I really enjoy this song. Here's a transcript of Randy's introduction to this number on his Live in London Album (2011):
"When I came to Europe last, it was a few years ago, I recognized fairly soon that people here didn't like us very much, speaking as a country as I often do, and I understood it, but I wanted to do something to try and explain it, so I wrote this song."
End Transcript
The line that most gives me pause in this song is "And as for the brother, Pluto's not a planet any more either."
What do you suppose he means by that? Is he saying simply that times have changed and so now it's possible for a black man can to serve on the Supreme Court? Or is he saying that , just as the Italians on the Supreme Court are unusually "tight-assed" for a pair of Italians, so too is Clarence Thomas unusually straight-laced for a black man?
"Couple young Italian fellas and a brother on the Court now too
But I defy you, anywhere in the world, to find me two Italians as tight-assed as the two Italians we got
And as for the brother, well
Pluto's not a planet anymore either"
"Couple young Italian fellas and a brother on the Court now too
But I defy you, anywhere in the world, to find me two Italians as tight-assed as the two Italians we got
And as for the brother, well
Pluto's not a planet anymore either"
I understand him to be saying that, as brothers go, Clarence Thomas isn't much of one. Especially when compared to the man he supposedly replaced, Thurgood Marshall, who argued 1954's Brown v. Board of Education, finding that state-sponsored segregation of public schools was unconstitutional.
I understand him to be saying that, as brothers go, Clarence Thomas isn't much of one. Especially when compared to the man he supposedly replaced, Thurgood Marshall, who argued 1954's Brown v. Board of Education, finding that state-sponsored segregation of public schools was unconstitutional.
I really enjoy this song. Here's a transcript of Randy's introduction to this number on his Live in London Album (2011):
"When I came to Europe last, it was a few years ago, I recognized fairly soon that people here didn't like us very much, speaking as a country as I often do, and I understood it, but I wanted to do something to try and explain it, so I wrote this song."
End Transcript
The line that most gives me pause in this song is "And as for the brother, Pluto's not a planet any more either."
What do you suppose he means by that? Is he saying simply that times have changed and so now it's possible for a black man can to serve on the Supreme Court? Or is he saying that , just as the Italians on the Supreme Court are unusually "tight-assed" for a pair of Italians, so too is Clarence Thomas unusually straight-laced for a black man?
"Couple young Italian fellas and a brother on the Court now too But I defy you, anywhere in the world, to find me two Italians as tight-assed as the two Italians we got And as for the brother, well Pluto's not a planet anymore either"
"Couple young Italian fellas and a brother on the Court now too But I defy you, anywhere in the world, to find me two Italians as tight-assed as the two Italians we got And as for the brother, well Pluto's not a planet anymore either"
I understand him to be saying that, as brothers go, Clarence Thomas isn't much of one. Especially when compared to the man he supposedly replaced, Thurgood Marshall, who argued 1954's Brown v. Board of Education, finding that state-sponsored segregation of public schools was unconstitutional.
I understand him to be saying that, as brothers go, Clarence Thomas isn't much of one. Especially when compared to the man he supposedly replaced, Thurgood Marshall, who argued 1954's Brown v. Board of Education, finding that state-sponsored segregation of public schools was unconstitutional.
@pikaboo Yeah... that's my read. Pluto may LOOK like a planet, but it ain't. Similar things could be said about Thomas.
@pikaboo Yeah... that's my read. Pluto may LOOK like a planet, but it ain't. Similar things could be said about Thomas.