Here's what I think of Toby Keith.
This is just my own solo stuff. I do this crap mostly for my own amusement and/or as songwriting/production/arranging exercises. I don't how to categorize myself since I'm liable to try absolutely anything that catches my fancy, from indie-punk to '70s TV theme spoofs to ambient atmospherics. It's all here for you to enjoy, and if you're not careful you might get a headache before it's done, hey hey hey.
Story behind the song
I recorded this in one evening in May 2004, while I was waiting for the pizza guy if I remember correctly. What inspired "Freedom Fried" was a lunch order at work; the place we ordered from had the infamous Freedom Fries on the menu, and several coworkers had actually put them down as such on the order. My blood literally boiled in my veins. I was so incensed that I refused to order, personally boycotted the place, and went out to lunch instead.
The song is my primal scream of rage against the Iraq War, the politicians who inflicted it, and the mindless jingoism among average Americans that seemed so ruthlessly for it at the time, boiled down to two verses of lyrics and some very hard pounding on string and drum. I probably could have thrown that idiotic phrase back at them in a more creative way, but when you're pissed off sometimes the most direct way is the best; this is probably the most nakedly angry song I've ever committed to tape. Especially that second chorus, which I personally consider one of my most sublime bits of lyric. Brutality, insanity, futility. Baby, you got ripped off.
Some interesting stuff: I recorded the whole thing on my Tascam 4-track; guitar and bass in one take apiece, vocals and drums in two (I have a rough mix containing the original, horrible vocals and drums). Toward the end of the second drum track, the ball flew off the end of the kick drum pedal and so the head acquired a nice big jagged hole by the time I noticed. Maybe you can tell from listening, but I was bashing the FUCK out of those drums. There were three musical verses and choruses recorded, but I only had two of lyrics written, so my post-hoc excuse is that the wordless third verse is kind of a courtesy karaoke verse for you to rant over yourself. Finally, I when I mixed it down I hadn't yet figured out how to plug my Tascam into my old Mac directly so I had to use my old technique of micing a pair of headphones with my crappy Apple mic, but in a way the raw, mono sound is the icing on the cake.
In the meantime, things got a lot worse: A week or two after "Freedom Fried", a bearded Jewish kid in Iraq, the first of several unlucky people, got his head lopped off on videotape by wackos in black head scarves. Half a year later, the worst politician in the world somehow got reelected to the most important office in the world. It took many years and a new president, but the nightmare of Iraq is finally over, the men who perpetrated it have been rightly swept under the rug, and the populace, having moved on from Arabs, are now busy worrying about job-stealing Chinese and Indians and Mexicans.
Lyrics
There are things on my mind that I can't tell you
I know some children left behind but they don't tell you
'Cause everything's just fine, it's what they tell you
I look around, the world is gray but then they tell you
Everything is A-OK, but now I tell you
Some f**kers got to pay, let me tell you
For all who've cried
And been shot up or died
And been locked up but not tried
And just swept aside
Oh baby, you've been fried
Let me tell you
And you believe every goddamn thing that they tell you
Proclamations from the king, oh yes he tells you
The traitors have to swing, and they tell you
Don't run afoul of the CIA, and so they tell you
Get behind the ol' U. S. of A., and then they tell you
The end's coming any day
When they're pacified
Shout hooray for our side
Though it's genocide
It'll all be denied
Oh baby, you've been fried
Baby you're freedom fried
Baby you're freedom fried
