I have long enjoyed this song. The irony of it used to feel fun and playful, if in deliberately poor taste (like so much of their work). But it was written before the days of ubiquitous ongoing mass shootings and the current tragic-crazy politics of guns in the USA. For this reason it seems kind of dated today.
Before Columbine, mass shootings were barely on the public radar. The worst abuse of a gun the guys could think of was "would I suddenly go crazy and shoot my family, and see myself years later on some crime show on TV?" Since Sandyhook and all the gun slaughter that has occurred since then, this subject has gotten so raw and real and painful that no one would joke about it in a song any more. No one would laugh if you performed it. And no one would make a crime show about mass shooting events today because it's so damn common that it's not even news any more and we're all so numbed by the senseless horror of it that no one wants to watch a TV crime show about it anyway. And half the nation is trying to make it illegal to even examine the question.
All that being said, this song would make a terrific bluegrass cover. God bless these sassy boys.
I have long enjoyed this song. The irony of it used to feel fun and playful, if in deliberately poor taste (like so much of their work). But it was written before the days of ubiquitous ongoing mass shootings and the current tragic-crazy politics of guns in the USA. For this reason it seems kind of dated today.
Before Columbine, mass shootings were barely on the public radar. The worst abuse of a gun the guys could think of was "would I suddenly go crazy and shoot my family, and see myself years later on some crime show on TV?" Since Sandyhook and all the gun slaughter that has occurred since then, this subject has gotten so raw and real and painful that no one would joke about it in a song any more. No one would laugh if you performed it. And no one would make a crime show about mass shooting events today because it's so damn common that it's not even news any more and we're all so numbed by the senseless horror of it that no one wants to watch a TV crime show about it anyway. And half the nation is trying to make it illegal to even examine the question.
All that being said, this song would make a terrific bluegrass cover. God bless these sassy boys.
[Edit: typo]