Piss People Off • No. 1

 
Songs That Piss People Off: No. 1 is a satirical album I dreamed up one day back in 2020 during the lockdown phase of the pandemic. My state of mind at the time was to put together 12 song titles with the ability to piss off or even get a laugh from my readers depending on their personal or political perspectives. My goal was to be an equal opportunity offender where I would be successful with at least one title pushing one of your buttons. Hell, several of these titles pushed my own buttons when they came into my head.

This blog has just been sitting in my drafts folder and for some reason I decided to pull the publish trigger and just let this one fly. Actually, I know why I picked this week is because this shit just doesn't seem to go away. Many of these titles are simply ongoing themes of life in America that I could have coined yesterday. 

Anyway, I had fun designing the album jacket and you can only imagine what my "Number 2" album cover is going to look like.

Here's the titles with no explanations or apologies. 

1. People And Their F***ing Dogs
2. Defund Stupid Liberal Slogans
3. Old Lady Shopping Cart Blocking Aisle 2 Blues
4. Fascist Patriot Games (beat you with my American flag)
5. Your Precious Coffee
6. A Million Inconveniences
7. The Ballad of Joe Manchin (feat. Kyrsten Sinema)
8. So You Want To Be A Smelly Cat Indie Star
9. "I'm not a racist, but" (feat. Pika Krackr)
10. Semi-automatic Thoughts & Prayers
11. The Hunchbacks of iPhone Fame
12. The Baptists Converted Me... to an Atheist

Note- If I didn't piss you off this round, I hope to do better next time.

Bonus Track - 1,000,000 Inconveniences

At some point, I shared these titles with my buddy and guest writer for Monday Monday Music™, Paul Hobbs. Paul and I got to talking about actually writing some songs from these titles and then we settled on, A Million Inconveniences.

That whole collaboration resulted in Paul writing the lyrics and music for the song that he recorded and was featured in the Monday Monday Music blog,  A Million Inconveniences on May 9th, 2022. 

What was so great about working with Paul is that he encouraged me to write some lyrics of my own. I did that and he then went to work again and recorded a whole new song with the same title with my lyrics (this one with the number in the title, 1,000,000 Inconveniences).  He also wrote new music for this second perspective on the theme of a million people dying of Covid-19 during the past two years. Paul is a very special person, and anyone would be honored to be his friend and now for me, an ongoing collaborator.

I thought this might also be a good time to release this second version as Covid cases (+11%) and hospitalizations (+18) are both up again.  As this latest strain, Omicron subvariant BA.5 becomes dominant, everybody now has family and friends, all vaccinated testing positive for Covid. I'm just so thankful for the Covid-19 vaccination for all ages NOW as my youngest two grandchildren under 5 were recently able to get their first shots. 

Covid-19 is NOT going away, and probably never will. All of us will eventually get it, but again I'm so thankful we have the medical technology through vaccinations, boosters and medications like Paxlovid to greatly reduce the symptoms and not put larger numbers in the hospital as in 2020-21.

Since the May 9th blog, 17,000 more people have died from Covid-19. Deaths are down to about 300 a day in the U.S. but as in all tragedies like this, the simply phrase, "We can never forget" is still appropriate and ongoing. 

So here's our reflection after two years of the pandemic in a song. It's a sarcastic response to the naysayers, deniers, liars, selfish, and pussies who simply can't tolerate a little mask, all wrapped in the American flag with the misconception that their personal behavior trumps the collective safety and liberty of the many. Grow up and face adversity like the generations of Americans before us. Piss off.

And, what a feeling to say, "I co-wrote a song" for the first time in my life. Thank you Paul!

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.