Why this blog?

In the summer of 1989, recently back from my first year of college and somewhat bored waiting for my first internship to start, I was at the record store with a friend and I saw a cassette single of a song I once heard on the radio: "Trouble Me", by 10,000 Maniacs. The town I lived in did not play alternative rock on the radio, alternative rock itself being kind of a new thing. If you're kinda younger, 10,000 Maniacs was Natalie Merchant's group, a kind of mellow New Wave + Folk sound that combined happy, upbeat tunes with very depressing subjects.

The "B" side of the single was something called "The Lion's Share". Unfortunately, Merchant is a lot like Stevie Nicks. She's not the most intelligible when she sings, and although this song is catchy, it's difficult to understand just what the hell she is saying.

I recently lay awake in bed listening to this song on my iPod and I began to pick out parts of the lyrics:

The lambs are bare of fleece and cold; the lion has stolen that, I'm told.

I begin to realize this is an intensely political song about macroeconomics, which is unusual even for 10,000 Maniacs. I download the lyrics. Sure enough, it's a pop-Communist Manifesto:

Can I be unhappy?
Look at what I see: a beast in furs and crowned in luxury.
He's a wealthy man in the poorest land, a self-appointed king,
and there's no complaining while he's reigning.
The lambs are bare of fleece and cold; the lion has stolen that, I'm told.
There must be some creature mighty as you are.
The lambs go hungry (not fair), the biggest portion is the lion's share.
There must be some creature mighty as you are.

Can I be unhappy?
Listen and agree, no words can shame him or tame him.
The lambs are bare of fleece and cold; the lion has stolen that, I'm told.
There must be some creature mighty as you are.
The lambs go hungry (not fair), the biggest portion is the lion's share.
There must be some creature mighty as you are, as you are.

Razor claws in velvet paws, you dunce in your guarded home,
'til a stronger beast will call on you and pounce upon your throne.

Do we pay? Dearly, for the lion takes so greedily
and he knows that what he's taken, it is ours.
That's how the wealth's divided among the lambs and king of the beasts, it is so one-sided.
Until the lamb is king of the beasts we live so one-sided.

Not really so much with the sickles and the hammers, this hidden gem just lays out the fundamental unfairness of unchecked capitalism without suggesting a specific solution. Previous specific solutions being, of course, decidedly unsatisfactory.

Because the lamb never seems to end up king of the beasts.

And that's why this blog is here. We're going to look at why things seem so unfair, but any solution seems to be even more unjust. But we'll look at solutions anyway. The ground rules of the blog and my own personal views will appear in a subsequent post.

(Note: I had to edit this: Blind Man's Zoo was not released until 1989, so I couldn't have bought this single in 1988.)