The first thing that made me want to bring this song to The Commandos was the thought that Dave’s original drum style, when I first met him, would be perfect for this number.
I first jammed with Dave in 1974 when I was still in high school and he and Chris were living in Utopia house, an old dilapidated farm house a couple of miles from my school. Dave had a large drum kit with two bass drums and was playing in that big, splashy early 70s style. Brilliant!
Fast forward 40 years. Feel-wise we got there pretty quickly when we started rehearsing this song. Dave nailed it. Just the way I’d imagined it in my mind. Among all the music we were listening to at the time, The Suicide Commandos loved Cheap Trick, Dwight Twilley Band and Big Star. We’re definitely getting our Power Pop on with For Such A Mean Time.
The song’s title (and chorus) has turned out to be rather prescient as we are indeed living in an extremely mean time. As it is, the lyrics are impressionistic, touching on the political, the personal and how hard it is to deal with both sometimes. Had the song been written Post Election Day 2016, there’d probably be a whole other set of lyrics…