One of the Greatest Songs Ever Recorded: “Late Last Night” by Scott Ainslie!!!

For as long as I’ve been on the radio, and definitely for as long as I’ve been writing a blog, I will occasionally make a reference to a song being “One of the Greatest Songs Ever Recorded!” (GSER)

I would usually follow that by saying that I would eventually start a category for it, but then never get around to it.

Well, now I’m getting around to it!

It will pretty much follow the pattern of The Most Awesomest Song of the Day.

I’ll select a song to celebrate and then give my thoughts about it. Nothing really brand new here that hasn’t been done before. But since I have a website, I can collect them and lay out what my own greatest songs are.

My radio show, “Prime Time Theme Attic,”  is on Monday nights 8PM-10PM ET but is on hiatus because of the pandemic.

Here’s the link for when the show returns: http://rdo.fm/r/4qntu )

Even though I always emphasize new music and artists, it’s always fun to take a short drive through the legendary artists, since they influenced those other artists!

But a song doesn’t have to be old or done by a legendary Theme Attic Hall of Fame member to be thus honored.

I can think of several songs that are only a few years old or less that I could identify as One of the Greatest Songs Ever Recorded.

This will be fun, and hopefully you will join me on my journey…at least sometimes!

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So, here we are.

It’s another Election Day, and I have to think that anyone who is voting, already has their choice in mind.

However, I will approach this post as if I am trying to convince at least one person who was in a coma, and just woke up to vote on Election Day.

Outside of that, I have to presume that maybe others will read what I wrote and listen to the song some other time, and decide to consider voting for the correct party.

I’ve written about singer/songwriter/ ethnomusicologist multi Philby Award winner Scott Ainslie before.

I’ve even given some thought that his performance the first time I saw him, might be the best concert I’ve ever seen!

He’s an artist that mostly recreates classic Blues songs. And he does those songs so well, the spirit of the deceased artists usually enter the room and hang in the aura for awhile!

But he also has several songs of his own that you might not be able to tell the difference between his or a Blues legend’s!

“Late Last Night” is one such song.

The timeless lyrics of the song could place it anywhere on a time continuum from the beginning of the Industrial Age to this current moment.

Ainslie was shooting for the mid 1930’s because he based his, “The Last Shot Got Him” album, on songs written in the time period of the latest vintage guitar that he had obtained.

The lyrics tell of a tale that hasn’t changed much in the past hundred and fifty years or so.

It concerns the societal interaction between the people in power who pull the levers, and the workers who never catch a break.

And the workers never know when the rough stretch is coming.

It never affects the rich. They can always get through a down time.

But you can rest assured that the decision was probably made in a windowless room, where those in charge wanted to squeeze a little more blood out of the hourly workers:

“Late last night rich and powerful men/

Set the dogs loose on our throats again.”

The upper 1% doesn’t have to literally be involved in the process, but somebody always has to follow orders or he or she and their family doesn’t eat, have a house, or a car.

To some rich people, it’s almost a sport:

“It’s the money. You know it is/

Somebody pulls the trigger/

And somebody gets rich.

Hey! It’s not the wealthy person’s fault. They weren’t there. Never mind that their fiscal practices put workers against each other just to survive.

Scott then brings things back in focus by emphasizing that a life is more valuable than anything!:

“But there ain’t a thing in this whole wide world/

Worth the life of one boy, the life of one girl.

That’s something that money can’t buy.”

However, that brief, happy thought, is quickly pushed out by some of the greatest lines in music:

“No use cryin’ over a little spilt milk/

When someone makes a killing/

Somebody gets killed.

There’ll be no cross at the side of the road/

No photograph. No plastic rose.”

In a society like capitalism, there can only be one winner. And the person who gets killed, doesn’t actually, physically die for possibly many decades, but more than likely continues on a path that stacks the odds against them.

Ainslie wraps things up by returning to the first few lines, the dogs on the throats imagery.

He does end the song on a high note, by suggesting breaking out a flask and enjoying what we can out of life, because those dogs are always waiting.

Usually, when I hear this song, it makes me cry.

I feel the camaraderie with my fellow sisters and brothers because, whether they know it or not, we are all in the same boat and need to work together against that late night plot!

One of the Greatest Songs Ever Recorded is “Late Last Night” by Scott Ainslie!!!

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