American Gangster Time

[bambooneedle]

I'm curious to see how people feel about this song.

[pophead2k]

If you strip away the nostalgia factor that the sound of the track produces, I think it is my least favorite song on an album that I absolutely love. I feel like Elvis could write this in his sleep. Its catchy enough and I enjoyed it live during the tour last year, but not a big fan.

[migdd]

I was not a great fan of this song after hearing the live version in Charlotte last October with Steve Nieve or from hearing the Imposters version from earlier live shows. The song seemed a bit dirgy, lacking a decent melody and just not very intertesting. However, I do enjoy the album version. It really gets me on my feet in a dancing-with-joy mood. It's a rather indignant song and sort of funny in a rude sort of way. The Imposters play the hell out of it on the album. It's not my favorite song on Momofuku but it's in the top 50%. Is it a classic? Twenty years too soon to tell.

[sabreman]

The ending is great especially the organ riff. As I mentioned in a different thread it reminds me of something I heard a women's college bball game to get the fans up and going. I don't remember hearing this riff in the live version from last year. Is it now?

[bambooneedle]

One, two, three, four

Somewhere downtown a pretty girl kneels
Offers her soft lips and a handful of pills
Peels off her dress and then the rest of her skills
It buys what she wants and the rest she just steals

He speaks between deep swallows of rum
While her head is beating like a big bass drum
And she wishes he were mute and not just dumb
When the trick asked her quick, "Did you come?"

It's a drag
Saluting that starry rag
I'd rather go blind
For speaking my mind
Or use it just like a gag
So raise it in anger
Just let it hang
American Gangster Time

He sits back and starts to invent
All about some Saigon correspondent
"'Til the carbine fell silent and spent
I never knew it could be so eloquent"

Next week there'll be some fashionable new sin
For each harlot and each Puritan
Pull off their wings stick them on a pin
And just watch the money roll in

It's a drag
Saluting that starry rag
I’d rather go blind
For speaking my mind
Or use it just like a gag
So raise it in anger
Just let it hang
American Gangster Time

What you got hidden up your sleeve?
The tracks of the train that were bidding you to leave
When they say that you should flatter to deceive
Don't count on any reprieve

The hands of the helpless are raised
Your dead little secrets are praised
The people stand dumbstruck and dazed
By the inches that you have erased

It’s a drag
Saluting that starry rag
I'd rather go blind
For speaking my mind
Or use it just like a gag
So raise it in the anger
Just let it hang
American gangster time
Committing the perfect crime
In American Gangster Time

Here we go
Bye bye
American Gangster Time


I'm convinced by now that it's a dud. If it's supposed to have any substance where is it? The way it rhymes seems to suggest it's made to make an impression live, with one image peeled off after another... making an impact like that. Still, I don't think the lines are that great, or funny. The end of every verse it leaves me thinking, "And, the point is....? THAT was attempted humour?". Any funniness seems to cancel out any seriousness and vice versa.

The chorus doesn't shed light on anything, either - speaking his mind? Really, where?! The song doesn't say anything, it's a nothing song!

I wonder if even a slower live rendition can save it - the recording is rushed and has no real feeling, it's so awkward! I like the Steve riff but for most of the song he doesn't get a chance to do much. And, whatever it's supposed to be getting worked up about, why is it American?

I'm skipping it now because after 6 or 7 listens I conclude that it just doesn't add up to much. It's puzzling... it doesn't warrant the no.2 spot on the album or live up to the promise of such a title, imo.

Would love to see a completely different take on it, show me the light! Overall I'm very impressed with the album, though. My favourite is Turpentine.

[migdd]

Okay, I'll give it a go.

It's all in one's personal interpretation of a song. Whether that interpretation has anything to do with the writer's original intent is neither here nor there.

For this song, I imagine the prostitute in the first two verses to be a symbol of the United States and her trick to be someone along the lines of Dick Cheney (or George the retard). After that, the rest of the song just falls into place for me.

The melody has no finesse and chugs along in a thug-like manner, much in keeping with the subject matter. The same is true of the brutish rhymes and alliterations, with the rhyming schemes leaning heavilly on hard consonants and single syllables. Steve's intentionally heavy-handed riffs punctuate the rude and indignant tone of the song.

To me, AGT is very America-centric. What's "the perfect crime"? Take your pick.

[bambooneedle]

I did figure it was about something like that and similar metaphor ideas had occured to me about what it was trying to do, migdd, however I find it clumsy and so for me it just doesn't work. The unspecificness of the "he" and "she" and "you" doesn't clarify who or what he's supposed to be "speaking his mind" about, it's anyone's guess, it's all so vague... sheeesh, listeners aren't mind readers, why should listeners use more imagination than EC. Evidently it's about some grievance, but if there's something worthwhile in there to say FFS just spit it out, EC. Lay it down. What's your troubles, boy? Speak plain.

[migdd]

Fair enough. I don't see AGT as being classic EC (lyrically, it is definitely no The Poisoned Rose or Sleep of the Just, to name just a couple) but being quite a rave-up I think it will have a long life in the live shows, judging from the reaction it received at the recent Knoxville show. For now, it at least gets me on my feet, masterpiece or not. I still like it!

[Otis Westinghouse]

I've been meaning to look the lyrics up as 'So resident anger, just let it hang' meant very little!