If you’ve ever read my reviews, you know I tend to stick to ska and occasionally expanding to bands that are ska- adjacent, and, technically, Mitch Rocket is pretty ska- adjacent. He has written an occasional ska song, and the band has a saxophone, so it can’t be too far away right?
But seriously, this song has absolutely nothing to do with ska. It’s just a great song with a great message. I’m a firm believer that music is supposed to communicate a message- that art is inherently political. There is nothing wrong with music that is just happy or about love and romance. There is nothing wrong with music that is silly or fun. There is a reason to use music as an opiate to distract us from the burdens of life or to invigorate our joy, but it is also important to build awareness and communicate ideas.
This song, by Mitch Rocket, is a little folk sing-along song that they’ve been playing at live shows for years. The nature of the song let’s them change some of the words every time they play it live, to reflect changes in the world around us and to keep it relevant. While they recorded it with a specific set of lyrics, they encourage the listener to change them as they see fit, but think this version will remain pretty relevant indefinitely- and I don’t disagree.
Dirty and Wrong is a call out against billionaires who hoard wealth, that cause the income inequality that exacerbates homelessness, that makes the lives worse for billions of people on earth to the benefit of themselves and a handful of others. it also calls out their enablers, politicians who take bribes or pass laws to benefit those billionaires, war criminals, colonizers, fascists and more. So, and while this song doesn’t have a solution and doesn’t pretend to, it raises awareness and builds solidarity against those that do us Dirty and Wrong. Fuck you, Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, Donald Trump, (false Mitch) McConnell, Netanyahu, Daniel Ek, Putin, and more.
Come, sing along, add your own names.
Written by Gimp Leg