This is a very funky, fun, James Brown Rythym and Blues type groove...highly recommended. Loudon Wainwright III wrote it "lock and load for the final days" and "you won't find a doctor, forget about a cop" are my personal favorite lines. Hope this is not duplicitous... Enjoy

A bunch of nerdy brainy guys a long way back Invented a crazy little thing they called the Univac For years now, they've been upgrading that thing It can walk and talk and count and think and it can even sing It can help you at school, church, business, and work Makes you feel like a genius even though you're just a jerk You get a computer, you sit it in your lap It does a little bit of this it does a whole lotta that It can boot you up, it can load you down With that little bitty mouse you1re gonna rule this town But you're headed for trouble I do believe It's coming your way on New Year's Eve now Whoa what do you know A few more measly more months to go Hey what do you say Now here it comes now...Y2K

No it ain't a virus it's just a little glitch It wasn't done by some crazy hackin' son of a bitch And Sadaam didn't do it, can't blame him No it's the geek with the glasses and the stupid silly grin Billionaire Bill that's the one you can hate If you want to blame someone blame Bill Gates Bill Gates Bill Gates

Bill said we'd make money, Bill said we'd have fun But remember Hal the computer in 2001? We're in a time machine, going back my friend Doin' 1900 all over again Headed for trouble I do believe It's coming your way on New Year's Eve now Whoa what do you know A few more measly more months to go Hey what do you say Now here we come now...Y2K

Well we've been trucking down the information superhighway But we'll be on a dirt road come Y2K Call me old fashioned call me a fool And you can call me a Luddite and you can call me uncool But we used to imagine, question and dream And now all of our answers come up on some screen We're headed for trouble I do believe It's coming your way on New Year's Eve Y - 2 - K

Breakdown...You better get ready, be very afraid Because your money's no good and you'll never get paid And the car won't start and the phone won't work And the juice won't squeeze and the coffee won't perk No more decaf latte, baby...

You'll be doing the monkey, but there'll be a new twist You'll still be alive but you will not exist The stock market will crash, the air traffic will stop You won't find a doctor, forget about a cop

There'll be a lot of lawyers with plenty to do It's apocalypse now at a theatre near you We're headed for trouble I do believe It's coming your way on New Year's Eve

Meanwhile...

Way over there in the old ancient Middle East Them doomsday boys is having a feast The end is at hand and they're down on their knees They've been checking out all the bad-ass prophesies This Y2K it's the latest craze It's lock and load for the final days

Well I saw you on the plane playing solitaire On that little laptop, with nary a care Life's easy now, but it could get hard Pretty soon you're gonna have to use a deck of real cards Headed for trouble I do believe It's coming your way on New Year's Eve now Whoa what do you know A few more measly more months to go Hey what do you say Comin' at ya...Y2K

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- )1999 Snowden Music Inc. (ASCAP)

-- (wainwright@fan.com), August 06, 1999

Answers

Sounds like this Fall we can be jammin 'n rappin 'n rhymin 'n sing-songin as we head over the cliff ;~D

Thanks, Wainwright fan. What a nice turn the end of this week has brought to the Forum!

-- Ashton & Leska in Cascadia (allaha@earthlink.net), August 06, 1999.

Have always enjoyed Loudon Wainwright's sense of humor:

"Well, there's a dead skunk in the middle of the road, dead skunk in the middle of the road, deeeeaaaad skunk in the middle of the road, and it's-a stinkin' to high heaven!"

For anyone interested, the Y2K song is on LWIII's latest project, Social Studies. As noted on Amazon.com, the label (Hannibal Records) sent out this press release:

May 10, 1999 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Y2K CANT CRASH LOUDON WAINWRIGHT FOR HANNIBAL RECORDS, SET FOR JULY 13 RELEASE (171 DAYS BEFORE Y2K)

SALEM, Mass.  Loudon Wainwright IIIs multi-album deal with Hannibal Records commences with 'Social Studies,' a collection of songs based on social and political observations he has written over the past ten years for National Public Radio and ABCs Nightline. The album, set for a July 13 street date, features the single Y2K, a funky fireball of a song which celebrates the termination of the world as we know it promptly on January 1, 2000, naming an alleged villian behind the global millenial crisis.

In Y2K, Wainwright rolls the computer saga back to the invention of the first Univac, following it to the time when computers began powering the dirt road come Y2K.

Looks to me like the copywriter needed to run that release through a spell-checker before sending it out. Two typos in one sentence: bummer, man.

-- Mac (sneak@lurk.hid), August 06, 1999.