A REVIEW OF JOHHNY PAYCHECK'S "RED, WHITE, & BLUE BLOODED"
by Steve Smith - 9.17.03

Upon the release of his new album, Johnny Paycheck was quoted as saying, “There’s so much going on in this damn world. This is something I needed to do. I got all these feelings – emotions inside of me. Had to let ‘em [the feelings] out.”

The album begins auspiciously with “Take This Job and Shove It 2000.” The updated version of the classic tune features lines such as, “You can still take this job and shove it. I ain’t never gonna work here no more.”

The poetry of Paycheck’s words carry this opus, though the man can still play a little guitar, if you know what I mean. Check out his thirty-five second solo on track four, “I’m Drunk, Any Woman Will Do.”

Paycheck has always been the voice for white males ages 43-47 who are either out of work or in a job they despise. On this album, Paycheck continues to speak for and to that demographic. Paycheck sings: “My boss told me to wash my clothes. What he doesn’t know is that I stole these clothes out of his office.” That was from track seven “Stolen Clothes Blues,” a blank verse Paycheck ramble that feels a whole lot like 1973.

The album ends in classic form with the original version of “Take This Job and Shove It,” but with the vocals sped up so that it sounds like The Chipmunks. The liner notes disclose that this was done to “pejoratively symbolize the too-fast pace of the work-a-day world at present.” Indeed.