‘Rockefeller Drug Law Blues’ - The Felice Brothers, 2007
The Felice Brothers fell under my radar towards the end of last year when I heard the song Roll on Arte taken from the album Tonight in Arizona from which today’s song is also taken. What struck me about the band was to old country-folk sound that they produce that takes your imagination into an old bar room complete with sawdust on floor and swigging whiskey from the bottle, you get the picture. The lead singers voice in uncannily like that of Bob Dylan’s in the 60’s. Actually it sounds like Dylan did on the Basement tapes. I think that its never a bad thing to be compared to good musicians , sometimes being original doesn’t mean being good.
To get the background on the song title and the content of the song I’ll say a few words about Rockefeller who was the governor of the state of New York in the early seventies and during that time introduced some tough new sentences for possession of narcotics including cannabis and marijuana which depending on quantity, and we’re not talking about tons here or even close to it, had mandatory sentences equivalent to second degree murder.
The song itself is sung at a very down tempo rhythm with only a drum set, acoustic guitar and fiddle to back the excellent lyrics of the song in which basically in the first verse is a guy being arrested for possession while the second verse tries to explain why stating that he (could be a she also) and his mom needed the cash while third and fourth deal with his brother being shot with him promising to give his children a better live and then describing the scene in prison and he starts his jail time. The chorus is kind a protest about the length of the sentences in comparision to the quantity.
‘Fifteen grams of heroin
An ounce of speed
Fifteen years to life
Rockefeller, that’s a long old time’
Once you know the background of the song , the kinda sound the band has , if I didn’t screw that up then you should get a good appreciation of the song. I’ll admit that it may take a couple of turns to like the song but do yourself a favour and do it, you wont be disappointed. A live version of the song can be seen here which was taken at a performance in the bowery room.
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