'DSS Blues' Tells Rody's Unemployment Story (6.8.09)

What's been happening? (7.09.09)

Blues Preachers: Sounds Of The Great Depression for The Current Depression (13.9.09)

'DSS Blues' Tells Rody's Unemployment Story (6.8.09)

Hogan+Banks have uploaded a demo of blues/rock number DSS Blues to YouTube. We asked our songwriter-in-residence, Rody Hogan, who wrote the song, to explain what inspired it.

Rody: I wrote DSS Blues about a year after migrating from the UK to Australia in 1991. DSS stands for Department of Social Security. The early 1990s was a time of global recession and I turned up in Australia with a pregnant wife, two kids and no job. My wife’s Australian and her parents put us up until I found a job, but the funds ran low and I had to sign on for the dole at the local DSS office, as it was known then (it was later rechristened CentreLink). I eventually found a job, though not through the DSS. It took about four months, which I guess wasn’t bad. The experience made an impression, however, and I wrote about it later as DSS Blues.

The song is just about the frustration of looking for a job and not being able to find one, and about the frustration of dealing with people who think they understand what you’re going through, but don’t. In the song, they’re the parents, teachers, preachers and police who nag you to get a job; the boss who won’t employ you because you don’t have a job (?!) and the politician who’ll only help you if there are votes in it. There was a lot of long-term youth unemployment at the time, and that influenced me as much as my own experiences did. That’s why the song is written from the point of view of a teenager, not that of the 30-plus-year-old I was at the time.

The Stranger: You mention the politician who will only help you if there’s a vote in it. The politician in DSS Blues says "I’d like to help you, honey, but we’ve got to save the trees." What’s more important in your view: having a job, or saving the planet?

Rody: In the short term, having a job. Without an income, without money, you can’t make the economic decisions – such as buying an environmentally responsible car or greening your home – that can help the environment. As I said, this song was written in the early 1990s. That particular line was inspired by a government decision to stop logging on Fraser Island off the coast of Queensland for environmental reasons. It might have been the right thing to do, but throwing so many people out of work at a time of rising chronic unemployment was a kick in the guts for all those affected.

The Stranger: I can’t help noticing a similarity between the lines I just quoted, which are from the last verse of DSS Blues, and lines from the last verse of Eddie Cochran’s Summertime Blues. Here are your lines:

"Told my MP I was down on my knees,
She said I’d like to help you, honey, but we’ve got to save the trees."

And here are Eddie’s:

"I tried to call my Congressman and he said, ‘Quote –
I’d like to help you son, but you’re too young to vote."

Was that accidental?

Rody: Spot on! I had Summertime Blues at the back of my mind all the time I was writing DSS Blues. Summertime Blues is a classic and I like to think that DSS Blues stands in that heritage – inspired and, to an extent, influenced by the older song, but wholly original in its own right.

The Stranger: I guess it’s a bit like T.S. Eliot said – immature poets imitate, mature poets steal, bad poets deface what they take and good poets turn it into something better or at least different (or words to that effect). Is that how you feel? Like you’re creating a new and different song, using Summertime Blues as a benchmark, and so giving something back to the rock ’n’ roll tradition?

Rody: Who’s T.S. Eliot? (Interview terminated.)

Unemployed or worried about your job? What’s your story? blog@universalstranger.com

What's been happening? (7.09.09)

A month down the track from launch: some sign-ups, but not a whole lot of activity. That’s OK, we have all the time in the world and, besides, we’re busy here working on some additional features which will take time to mature. Meanwhile, the news on unemployment isn’t getting better unless you’re lucky enough to live in Australia where, so far, it hasn’t been as bad as expected—5.8%. Elsewhere: US 9.7% official, 16% unofficial (ie, including "discouraged workers" who are not actively looking for work); France 9.5% (official, as are the following numbers), Ireland 12.4%, Eurozone 9.5%, Japan 5.7%, Canada 8.7%, UK 7.8%. In terms of raw numbers, that’s 14.9 million unemployed (official) in the US alone. And as for youth unemployment—25.5% in the US and 24.6% in France.—The Stranger

Blues Preachers: Sounds Of The Great Depression for The Current Depression (13.9.09)

Blues Preachers -- an acoustic blues duo based in Sydney, Australia -- are promoting their interpretation of Depression-era blues music with reference to our very own financial and economic crisis. A list of upcoming gigs is below: One of the great things about the Blues Preachers in my opinion is their understated rendering of the songs: they let the material speak for itself, allowing you to feel the power, depth and richness of the blues.

Here’s what some local critics say: "The Blues Preachers Dry Long So. I love this record. It’s a slice of 1929 for 2009. It’s also a record I’ve been awaiting with baited breath since chatting with the Sydney based Blues Preachers last year." — Sam Fell, Rhythms Magazine

"’Dry Long So’ This is the sort of CD I used to scour the shops for when I first got into Aussie blues. What I like about The Blues Preachers is that they have stayed true to the old style of acoustic country blues, and that makes them one of the few acts still doing it like it used to be." — Gary deWall, Sydney Blues Society News Letter

The Blues Preachers are appearing at:

Brass Monkey, Cronulla, NSW, Thu Sep 17 09 08pm

Notes, Newtown, NSW, Fri Sep 18 09 8pm

Lizotte’s, Newcastle, NSW, Sun Sep 20 09  8pm

—Rody