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Monday, November 15, 2010

Tonight! / MP3 David Dondero Gets Revenge on His Crappy Boss in a Song

Posted by Ned Lannamann on Mon, Nov 15, 2010 at 4:52 PM

David Dondero appeared this week in our Music section, and he plays tonight at the Doug Fir. He's one of the finest journeyman songwriters in the country. I'm including an excerpt from the conversation I had with him about his song "Job Boss," from his latest record # Zero with a Bullet. It's a hilarious and sad song; take a listen and read about it. And go see Dondero tonight.

LISTEN:

David Dondero - "Job Boss"

DAVID DONDERO: I do a lot of traveling, it’s just kind of a theme in my life, so it’s sort of what I write about, you know? I also write about certain jobs I’ve had in between, and things that've happened. I’m not always on the road, you know; I get off the road and I’m installing solar panels and painting houses, or helping my friend do plumbing, or driving trucks… I do a lot of different jobs.

MERCURY: In "Job Boss," is that fictional or is that a real guy?
That’s a real guy, in Wilmington, North Carolina. He was my boss, and we were installing hurricane shutters and canvas awnings at the beach. That’s all about him over-extending himself, trying to live the dream, and then filing bankruptcy after his wife divorced him. He took out a home-equity loan to pay off all of his credit cards, and then instead he went and bought a jet ski and a TV, and a bunch of other crap. Then he couldn’t make the payments, and ended up filing bankruptcy. And then his wife really took him to cleaners, when they got divorced.

It kind of sounds like a...
A true American story!

Totally!
He actually built a fence for a dog that his wife got. It was a pug and its name was Bear. And then he spent $3000 on the fence, because the dog wasn’t trained and would only crap and pee in the kitchen. It never got trained right, so he finally finished the fence, and right when the fence was done, the dog died.