Hey Mr. DJ: Shake Your Moneymaker Edition

“I pity that man who wants a coat so cheap that the man or woman who produces the cloth shall starve in the process.” Benjamin Harrison

Lately, I’ve been staring down a gaping maw of converging life events. I am Gen-X which means I began performing the child rearing ritual well after I finished up drinking and partying. I have a son four years away from drinking and partying college, major repairs to the house, AARP eligibility and I need to accelerate hoarding for retirement. So, when Thrill asked me if I would assist with the DJ thread I was already knee-deep in a shithole financial planning and the theme popped into my head. Here is my advice to the those still young enough to take it (it will all sound familiar):

  • Major in something practical in college if you go. Find something to do that will pay you and is difficult to automate/outsource. Minecraft will only take you so far when you are 100K in debt.
  • Start saving for retirement early because you will either need a lot of money or work until you keel over. I started in my 30’s and I really wish I had done it earlier (see: drinking and partying).
  • If you buy a house pay it off. Try not to use it as a cash machine. Factor in repairs to your budget because they are coming when you least need them.

As for music, perception-wise music and money have been tightly linked in my lifetime. Make it big and it’s hookers and blow for life. As it turns out sometimes bands make it big, but do not necessarily get mega rich; some really big names move back in with mom and dad and barely scratch out their next record over disputes with record labels.   Presumably we are looking more towards creepy groupies and cheap beer.  Later on it seemed that streaming services like Pandora would make the mega rich rock star a thing of the past. We still have them but the big money is in touring and merch. I can’t figure out how the old guys do it. Perhaps it is just management of expectations at that point.

Fast forward and I still don’t know if this is good or bad so let’s just get to the music part, shall we? Music is a vast field just begging to be mined for songs about:

  1. Money talks, bullshit walks – Songs about money, gold, greedy assholes, poor assholes, gold diggers
  2. All your money are belong to us – Jobs, bills, taxes, government waste, government largess, (not quite) making ends meet
  3. What’s the story morning glory – Bands with lawsuits, copyright infringement crap, pay the rent tours, trophy wives, nasty divorces, selling a bitchin’ mansion to pay the bills. This is also a place for bands bigly into charity and those bands that turned their music careers into vast empires. As with the songs they hate topic a few weeks ago, please include a story with this one.
  4. 2-dollar scratch off ticket – There is no reason that we can’t make it up as we go along. Maybe you see money where others see ants in James Brown’s pants.

I have created the playlist here:

Here are the dedications for last week’s participants:

Kevin – Poking fun at the Rock Star before it was cool

Thrill – I swear Peaky Blinders owes me royalties for cribbing my playlists.

zoomwsu – Remember when we would put a song in Winamp and stare at it?

santino – Pay the rent tour in progress

Mrs. Thrill – This song is so ripped off that the band is suing people

ilovecress – I laughed hysterically and thought of you  Does that make me a bad person?

mashav – ”Pour that ever-loving stuff down on me”

Grendel – Old fashioned rock stars still cranking it out (with some, um, changes)

Zurvan – These are the survivors of the early 90’s heroin epidemic. They still get together for tours.

WestVirginiaRebel – Bagpipes! Australia lost a national treasure here Bagpipes are a close second to mandolin as my favorite funky instrument.

dakrat – Welcome back! Sit down and stay awhile

(I will end here by giving a shoutout and extra dedication to Thrill for doing these so well each week.  It is harder than it looks.)

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33 comments

  1. zoomwsu – Remember when we would put a song in Winamp and stare at it?

    Oh Lord, those days….

    Since I’m first to the thread this fine morning, I’ll take the easy reference to the classic money song.

    You want someone who turned a music career into an empire? Few have reached the pinnacle big pimpin’ lifestyle Mr. Carter has.

    I would be remiss if I didn’t share something from my favorite corner of musicland (dance music). How about another guy who turned his simple music career (well, really his side gig hobby) into an empire? Started out as a law student making some money on the side playing in a local club. Dude is worth $55M, has the longest-running weekly dance podcast, five-time #1 DJ in the world, and runs one of the biggest labels in dance music. This is what it feels like.

  3. But then my partner called to say the pension funds were gone
    He made some bad investments
    Now the counts are overdrawn

    Take A Walk seems an appropriate song for this thread.

    Couldn’t come up with a more ironic song name than Bitter Sweet Symphony in the Stones vs. Verve you stole my song saga.

  23. aH YES the visualizations, using the fire Visualization and listen to Golden Earring play Twilight zone… drink good drink good smoke…. and the old days.. ugh back in 97-98..lol

  24. pfluffy! great pick for me.. lol as i was running the video my 11 year old came through , bobbing his head in time with the music, gave me a thumbs up as he passed…lol…

  27. Bittersweet Symphony is one of my favorites. It always makes me feel good for some reason. Never knew there was a lawsuit, and I had to look it up. Wow.

    One more before I crash for the night.

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