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MUSIC TO
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Bands from around the area and indeed, even from around the world, have felt emotionally opposed enough to smoking bans and/or overbearing government to have written songs about it. Even rocker Joe Jackson has been prominent in protesting the loss of freedom.Please support them.
Joe wrote an article back in May 2003 for the New York Times, bemoaning the sad state of New York nightlife in general and the smoking ban in particular. The article continues to generate a tremendous amount of interest.
Read the Article and a Statement by Joe on this issue.Stubbing Out? Not if I Can Help It - The Daily Telegraph
Jackson's new single "In 20-0-3" is now available for purchase or download HERE
"This new song was written to send up Mayor Bloomberg and the New York smoking ban, but also to help those fighting to get the ban repealed and to prevent similar bans elsewhere."
Proceeds from CD sales and downloads will go to NYC C.L.A.S.H.
Feb. 1, 2004 - NY Post's Page Six reports: ROCKER Joe Jackson is just as tired with Mayor Bloomberg's anti-smoking law as the rest of us. He's even penned a song against the ban. Jackson premiered his protest tune, "In Twenty-Oh-Three (You Can't Smoke at the Bar)," on WABC Radio's "Steve Malzberg Show." "If you smoke, that sign that's in the window of your favorite bar that says 'no smoking' might as well say, 'f- - - off,' " Jackson told Malzberg. "Even the bartenders whom this law is supposed to protect don't like it. It just means that we're unwelcome and put out onto the street."
New York CityScene called Pandora's Pet "The next big thing in the area's recent rock revival."
They've written "(Everyone I Know Wants to Kill) BLOOMBERG!"
Lyrics
Just the mention of his name
and the smokers go insane,
It's the mere first layer
of our evil mayor.Chorus: Everyone I know wants to kill Bloomberg
He put the D-I-C in DIC
Dictator!
Hey hey - they say
Everyone I know wants to kill BloombergSmall businesses are crippling
his bank account is tripling,
Firehouses being closed
public safety getting hosed.Just getting by yeah, as it was
thanks to him now, we can't take the bus,
Another newscast spills his plans
while his servants clean his hands.Bridge: No smoking here
No talking there
No sitting here
No walking there
Pay more to rent, pay more to ride
Pay more to own, pay more to drive
Pink slips ever ready, tickets like confetti.
The Lawn Sausages sprang out of the music cauldron in Troy, NY back in 1992. Known for their ferocious, take-notice live performances, the band evolved into its current 6 piece unit which released their debut CD "Kick Out The Hams" in 1999, sophomore effort NUMBER TWO in 2001 and in 2003 hit the political circuit with Smoke This Joe Bruno.
Some excerpts from the new song:
"They say Uncle Joe used to smoke a couple packs a day / But now that he's a senator, he's got the nerve to say/ 'You can't smoke in restaurants, you can't smoke in bars, you can't even puff one in a corporate car.'
Chorus: "Smoke this, Joe Bruno, smoke this, Joe Bruno, smoke this, Joe Bruno, smoke this!
"Now I don't even smoke; I don't care if you do / But how many more rights can they take away from you? Now hard-working folks like to smoke while having a couple beers / If smokin' Joe had his way, he'd pull those cheers.
"Now smokers are taxpayers; they've been treated like mutts / Next election year, they're gonna blow smoke right up your butt."
Started in 1997, you can find them performing on the Toronto and Ontario bar circut. They are planning in the near future to tour in the United States and across Canada.
They've written "The Smoke Police" (the song is available for download on their site)
Lyrics
The undercover smoke police,
the ferrets for tobacco:
will they make a busybody cause
into a city cash cow?Undercover smoke police
skulk in holes and corners:
they do not warn you openly
like a cop in uniform does.If you can't afford a separate room,
don't let your patrons smoke:
someone might snitch, and the powers that be
will fine you till you're broke.Who knows if they will ask to smoke,
thus hoping to entrap you?
Who knows if they'll just sit and look,
then with a summons slap you?The undercover smoke police,
and others of their flavor:
"for your own good" is what they say,
as inchwise they enslave you.So vote the nanny state from power,
and put it out to pasture;
a grown-up doesn't want or need
a meddler for a master.
Eric Layman discusses the lyrics for the Smoke Police:
I wrote this because I wanted to attack "the smoke police", and have fun doing so. There's too much preaching already, without my tying more "should-nots" around people's necks.
Before The Intended recorded it, I used to drop copies off in restaurants and bars. Several times, the owners told me they liked it.
People who don't want to inhale smoke are free to patronize a smoke-free locale. As a smoker, I have the right to go somewhere that permits it. Let people have freedom of choice.
Most people, including free-enterprisers, support the idea of the "nanny state" in some areas. I don't. Government does not have a right to outlaw behavior which doesn't infrigne on others' rights. But if you want government to take care of you like a child, don't be surprised if they order you around like a child.
A hard-hitting, controversial new song, by British singer-songwriter-guitarist, Eamonn Mallon, is released on the net for download, concerning the smoking ban and civil liberties. The song called Jackboot is his response to what he sees as "the beginnings of social engineering."
"Concerning the smoking ban and civil liberties…
"Many modern politicians and the fanatically, obsessed health lobbies are a complete anathema to the natural forces and passions in this world. They are unfortunately leading us all into ‘police state’ territory. With an onslaught of misinformation, and an astonishing eagerness to impose a particular philosophy of life, by force, they are breeding an intolerance in society, which is both outrageous and dangerous.
"Clamping down more and more on peoples’ freedoms, and attempting to iron out our differences, which make living interesting, takes the spark out of all our lives, and that is criminal and unforgivable. It seems they have no idea what damage they’re doing, what damage they’re capable of doing to the human spirit. This goes far beyond the smoking issue.
"This is the Jackboot"