"I Wanna Be a Billionaire" : Anyone playing it?

[mr3lions]

Well thats only your opinion on music. Some would argue that music is about truth, or ideals, or conviction. Look at RATM. They aren't about escaping. They are about their "truth," but it just happens to be on the other end of the spectrum.

A good point but if you really want to nit-pick you can argue that Rage preach a lot of anti-big-business rhetoric while being signed to a division of SONY!

As far as your idea of a record of libertarian ideals I think it would be cool. Music is about expressing ideas so go for it.

Bob Roberts should be able to provide some inspiration.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=2af69xt0VKE

www.youtube.com/watch?v=YZXFdikh-70&feature=related

[TrickyBoy]

Well thats only your opinion on music. Some would argue that music is about truth, or ideals, or conviction. Look at RATM. They aren't about escaping. They are about their "truth," but it just happens to be on the other end of the spectrum.

 

 

Absolutely true. It is my opinion.

 

As for RATM, selling "{censored} You I Won't Do What You Tell Me!" to teenage boys ain't exactly novel. No more novel then "Go out and get laid tonight" or "I Wanna Be A Billionaire". Still an escape. 99% of the people listening to RATM ain't never gonna stand up and say "{censored} the system", much in the same way they're never going to get laid by a super model or be a billionaire. It's all something that they can listen to in the bedroom and maybe dream a little about doing that. Then do their homework and go to bed like good little boys.

 

Again, just my opinion.

[Ryan.]

Thats a good point Tricky.

[TrickyBoy]

Thats a good point Tricky.

Thanks. I might have to sig that. It's never happened before

[Ryan.]

Lol, feel free!

[Vito Corleone]

Thats true. Unless I hear twang, I don't consider it country.

 

 

These genres are all selling pre-determined images and attitudes and always have. Rock and roll has always been about being "anti-establishment" so "pro-establishment" lyrics aren't likely to work in a rock song. Country has always been about the workin' man. Lyrics about going to college probably aren't going to work in a country song.

 

And, at the same time, all these genres are selling the same crap just to different audiences. The "I'm proud to be a white-trash redneck" attitude found in songs like "Save A Horse Ride A Cowboy" or "Redneck Woman" are really no different than the "I'm proud to be gangsta" attitude found in rap lyrics. And Green Day is selling the same "I'm proud to be a loser" crap to suburban kids. Yet most of the fans of any of that stuff can't STAND the other stuff.

[kmart]

Look at RATM. They aren't about escaping. They are about their "truth," but it just happens to be on the other end of the spectrum.

 

 

For the record, RATM is as phony and not about 'the truth' they are telling as it gets.

He might talk big about the left and support of the 'little people', etc., but Tom Morello took the millions from his major label band and bought his mom a giant house in the Chicago 'burbs, and last I knew lives in an LA mansion and plays Pictionary with the likes of Vince Vaughn and Counting Crows' Adam Duritz (Close friend of my wife's has been to the regular game nights).

 

I'm not saying I agree or disagree with what he or the rest of the band do, but the story they are selling is no more 'legit' than any other pop music.

[TrickyBoy]

And, at the same time, all these genres are selling the same crap just to different audiences.

 

 

It's all about making people feel good about who they are. Singing, "get off your ass, get a job and become a successful member of society" just ain't gonna resonate to the average rock/alternative rock fan.

[Vito Corleone]

Haven't you heard of this guy named Ted Nugent? :poke:

 

 

His musical career all-but died after he got all political. His career might have died at that point anyway, but it also might say something of the appeal of politically-conservative rock and rollers.

[Vito Corleone]

For the record, RATM is as phony and not about 'the truth' they are telling as it gets. He might talk big about the left and support of the 'little people', etc., but Tom Morello took the millions from his major label band and bought his mom a giant house in the Chicago 'burbs, and last I knew lives in an LA mansion and plays Pictionary with the likes of Vince Vaughn and Counting Crows' Adam Duritz (Close friend of my wife's has been to the regular game nights).

 

 

How does that make him phony? He didn't start out rich, did he? What would make him authentic? To refuse to take or spend any money he has earned? Turn his back on who he always was and what he has always believed and instead sing about how "I'm a rich dude now"?

 

How does the fact that he has since made money invalidate anything he sang about and believed before then? Or invalidate his STILL wanting to reach that same audience with those same beliefs?

[TrickyBoy]

Haven't you heard of this guy named Ted Nugent? :poke: For the record, RATM is as phony and not about 'the truth' they are telling as it gets. He might talk big about the left and support of the 'little people', etc., but Tom Morello took the millions from his major label band and bought his mom a giant house in the Chicago 'burbs, and last I knew lives in an LA mansion and plays Pictionary with the likes of Vince Vaughn and Counting Crows' Adam Duritz (Close friend of my wife's has been to the regular game nights). I'm not saying I agree or disagree with what he or the rest of the band do, but the story they are selling is no more 'legit' than any other pop music.

Phony might be a little hash choice of words. I don't remember him saying you need to be poor. He made his millions saying you should give the middle finger to the man. The fact that the man paid him handsomely for that is kind of ironic. The truth is "the man" is a whore and will let you say whatever you want about him, as long as he gets his cut off the top

My guess is that, much like most entertainers, there's a bit of truth and a bit of fiction in what they do. Rush Limbaugh was a floundering DJ spinning records that took a shot at talk radio, found a relatively unique angle and has made a ton of $$$. Dr. Dre ain't exactly a gangbanger. etc. etc. etc. Do either of them believe everything that they say?? Beats me, but I doubt it.

It appears that you have an insight into RATM that I don't have and maybe they concocted the whole angle. IDK. Personally it doesn't matter to me for two reasons:

1. I really dig their tunes
2. I can't understand 95% of what that de la Rocha dude is saying anyway.

But that's besides the point.

[wades_keys]

How does that make him phony? He didn't start out rich, did he? What would make him authentic? To refuse to take or spend any money he has earned? Turn his back on who he always was and what he has always believed and instead sing about how "I'm a rich dude now"? How does the fact that he has since made money invalidate anything he sang about and believed before then? Or invalidate his STILL wanting to reach that same audience with those same beliefs?

During RATM's downtime, Morello took to playing in Coffee Shops as the "nightwatchman" or some such - acoustic troubador, low key and probably zero profit gigs.

He seems like the real deal, his stint in AudioSlave notwithstanding. Then again, maybe AudioSlave was something he really wanted to do as well; we can never really know what anybody's intent is.

[Vito Corleone]

During RATM's downtime, Morello took to playing in Coffee Shops as the "nightwatchman" or some such - acoustic troubador, low key and probably zero profit gigs. He seems like the real deal, his stint in AudioSlave notwithstanding. Then again, maybe AudioSlave was something he really wanted to do as well; we can never really know what anybody's intent is.

I really don't know anything about Morello or RATM. Not a band I ever got into. But I don't buy the "just because you got rich singing about being poor means you're phony" argument. Now if he was using his money to run a record label and rip off starving artists (or whatever his gripe was) that would be different. But just because he got rich doing what he does doesn't, in and of itself, make him a hypocrite or a phony.

Merle Haggard got rich decades ago singing about his life as an Okie who had problems with the law and other stuff. His music kicked ass because it was authentic. Just because he's rich now doesn't mean he still can't tell stories about his life in a way that relates to people. No matter how rich we get, most of us never get THAT far from who we always have been deep down, anyway.

[jeff42]

Well thats only your opinion on music. Some would argue that music is about truth, or ideals, or conviction.

some music is like that. Some songs are just about well.... nothing. or at least nothing serious. That's why we can have disposable pop tunes like "billionaire" and we can have a song like Change of Seasons by Dream theater.

If I am chilling out by myself and want to ponder a little bit of life the universe and everything... give me change of seasons. If I am at a party sipping a drink with fam & friends give me "billionaire" or some other pop.

BTW thanks to this thread that song just went on our next songs to learn CD. we're gonna kick it up a little though and keep the drums going through the whole thing to keep it more dancable.

[wades_keys]

This thread reminds me of all the people that searched for hidden meaning in "Stairway to Heaven", only to be shattered by Plant's revelation that the lyrics in that tune are basically a meaningless hodgepodge.

I guess the beauty of art is in our interpretation of it, and I'd say that includes the intent of the artist too.

[kmart]

But I don't buy the "just because you got rich singing about being poor means you're phony" argument.

 

That's not the 'argument'. It's not that they sang about being poor. It's that they sang about being rich is bad. If there is an 'argument' it's that he and RATM preach about a near socialist state being utopia (everybody should get taken care of equally, etc.). They preach against things like wealth and 'the system'.

 

In the end, they may donate LOTS to their pet causes, but they still keep enough to live like only a small percentage on the planet do, and from day 1, they have played the 'system's' game.

 

If they walked it like they talked it, they never would have been on a major label, they never would have bought material things with their millions, etc. Don't get me wrong: I would buy the same things they did, and more. You'd just never hear me telling the world "The rich are the enemy" while I enjoyed my wealth.

 

Didn't help their cause in my book to see Zach talk on and on about 'whitey' this and 'whitey' that and 'whitey' is bad/evil...to an audience that was about 99.9% 'whitey', either.

 

Maybe it's not all completely false, but at best, it's dis-ingenious.

 

 

 

And Wades, it's REAL easy to play low $ folk gigs AFTER you've become financially set for life...

[Chicken Monkey]

Boy, are we off topic. I'd probably leave if I heard someone doing "Billionaire", but I'm not your target market. It seems like it's not a song with legs, but if it's easy to learn, play it through the summer, and it'll probably be as popular as a Bel Biv Devoe song by Christmas.

[Blackbird 13]

Not that's it's a complete barometer or anything, but the video has over 22 million views on YouTube.

[New Trail]

 

....It seems like it's not a song with legs, but if it's easy to learn, play it through the summer.....

 

 

Does EVERY song have to become a staple on a songlist? Can't some songs come and go quickly and still have validity, and be worth learning?

[jeff42]

Does EVERY song have to become a staple on a songlist? Can't some songs come and go quickly and still have validity, and be worth learning?

Not every song has to become a staple. yes some songs can fall into that catagory. Some do not.

Once in awhile we do learn "the flavor of the week" type songs. Like 3oh!3's song "don't trust me," Metro Station's "shake It" or another one that comes to mind that we did years ago was Heaven by Los Lonley Boys... remember that one?

We added it and for about 4 months solid that one really packed the floor. Then one day we played it to the sound of groans from the crowd. They were sick of it and I was too but when I heard the groaning from the crowd I knew it was time to drop that sucker...

Our guitar player at the time disagreed. He was of the mindset that ALL songs must become staples. They do not and should not.

With that said we do have staples in our set that arn't going anywhere anytime soon. We are starting to be known for playing certain tunes. That's a good thing.

[cooterbrown]

 

How does that make him phony? He didn't start out rich, did he? What would make him authentic? To refuse to take or spend any money he has earned? Turn his back on who he always was and what he has always believed and instead sing about how "I'm a rich dude now"?

 

 

I went to Libertyville HS with both Tom Morello (Class of 83) and Adam Jones (class of 84) of Tool. (I was class of 85)

I can tell you for a fact Morello likes to use a lot of revisionist history, about himself.

He claims he was an outcast because he is mixed-race, but the truth is Morello was fairly well-heeled. Libertyville is mostly an upper-middle class suburb, and I always felt like our school was second only to Lake Forest HS (the next suburb to the east - on the lake front) as far as being a "priviledged school".

His mom was the libriarian, there, and honestly - Tom Morello was a full blow drama club geek, who was very popular in his clique.

He moved to LA with a bunch of other friends, and most of them were successful enough to stick in La La Land. Obviously Adam Jones made a huge mark, and I know at least seven others who have had decent success in their film, music, or artistic endeavors.

Obviously, college changed Morello a bit, where he was exposed to a lot of "controversial" ideas, but he just seems like a total fake, because I know where he really came from, and how he was brought up.

[Chicken Monkey]

Does EVERY song have to become a staple on a songlist? Can't some songs come and go quickly and still have validity, and be worth learning?

 

 

With a limited amount of time available for learning songs, it would make sense to spend a lot of time on songs that you will play for a long time, and a little time learning songs you won't put many miles on. If it would take the group a few weeks to really nail a song that you'll only be able to play for a few months, your time might be better spent learning something with staying power. Or, if you're doing it for fun, go ahead and learn a barbershop quartet arrangement of that Tony Toni Tone! song.

[jeff42]

true but I think Billionaire could be worked out in about an hour. It's far from complex.

[goosefartfan]

I went to Libertyville HS with both Tom Morello (Class of 83) and Adam Jones (class of 84) of Tool. (I was class of 85) I can tell you for a fact Morello likes to use a lot of revisionist history, about himself. He claims he was an outcast because he is mixed-race, but the truth is Morello was fairly well-heeled. Libertyville is mostly an upper-middle class suburb, and I always felt like our school was second only to Lake Forest HS (the next suburb to the east - on the lake front) as far as being a "priviledged school". His mom was the libriarian, there, and honestly - Tom Morello was a full blow drama club geek, who was very popular in his clique. He moved to LA with a bunch of other friends, and most of them were successful enough to stick in La La Land. Obviously Adam Jones made a huge mark, and I know at least seven others who have had decent success in their film, music, or artistic endeavors. Obviously, college changed Morello a bit, where he was exposed to a lot of "controversial" ideas, but he just seems like a total fake, because I know where he really came from, and how he was brought up.

I jes LOVE gettin de inside scoop!!

I always wondered about him as well, heard he was a Harvard grad......

[Chicken Monkey]

true but I think Billionaire could be worked out in about an hour. It's far from complex.

 

 

Seems like you're looking to argue. I said, if it was easy, learn it. You're saying the same thing.