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  • 92 Plays
  • Moneys Too TightValentine Brothers

tomewing:

likeaphoenixignition:

ittookseconds:

Three minutes and thirty-four seconds: Ripped from vinyl, on an ‘MP3 turntable’ which kept fucking up the speed, this is “Money’s Too Tight To Mention” by The Valentine Brothers, a cover of which provided Simply Red with their first hit. It’s dignified, harsh early 80s soul (‘taches and saxes to the fore) which outlines life as the Reaganomic squeeze hit. Obviously the current situation sharpens the song further, but the real stomach-punch is in these lines, growled with stoic exhaustion by one Valentine or other: “I’m working 9 to 5, 5 days a week / I don’t make enough to survive”. Like Dolly Parton’s “9 to 5” - released the year before - there’s an awful archaism in the working hours as presented. In 1982 the idea that fulfilling a working week could leave you below the breadline was presented - quite rightly - as an attack on a man’s dignity. In 2011 it just seems naive.

What would your 3’34” track be?

Further that, theres something boggling about hearing people talk of working 9-5 as if it were a full/long/hard workweek. I certainly dont know anyone who could get away with working those cushy sorts of hours! The officeworking sorts I know regular put in a good 50-60 hours (and lord knows I’ve done my share of 80 hour weeks when things get busy), the folks with part-time gigs usually have at least 2-3 jobs to juggle, and the more contractor-y sorts, well their hours are less defined, but in a way where they’re pretty much ALWAYS working (or at least on call).

Yeah but this is sort of my point! The Valentines and Parsons tracks are a snapshot of a time - which maybe never QUITE existed but certainly did more so than today - when 9-5 was the accepted definition of a working week. It’s the old tripartite system: 8 hours a day for sleep, 8 hours a day for work, 8 hours a day for yourself. That’s the bargain you undertake to fulfil, and the expectation was that if you fulfil that you’ve done your bit and should take home enough to live on. The creeping lengthening of the working day - and its presentation as somehow not even natural or inevitable, but VIRTUOUS! - is deplorable. Thank fuck for the internet, which has done its bit to rebalance things by giving office workers at least an opportunity to claw back some of their leisure time via online skiving.

Oh yes I am absolutely in agreement with you! I just meant to point out that there’s not only the issue of one not being able to make ends meet working an 8 hour workday, there’s also the question as to whether such jobs even exist anymore!  If I were to go looking for a job, and one of my requirements was that I be in no earlier than 9 and out at 5 every day, with no weekend work, I suspect I’d go a long time looking!

Source: ittookseconds