Friday’s Nugget: “The Funky Western Civilization” – Tonio K – 1978

Imagine Mark Twain with a Fender Guitar and a Marshall Stack.

Imagine Randy Newman  with ‘roid rage.

Imagine Paul Simon writing songs for the Ramones.

Before Green Day, there was Tonio K.

Humor is a wonderful thing. Anger, too, can be a useful when properly channeled under the supervision of a mental health professional. When humor and anger collide together in a rock song it oft-times manifests itself in sarcasm or irony. These literary tools, when well executed can cause people to laugh and think at the same time. Now to all you people out there in hysterics over Geico commercials, read no further. This song will not be your cup of Ovaltine. Perhaps you cannot handle simultaneous laughing AND thinking, but I am not judging: As my old pal Andy Herron used to say “There is no argument for taste – That’s why God made Chocolate and Vanilla”. True statement.

But if want to be exposed to a great “lost” 70’s LP that kicks ass AND makes you laugh out loud AND makes you think, play the video and read on.

Tonio K (a/k/a Steve Krikorian) released an LP in 1978 called “Life in the Foodchain”. This track was the first thing I heard from the disc. It immediately began screaming in my ear, then upon buying and listening to the rest of the LP chewed it clean off. The LP was a hilarious, vitriol-fueled rant at just about everything in Tonio’s line of sight: Love, Politics, Society, Vampires. There are not enough superlatives in the dictionary to use when describing a rock song whose bridge is delivered by Joan of Arc. Earl Slick, an entirely under-rated New York guitar for hire (Bowie, Lennon, amongst others), provides just the right musical touched to accompany Tonio’s lyrics. Subtle, not unless your definition of that word includes chain saw or bludgeon.

 
Give it a spin. In these days of dysfunctional government, world unrest, the schism between the have and the have-nots unraveling faster than a K-Mart suit I can only quote a line from the song – “Now just because we’re hypnotized, that don’t mean we can’t dance”.