Robbie Thomas
Medicate (A View of a Troubled Country)
When it comes to 2000-2010’s rock music, I’m not a serious fan. Today, I walked into AutoZone and heard the song Much Like Suffocating by Chevelle. God damn, the song fucking stinks! Another song I totally find shitty is Fuel’s Hemorrage (In My Hands), fucking yuck! IN MY HAANDS! IN MY HAANDS, AGAIN! The singer sounds like a third-rate Eddie Vedder with shit in his mouth. However, Fuel got a few hits and I wrote five books with only one profiting. Perhaps I should have kept playing guitar and took lessons at 17, as opposed to quitting. Maybe I could have a hit song with me whining. I like to refer to the previous two songs mentioned as Whiny White People Rock. And yes, I’m 75% white.
Although not hard rock, one of my favorite defunct TV shows One Tree Hill would play more acoustic-like rock with a white guy whining. Not all times it was a guy, they had female lead singers as well. I didn’t mind the female lead songs with the acoustic guitar so much as the male lead ones. They also played Fall Out Boy who has never done me wrong, and I also liked Reliant K and Good Charlotte.
This post really isn’t entirely about Whiny White People Rock. I want to point out a song that came out some five years back after this posting called Rx (Medicate) by Theory Of A Deadman. I heard a few songs by this band in the 2000s and I really didn’t like them. Fast forward to 2022, my Rock N Roll trivia-loving self watched a video by Rocked. Next, see the video below. To ruin it all for you, the #1 worst rock song according to him is Theory’s Rx (Medicate).
After watching this video, I decided to take a listen to the song myself. Yes, the song has some characteristics that I don’t enjoy. It has that country-pop beat I don’t like. I didn’t mind the whistling in this song. The part where he says, “Why does God hate me” in the chorus reminds me of myself in 2006 when I found myself thinking and a few times openly saying, “If there is a God, he hates me.” However, the lyrics seem to offer a great solution to living in a strange place called the United States of America. So I guess me and the guy from Rocked have a different opinion on the song in question.
We have mass shootings, political divide, high inflation, bullshit on all levels, 24-hour bias news channels, and a lot more! Since Marijuana is legal in the great state of Michigan, I find myself smoking it quite a lot these days. It helps me when working twelve hours a day at a factory. Some days with me making a small mistake and somebody flipping shit because he or she went home one day finding the significant other (or the former significant other) banging someone (or perhaps something) better looking than them.
Back in the early to mid 2000s, I seriously disliked hard drug users. I had been around folks who had often used hard drugs and pills, and they were always broke. And I’m not saying I was seriously better than these folks, I was broke most of those years myself. I’ve had money stolen, the users getting angry at me for no reason, and many, many more. Sadly, a few of them are family. And also, I have lost family and friends due to drugs, including one last year.
And again, I’m not saying I’m the better one by far, I have ADHD, OCD, and a learning disability. I have my troubles and I have said and done bad things myself. But my thought was that I have a few mental illnesses and it’s best for me not to do hard drugs to further damage my already damaged brain. And these folks who are doing the hard drugs are damaging their brains further than my damaged brain. I refer to these folks at the Bottom of the Barrel druggies.
These days, I do understand why people do hard drugs. Oh baby, baby, it’s a wild world. Although the original one is better, I do like the Mr. Big version made in 1993 a lot more. My 70’s Rock-loving friends are going to hate me for that one. This country is fucked. Our politicians are too busy screaming the opposing party’s name in anger. And I did scream the Republican’s name in anger a couple of weeks back in the overturning of Roe Vs. Wade. It just seems that the Republican party is making a statement due to Trump’s loss. As quite a few of them in that party remain loyal to him.
But back to the subject at hand, what made the push for me to be at some peace with Bottom of the Barrell druggies was the Flashpoint episode Severed Ties. I don’t wish to spoil it for you (click the link if you want that). Let’s just say in the end, the villainess’ backstory in question named Maggie Perrello (played by the lovely Kelly Rowan) is one where she had an above-average life with a husband and a daughter, and one daughter on the way. One big problem showed up and totally screwed her life up. I felt very bad for that character in question (good job, Kelly Rowan) and my hatred for drug addicts wasn’t so much after that. But still, I do try to distance myself from the Bottom of the Barrel druggies. I just don’t have a serious hatred for them as I did in the 2000s.
And it is true, something could come up that is beyond your control that can just fuck things up. It happens to most of us. You have that big setback that takes time for you to recover, whether it’s physical, mental, or financial, OR ALL THREE! And when it does happen, we go about it in different ways. Some of us resort to opiates such as Maggie Perrello in the aforementioned episode. However, it seems like dealing with a major setback these days is just more fucking depressing, hence some of the suicides (I have thought of that myself). Look at all the stupid shit that is going on in this country and it’s only getting worse. And the majority of our elected officials from local to federal are not so helpful. And I’m talking about both sides, Democrat and Republican.
I have ADHD, OCD, and a learning disability, but I’m not expecting the government both local and federal to help me out. They ain’t saving me! It’s why I keep fighting.
But also, it’s very important that we do vote!
RIP Old School.
Peace, Love and Fractions
Robbie T.