{"id":14401,"date":"2013-08-04T12:03:08","date_gmt":"2013-08-04T16:03:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/?p=14401"},"modified":"2025-07-25T12:20:45","modified_gmt":"2025-07-25T16:20:45","slug":"weekend-something-like-music-break-the-lake-house-band-five-dollar-t-shirt-blues","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/2013\/08\/weekend-something-like-music-break-the-lake-house-band-five-dollar-t-shirt-blues\/","title":{"rendered":"Weekend (Something Like) Music Break: The Lake House Band, “Five Dollar T-Shirt Blues”"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"'laundry<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n

[Image: “laundry day,” by user <\/em>eleanor ryan on Flickr<\/a>]<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Y<\/span>ou’d think a computer professional who got new computers both at work and at home within a few days’ time would be in a shuddery ecstasy of geek excitement. More power! More speed! More software! More… cool!<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Speaking only on behalf of the computer professional nearest to my heart, however, I must disagree. Along with all the exciting new-new-new stuff comes quite a bit of drudgework, frustration, and uncertainty. Drivers have to be downloaded. Entirely new versions of favorite software have replaced the old — or gone out of existence altogether, or never been upgraded to match more recent hardware and OS realities and conventions. Old peripherals suddenly don’t even connect<\/em> to the new boxes, because (say) “I’m sorry, but we no longer build PCs with parallel ports.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Still, in the process of restoring old and often forgotten data<\/em> from one computer to the next, you do come across some gems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

I<\/span> just found, for example, the lyrics to a song which The Stepson and I ad-libbed one evening maybe ten-twelve years ago. He, The Missus, and I were spending a couple of nights in a family member’s temporarily unoccupied house down in South Florida. Like many homes down there, this one had a built-in pool surrounded by a patio and enclosed in a sturdy metal-braced screen. The Stepson had his acoustic guitar, and I had my harmonica, and we each had a beer, and The Missus was happily just sort of lounging back in her beach chair with her tropical cocktail while the two of us guys were noodling around with something like music. (The Stepson knows some real<\/em> music; I pretty much make it up as I go along.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Suddenly, strumming some deep rhythms on the guitar, The Stepson began to sing: “Got a five-dollar T-shirt and a bullet hole in my shoe…”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It’s hard to concentrate on playing the harmonica when you’re laughing. But the two of us did our best. Other than that one line, I doubt either of us could recall the song’s lyrics. A few years ago, though, I jotted down what I could remember, and added some extra frills. Sorry, no musical accompaniment. I find it helps to think of these lyrics as almost of the talking-blues variety, as some old guy — probably missing some teeth — might have recorded them, not necessarily as they might actually be written:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

Five-Dollar T-Shirt Blues<\/strong>
(by The Lake House Band)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Got a five-dollar T-shirt and a bullet hole in my shoe
Man tells me this mornin’ we’re up to four months rent due
You’re standin’ there just inside o’ my door<\/span>
You once was rich but now you sure is poor<\/span>
You’re pickin’ up Kid 3 off o’ the floor<\/span>
— Do me a favor, do the same with Kid 4<\/span>
Got a five-dollar T-shirt and a bullet hole in my shoe<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You tell me black is white, say that white is black
My mind it once was right but it’s long since jumped the track
You got your dirty nails buried deep in my heart<\/span>
Your farm girl’s strength just tearin’ me apart<\/span>
You once played dumb, all o’sudden you’re smart?<\/span>
You were off and runnin’ before the man say Start<\/em><\/span>
Got a five-dollar T-shirt and a bullet hole in my shoe<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[instrumental break]<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

That day I towed your Chevy pickup up outta that slough
I never woulda guessed the one pullin’ was you<\/em>
You got my life upside-down<\/span>
In that raggedy-ass K-Mart nightgown<\/span>
Used to think I was a joker but now I’m a clown<\/span>
Your smile used to be like summer but all the leaves’ve gone brown<\/span>
I got a five-dollar T-shirt and a bullet hole in my shoe<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[instrumental break to close]<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[Image: “laundry day,” by user eleanor ryan on Flickr] You’d think a computer professional who got new computers both at work and at home within a few days’ time would be in a shuddery ecstasy of geek excitement. More power! More speed! More software! More… cool! Speaking only on behalf of the computer professional nearest to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","h5ap_radio_sources":[],"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"activitypub_content_warning":"","activitypub_content_visibility":"","activitypub_max_image_attachments":3,"activitypub_interaction_policy_quote":"anyone","activitypub_status":"federated","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[183,16,38,15,74,18,5,713],"tags":[2951,3571,3572],"class_list":{"0":"post-14401","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-everyday-life","7":"category-themissus","8":"category-backwards","9":"category-family","10":"category-music","11":"category-computers","12":"category-06_writing","13":"category-humor-writing_cat","14":"tag-blues","15":"tag-weekend-music-break","16":"tag-lyrics-in-search-of-a-tune","17":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6kZSG-3Kh","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14401","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14401"}],"version-history":[{"count":19,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14401\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28698,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14401\/revisions\/28698"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14401"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14401"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14401"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}