Music With Joe #8

So, it's been a while since I've done one of these. Business as usual around here, except maybe everything has been a bit crazier. Still, the real reason I've hesitated so long has been because I haven't been able to decide on a song. Reaching into the past for amazing songs (at least to me) is something I'm used to, but I wanted to do something a little more contemporary.

Lucky for me a game came out a couple months ago called Borderlands. The game has been pretty popular after its release, and the developers knew they had something pretty good so they advertised it pretty heavily. It was in the commercials that I first heard a snippet of this song, "Ain't No Rest For the Wicked" by Cage the Elephant.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5t99bpilCKw

Approx Lyrics:

I was walking down the street,
When out the corner of my eye
I saw a pretty little thing approaching me.
She said "I've never seen a man
Who looks so all alone,
Could you use a little company?
If you pay the right price
Your evening will be nice,
And you can go and send me on my way."
I said "You're such a sweet young thing
Why you do this to yourself?"
She looked at me and this is what she said,

"Oh, there ain't no rest for the wicked,
Money don't grow on trees.
I got bills to pay,
I got mouths to feed,
There ain't nothing in this world for free.
I know I can't slow down,
I can't hold back,
Though you know, I wish I could.
No there ain't no rest for the wicked,
Until we close our eyes for good".

Not even fifteen minutes later
I'm still walking down the street,
When I saw a shadow of a man creep out of sight.
Then he walks up from behind
And puts a gun up to my head,
He made it clear he wasn't looking for a fight.
He said "Give me all you've got
I want your money not your life,
But if you try to make a move I won't think twice."
I said "You can have my cash
But first you know I got to ask
What made you want to live this kind of life?"

He said "There ain't no rest for the wicked,
Money don't grow on trees.
I got bills to pay,
I got mouths to feed,
There ain't nothing in this world for free.
I know I can't slow down,
I can't hold back,
Though you know, I wish I could.
No there ain't no rest for the wicked,
Until we close our eyes for good".

Now a couple hours passed
And I was sitting at my house,
The day was winding down and coming to an end.
So I turned on the TV
And flipped it over to the news,
And what I saw I almost couldn't comprehend.
I saw a preacher man in cuffs he'd taken money from the church,
He's got this bank account with righteous dollar bills.
But even still I can't say much
Because I know we're all the same,
Oh yes we've all got to satisfy those thrills.

"Oh, there ain't no rest for the wicked,
Money don't grow on trees.
We got bills to pay,
We got mouths to feed,
There ain't nothing in this world for free.
I know we can't slow down,
We can't hold back,
Though you know, we wish we could.
No there ain't no rest for the wicked,
Until we close our eyes for good".

It is very rare that I find a song I learn from a commercial compelling. Nevertheless, after seeing the commercial I looked up the song as soon as possible and was very impressed. The guitar and meter create a sort of lawless, corrupt world by themselves, and the lyrics make it real. The video has a Western feel which is born perhaps on the (erroneous) views of the Old West as a lawless kill or be killed land of outlaws and profiteers taking advantage of the innocent people. But our singer here argues nobody is innocent, at least insofar as intent is concerned. That we are all the wicked. Maybe so. I think perhaps the second verse is most interesting to me, though it also is the one where I disagree the most. The singer tries to elicit sympathy for a man who is robbing him at that very moment. I'm not feeling it. Somebody was robbing me, I'd at least be unhappy (More likely would've seen him in the shadows and pulled my own gun, but that is a different story). The thing I wonder is what about you? Do you feel the intended message here is some sort of empathy with the "undesirables" mentioned and around the world, the wicked, and how there is a bit of it in ourselves? And more importantly does that message come through strong enough to elicit sympathy for the characters mentioned, and through them, the real people behind the story?