Rid The World
Lyrics:
She said what's up to me and I said what's up back.
Boyfriend is jealous if I hit him, he won't feel jack.
He's drunk as hell and he has nothing to lose.
But all he cares about is when he hits the booze.
We have to rid this world of all the bad and hate.
Or we'll be facing doom and a destructive fate.
'Cause of the simple people we all have to die.
When all you do is just fight and cheat and lie.
Man is just sitting at a bar drinking his beer.
His life is filled with such great heartache such fear.
His face is rugged and his shoes are very worn.
His kids are very hungry and his wife is torn.
Listen to the words and you will see it's not a joke.
We're going to have to say fuck it, let's go for broke.
In this world, there are many people that stop trying.
Just open up your eyes and see the people dying.
Commentary:
This song was written one night after hanging out at a bar in NYC called Wilson's. Wilson's was a discovery that my friends and I had stumbled on one evening when desperately trying to get drunk in Manhattan. We were 19 and just about to give up our quest to have someone purchase us beer. We walked past this lonely bar that was completely empty. We decided, hey, what do we have to lose and tried to get in. The bouncer asks us for ID. We tell him we forgot it at home. He then says, "Show me any ID." We pick up on his cue and show him our underage NJ license. He takes a look, gives a nod and steps aside letting us enter the bar. History was made.
In the following months, the once dead establishment was brought to back to life with underage drinkers from all over Bergen County, NJ. What does this have to do with the song you might ask? Well, one such patron was a girl from Cliffside Park, NJ. We met at the bar and began talking and basically teenage crushing on one another. Now I find myself outside of the bar, cute blond girl from Cliffside by my side, both drunk as hell. It feels like we are going to hook up. She suddenly walks over to the end of the curb and begins vomiting. Super hot, I know! I guess this girl must have thought I was high on crack rather than drunk because when she returned she still wanted to make out.
Ah, no. Just no.
We exchange numbers and within a few days, sans vomit, we hang out and hook up. I find out a few days after that she has a boyfriend she failed to mention who now wants to fight me. I am not a big fighter especially when I am in the wrong. This causes me an immense amount of anxiety at the time. So much so that instead of him looking for me, I go directly to his house looking for him. I figure once we talk or fight (either one), my anxiety would be alleviated. He wasn't home.
We ran into each other in a parking lot only 15 minutes later (I think he was home, but didn't answer his door. His jeep was in the driveway which is weird, but I digress...) This time he was with his friends and I was with mine. Very tense situation. He then screams out to me, "Wait until we get to Wilson's tonight. I'm going to light the place up!" This didn't make sense to me. My logical brain took over and said, "Can't we just fight or talk now? Why do we have to ruin our night when we are both here and can settle it now?"
I think I appealed to his reason and we wound up working it out. I apologized and did genuinely feel bad for him. He actually expressed how they were on the outs anyway and that if I wanted to, I could pursue his now ex-girlfriend.
I kept thinking of the puke and that pretty much ended any future romance.
Again, what does this have to do with the song? Well, this story and Wilson's bar in general inspired the lyrics. I'm also reminded of a homeless man that we became friends with named Rico. When we were too broke to get drinks in the bar all night, we would fill up on 40oz beers bought from the next door bodega. We worked out a pretty good deal. Rico would buy us the 40s and we would give him one as payment. Then we would all drink down a couple 40s as fast as we could before going into the bar. It was a pretty good system especially given the fact that $10 got you two 40s ($2.50 each), a pack of smokes ($2.50) and some extra to buy Rico a 40.
Analyzing the lyrics a bit further, I see my idealism was a bit unrealistic given the line, "We have to rid this world of all the bad and hate." How the hell is that even possible? Once again, the ego shines through when I refer to the "simple people" and how they are the reason we are all going to die. We're all going to die because of life. It has nothing to do with the "simple people." Oh, yeah, and then there is the death theme again.There really wasn't many songs back then that didn't include some form of death. Looking back now, perhaps it was change, rather than death that I longed for.
As far as the music goes, this song was originally this slow, ghastly sounding rhythm that droned on and on. The original way that I sung it was, again, like James Hetfield for some reason. The decision was made to change it up after my girlfriend at the time showed one of her friends and she kind of made fun of it. Mean, but justified. I know that this song isn't very good, but my hope is that it is at least better than what was originally written and ridiculed. All I did to change it was make the rhythm swing and change my voice to an octave higher. Genius, I know.