This is a fun one. I wrote it a long time ago, like, several years. Actually, I think I initially wrote it when I was working on "One United Generation". At the time I thought it was too derivative of another song, so I didn't do anything with it. Over the years, I realized that it drew influence from a lot of other songs, so much so that it seemed to have just about every classic rock cliche in it somewhere.
At any rate, it just kept nagging at me, in the back of my head, until I finally decided to bring it out of mothball, rewrite it a little bit, and do some tricks in the arrangement. In the end, you can still hear a lot of the influences, but, in my ears, at least, it's still fresh.
The lyrics are all about my cynicism regarding politics. So often I see people get polarized by the partisan rhetoric that flies around, and they don't see that this year's party platform is built on planks stolen from last year's platform of the other party! It all just seems to me to be so much bickering. In the end, each party tries to spin their temporarily-held "beliefs" in an attempt to win our votes.
I get pretty frustrated by it all, but I still vote. I still play the game.
Anyway, here's the song!
Another thing! This one features scatting vocals from my good friend Sam Payne. He's one of my songwriting heroes!
The Spin
By Mark Hansen
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Spin it for the left Spin it for the right
Spinning up the peace Spinning up the fight
Spin it in the speeches Spin it for the vote
Spin it for the winner Spin it for the goat
Climb
Spinning all around the world
like a whirling rush of leaves
first they talk like liberals
And next, conservatives
Chorus
The world is spining round and round
I falling tumbling to the ground
The world is spining to and fro
I’m so dizzy don't know where to go
The world is caught up in the Spin
Spin it to the poor man Who can’t get around
Spin it to the rich man With no money down
Spin it to the atheists Spin it to the church
Spin it to the hedonists Caught up in the urge
Climb
I just don’t know who’s in charge
Or who I’m voting for
One day my agenda’s clear
And the next, don't know what’s in store
Chorus
Spin it to the bosses Spin it to labor
Spin it to me or Spin it at my neighbor
Spin it to the criminal Spin it to the law
Spin it to the victims Spin it to us all
Climb
One day an idea dies
The next it resurrects
I’ll just hold to what I know
And be politically incorrect
Chorus
Produced and Performed by Mark Hansen, Except:
Drums: Steve Hill
Lead Guitar: Bill Williams
Scat Vocals: Sam Payne

Come back often to hear about new songs and shows. Mark also has other sites and blogs, including his Dutch Oven blog: Mark's Black Pot and his LDS pop culture blog: MoBoy blog.
Mark's Other Blog Posts: Dutch Oven Tamales!
1 comment:
Nice work, Mark! That's you on the guitars, right? I'm glad to keep hearing more from you, my man.
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