When I was a child, back in the Stone Age, a black singing group know as The Mills Brothers recorded beautiful song called You Always Hurt the One You Love. Sung by them, it was a tender ballad.
But then there was Spike Jones and his City Slickers, a group that took ordinary songs, murdered their melodies, and added goofy sound effects like slide whistles, cymbal clangs, drum crashes, and oogas. I loved Spike Jones. He was a welcome relief to life's relentless serious side.
You Always Hurt the One You Love
You always hurt the one you love
The one you shouldn't hurt at all.
You always take the sweetest rose
And crush it til the petals fall.
You always break the kindest heart
With a hasty word you can't recall.
So if I broke your heart last night
It's because I love you most of all.
It seems a shame to mutilate lines like that, yet Spike Jones did it and not only got away with it, he was a great success. Listen here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=78WXVOG2ABM Wait for the second half of the recording for the outrageous part.
Somehow, when I listen to Spike Jones these days, I'm not so much amused as terrified because I can see his music come to life in the Oval Office. Yes, Spike would fit right in there. His wacky brand of destruction and confusion could be background music for Trump's mindless group of family and inner circle. And Trump, a man with a heart as big as a poppy seed, would reward him with a cabinet seat totally unfit for his talents.
And Spike, true to his original calling, could write his version of Hail to the Chief and play it on those special occasions when Trump rose to glorify himself at another public spectacle.
Spike Jones, a hilarious sacrilege to serious music, would be no more out of place in the Oval Office than its present occupant.
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