The Bob and Rob Show Lesson 30: The Bob Show

Текст песни "The Bob and Rob Show — Lesson 30: The Bob Show"

Lesson 30: The Bob Show. Mar 16th, 2006

Yes, a preposterous notion: Bob minus Rob. However, because Bob is currently down in Kyushu in southern Japan and Rob is still up in Tokyo, we have no way to do a show. We tried Skype - the software that allows you to use your computer as a phone - but Rob’s internet connection is too slow (thanks, Rob!). Anyway, we’ll be back next week in full force.

Song:We Can’t Make It Here.
Artist: James McMurtry

Lyrics

Vietnam Vet with a cardboard sign
Sitting there by the left turn line
Flag on the wheelchair flapping in the breeze
One leg missing, both hands free
No one’s paying much mind to him
The V.A. budget’s stretched so thin
And there’s more comin’ home from the Mideast war
We can’t make it here anymore

“Vet” refers to someone who fought in the Vietnam War. “V.A.” stands for the “Veterans Administration”. He is begging for money on the side of the road. “Can’t make it’” has two meanings. The first means literally you can’t make something; example: if you don’t have an oven, you can’t make bread. The other idiomatic meaning means “can’t survive or live”

That big ol’ building was the textile mill
It fed our kids and it paid our bills
But they turned us out and they closed the doors
We can’t make it here anymore

“ol’” means “old”. “turn out.” means to “fire” or “lay off”.

See all those pallets piled up on the loading dock
They’re just gonna set there till they rot
‘Cause there’s nothing to ship, nothing to pack
Just busted concrete and rusted tracks
Empty storefronts around the square
There’s a needle in the gutter and glass everywhere
You don’t come down here ‘less you’re looking to score
We can’t make it here anymore

“till” is an abbreviation of “until”. The rusted tracks are train tracks. The needle is a drug needle. “Lookin to score” means “trying to get some drugs”

The bar’s still open but man it’s slow
The tip jar’s light and the register’s low
The bartender don’t have much to say
The regular crowd gets thinner each day

A light tip jar means that there is little money in tips. The register means cash register. If a crowd gets “thin”, it means it has fewer people than before

Some have maxed out all their credit cards
Some are working two jobs and living in cars
Minimum wage won’t pay for a roof, won’t pay for a drink
If you gotta have proof just try it yourself Mr. CEO
See how far 5.15 an hour will go
Take a part time job at one of your stores
Bet you can’t make it here anymore

The federal minimum wage in America is only $5.15 per hour. Working at this wage for 40 hours a week makes it very hard to survive, especially if you have kids. Some states, like California, have higher minimum wage laws. “how far 5.15 an hour will go” means “how long it will last, or how much it will buy”

High school girl with a bourgeois dream
Just like the pictures in the magazine
She found on the floor of the laundromat
A woman with kids can forget all that
If she comes up pregnant what’ll she do
Forget the career, forget about school
Can she live on faith? live on hope?
High on Jesus or hooked on dope
When it’s way too late to just say no
You can’t make it here anymore

“High” means to feel very good; usually, “high on drugs”. “Hooked on dope” is slang for “addicted to drugs”. “Too late to just say no” refers to former First Lady Nancy Reagan’s anti-drug campaign in the 1980s, in which she told kids to “just say no” to drugs. It was derided by many people as being an overly simplistic solution.

Now I’m stocking shirts in the Wal-Mart store
Just like the ones we made before
‘Cept this one came from Singapore
I guess we can’t make it here anymore

Wal-Mart is a large chain of department stores in America, and now in several other countries. They are able to offer very cheap prices because they pay their workers very little and do not provide most of them with health