Death and Taxes

It’s nighttime in the big city
A woman pulls out a 1099 form
A man lies about his deductions “Well it’s the middle of April, and if you’re like me you were up all night last night finishing your tax returns. As Benjamin Franklin once put it, in this world nothing is certain but death and taxes. One other thing is certain, for the next hour we’re going to be covering both those subjects with our usual musical abandon so call all the deductions into the room, gather around the radio and enjoy the next 58 minutes. It would 60 minutes, but the government wants its taste…”

The Singers and Songs

  • I Paid My Income Tax Today
  • The Kinks
    Lazing On a Sunny Afternoon
  • The Beatles
    Taxman
    “Written by George Harrison, and recorded by his group, the Beatles.”
  • Prince Buster
    Taxation
    “Like all great artists, he was able to turn things that bothered him into three minutes of musical pleasure, like here.”
  • Hank Penny
    Taxes Taxes
  • J.B. Lenoir
    Eisenhower Blues
  • J.B. Lenoir
    Tax Paying Blues
    “The names were changed to protect the guilty.”
  • Sales Tax On The Women
    “New Lost City Ramblers Mike Seeger, John Cohen, Tom Paley– They never made the big time like the Kingston Trio, but they never did wear striped shirts. One of the things the New Lost City Ramblers did was uncover great old songs. Songs that you could only find those days in piles of 78s in somebody’s barn. They breathe new life into those songs and their records stand the test of time, just like the originals.”
  • Fixin’ To Die Blues
  • Carolyn Sullivan
    Dead!
    “One of the darkest, saddest songs ever recorded....Kind of a jaunty organ for such a sad song.”
  • I’ll Be Glad When You’re Dead You Rascal You
  • Louis Armstrong w/ Louis Jordan and his Tympani 5
    I’ll Be Glad When You’re Dead You Rascal You
    “Jazz meets R and B meets jump blues and you hear the beginnings of rock and roll.”
  • Curtis Mayfield
    Freddy’s Dead
  • Rock ‘N Roll Suicide
  • Oh Death
    “Kind of a roots music greatest hit since it’s appearance in…”
  • Richard and Linda Thompson
    Withered And Died

The Other People and Players

  • Mick Ronson
  • The Mach 2
  • The Cohen Brothers
  • Gordon Parks, Jr.
  • Chinese poet-drowned trying to kiss the moons reflection the water from a boat
  • Frank Hayes
    Jockey: had a heart attack during a horse race, his horse, Sweet Kiss went on to finish in 1st.
  • Ed Denson
  • John Feyhee
  • Lester Melrose
  • Barry Goldwater
    “The income tax created more criminals than any other single act of government.”
  • Aesop
  • Mark Twain
    “The first day of April is the day that we remember what we are the other 364 days of the year.” “What is the difference between a taxidermist and a tax collector? A taxidermist takes only your skin.”
  • Killed his wife
  • The Kingston Trio
  • Strangled by her own scarf
  • Charlie Patton
  • Willie Nelson
    “Willie nelson’s tour bus runs on cooking oil…I’ve toured with Willie…sometimes late at night you can see us, I’m filling up at the gas station and he’s filling up at Denny’s”
  • Will Rogers
    "If you get to thinking you're a person of some influence, try ordering someone else's dog around." “The income tax has made more liars out of the American people than golf has."
  • Irving Berlin
  • The Beatles
  • The Rolling Stones
    "Of course they took Irma's song "Time is on My Side" and had a little hit with THAT!" In reference to "Time is on My Side": "I've always been partial to Irma's version."

The Other Songs and Albums

  • (I'll Be Glad When You're Dead) You Rascal You
  • (About Bowie telling everyone he was going to retire from the stage after the Ziggy Stardust tour) “I remember that; I told him not to do it.”
  • Crying, Give Me Your Hands
  • I Want to See the Bright Lights Tonight

The Guests

  • Deke Dickerson

The Poets

The Books and Poems

The Movies and TV Shows

  • Stranger Than Fiction
  • The Untouchables
  • Betty Boop
  • Superfly
  • Oh Brother, Where Art Thou

The Places

Record Labels

  • Arhoolie Records
  • Victor Records
  • Blue Bird Records

Famous Suicides

  • Johnny Ace
  • Cleopatra
  • Hart Crane
  • Virginia Woolf
  • Vincent Van Gogh
  • Hemingway
  • Sylvia Plath
  • Socrates
  • Lupi Valez
  • Sigmund Freud
    “Hmm... I wonder what that means…”

“I want to leave you with the words of Willie Nelson and Red Foxx ‘Pay your taxes!’ ”