#614 Quotha

I was listening to a rock song the other day. Actually I was listening to a rock song that a big corporation bought the rights to so it could use it as a jingle for its business.
The song was “Taking care of Business” by Bachman Turner Overdrive.
I’m always confused on them. Were they the group with Jeff Lynne, future member of the Traveling Wilburys, or was that Electric Light Orchestra? BTO or ELO? I always get those initial groups confused.
Anyhow, I kind of wonder if Office Depot ever looked at the lyrics to the song “Taking Care of Business.”
Because, you know, it’s really not about taking care of business; it’s about slacking off.
Being lazy.
There’s the big repeated line in it that says, “I love to work at nothing all day.” Kind of a dead giveaway—even if you only listen to the chorus.
The first verse of the song talks about the stresses of going to work and then says, “If you ever get annoyed, look at me I’m self employed, I love to work at nothing all day.”
Then it proceeds to call working at nothing all day quote “taking care of business” unquote.
Get it? It’s like the lead singer plants his microphone in the holder and makes air quote marks every time he sings “taking care of business”.
If you know what I mean...
The next verse says “it’s the work that we avoid and we’re all self employed, we love to work at nothing all day” And on and on.
Comment here. First off, I’ve known a lot of self employed people, and they work harder than your average wage slave.
BTO doesn’t really get that, they’re too busy extolling the virtues of indolent slack-off rock star self-indulgence. But hey, you expect that from rock stars.
What you don’t expect is high-powered corporate marketing executives, known for their cutthroat business acumen, famous for reading between the lines of complex deals, forgetting or neglecting to read, um, the actual lines themselves. Of a song.
Not exactly taking care of business.
If you know what I mean...
America, ya gotta love it