1978 album by
Tonio K. Tonio's first solo effort, it received very good reviews including a 5-star from
Rolling Stone. Lyrically and musically Tonio's best effort.
The title song is a great guitar assault with lyrics that seem bent on decrying overpopulation or the rat race in general. Tonio's quirky paranoid vocals give this fast-paced toe-tapper an edge with a sly grin just hovering in the background.
The Funky Western Civilization is this album's highlight. It never ignited a new dance craze - but it should have. Difficult to tell if the infuences here owe more to Nashville Grass or Chicago Blues. In either case the chicken squawking guitars give this an almost novelty-song appeal, while the lyrics are all doom and gloom. Doom and gloom, but LET'S DANCE!
Willie and the Pigman is an off-kilter gangster ballad and How Come I Can't See You In My Mirror is a hilarious little country ditty about a boyfriend who just happens to be the most clueless idiot imaginable -- except perhaps for the clod whining in A Lover's Plea. And then there's the final track, H-A-T-R-E-D. It starts out as a folkie James Taylor lover's lament and then suddenly steps on the gas and becomes a screaming parody of love gone wrong.
This may not be, as one reviewer called it, the best album ever recorded -- but it's definitely worth having around.
Track Listing
Life In the Foodchain
The Funky Western Civilization
Willie and the Pigman
The Ballad of the Night the Clocks All Quit (and the Government Failed)
American Love Affair
How Come I Can't See You In My Mirror
Better Late Than Never
A Lover's Plea
H-A-T-R-E-D
Life in the Foodchain
well your mother was there to protect you
your papa was there to provide
so how in the world did the excellent baby
wind up in this hotel so broken inside
you lie on your bed in the midnight darkly
listening to every sound
watching the shadows for anything moving
and hoping they don't come around
'cause it's dog eat dog
and it's cat and mouse
it's watch your step and cross yourself
and get back in the house
and it's do or die
it's push and shove
because everybody's hungry
and there isn't quite enough
that's right we're talkin' about the good life
in the foodchain
love among the ruins
i guess that you've finally got to accept
that there's nothing you can do about it
it's kind of like carving a turkey
kind of like mowing the lawn:
everything gets to this certain dimension
winds up on a customer's plate and then
gone