CD front cover

Background

From the age of 18 I have spent 20 years of my adult life, off and on, living on the Dole. This puts me in the pariah class of the very-long-term-unemployed: the true unreformable, good-for-nothing, dole bludgers of legend. Yes, that's right, I am considered a parasite, a leech on society, urban filth and a blight on this noble and hard-working nation. Probably I am some kind of a criminal and ought to be locked up!

There are many in society who see the likes of me strolling around town during the day while they are working and raking in the cash, who think that our lives are one big holiday and that we should be grateful for our privileged position. Sorry to disillusion those who think we're living in paradise, but Life on the Dole is far from easy and pleasant. The lack of money is enough to disabuse the ordinary citizen, who happens to stray into this path, of such fantasies on it's own, but on top of this we have insult and injury heaped upon us by our generous society over our sackcloth and ashes.

Despite the ignorant, narrow-minded judgement of society I am no bludger: As you can tell from my web-site, I am a musician, artist, philosopher and scientist, fully engaged in producing vital work on the foundations of society. Of course the government don't value such things, in their blinkered accountant vision they can only see value in short term cash. I explained all this to my Intensive Assistance Case Manager who was initially positive about my work, but after a year with no actual money coming in, despite my continual progress, in an act of floccinaucinihilipilification, she dismissed my unique and valuable creations and enquired how I had got on with my applications for "Jewellery Store Manager" and "Real Estate Sales".

During his time in office the execrable John Howard had introduced the concept of "Work For The Dole", where the feculent parasites of this nation were forced to work for their Dole in a variety of community jobs that were not commercially viable. I was not against the idea of voluntary work for a fair rate if it meant that the Government would get off my back and leave me in peace, so I put in 2 days per week with the local Arts umbrella organisation, utilising my considerable multimedia, photographic and computer skills for the benefit of the local community, effectively for the minimum wage.

This measure was very popular with the voters and in their usual contemptible lust for the lowest common denominator the politicians decided to harness the continuing bigoted ground swell of hatred for those without a job and push the envelope a stage further. The filth that is the Australian Liberal Party then introduced the concept of "Full Time Work For The Dole". Under this scheme, long-term or "difficult" members of the unemployed would be forced to work 4 DAYS PER WEEK for the meagre sustenance that is the Dole. This meant working at often pointless jobs for half the minimum wage, leaving no time to better oneself, whilst still being expected to seriously look for work and still copping the opprobrium of society at large.
THIS IS SLAVERY. THIS IS THE CHAIN GANG!

Such treatment was unacceptable as far as I was concerned: The arseholes had gone too far. When the amoral agents of Government will attempted to force me into this stream I rebelled and gave full rein to my anger, producing a torrent of vitriol in which I compared them to the guards at the doors of the gas-ovens in Auschwitz who were "merely obeying orders". Over more than a year there were further attempts to coral me, which led to further righteous outbursts, which led to the agencies banning me from their premises. Stalemate! Meanwhile I sought legal advice which confirmed my belief that this action was illegal under a whole raft of legal instruments. I considered a high court challenge.

The Public Service however, dislike difficult situations, especially situations where the rules are not clear, and more crucially where there might be negative publicity. They suggested to me that perhaps I might be better off on a pension. I am usually pragmatic and saw no reason to argue. They found an excuse to place me on disability support and so my Life on the Dole came to an end. But not really, because I am still living off a government handout, just the money is a little greater and the idiot hoops have been removed. I continue to devote my talents to the betterment of the world, continue to produce works of unique value and continue to weather my curse. My conscience is clear. Society is getting a bargain.

The Album

After a lifetime living in poverty, filling in useless forms, sending off pointless job applications, jumping through idiot hoops, sitting through endless intensive assistance interviews, doing community work, queuing up at Centrelink, waiting for telephone assistance, never having a holiday, being treated as a second class citizen and putting up with abuse from the general public I think I am well qualified to speak about the experience of being unemployed.

I decided to go onto the dole in the first place to spend more time creating music and this I have certainly done! As you might expect, over my time I have quite naturally amassed a considerable body of songs dealing with the whole business and in 2005 I found I had enough for an album.

I planned song order, rewrote and enhanced the old songs that needed it and adjusted keys where necessary. In early 2007 I set about arranging it. This took several months, as not only is it a technically demanding process but it needs inspiration as well. When one is staring at manuscript on the screen and trying to get every note perfect, 4 hours is about the most you can expect in a day. Typically a guitar solo would take a least a day.

Recording was relatively straight forward except that playing the guitar solos I had written from my head proved exceedingly difficult, just as it did on the previous album. Good luck to anyone else who wants to make the attempt! Still, I have proved they are possible and I would certainly expect anyone who considers themselves a virtuoso to be able to nail them with sufficient practice.

The guitar sound is much better, in my opinion, than that achieved in "A Young Man's Love", despite the fact that the same instruments and amplifier were used. This is due to the use of a proper mixer as an input stage to the computer. For some reason, computer audio mic inputs are of abysmal quality and it is simply not possible to get first rate audio through them. The same is not true of their line level inputs however and hence the considerable improvement.

Singing went well, and I think this demonstrates the progress I have made in the art since "A Young Man's Love". This is the first album where I eschewed the use of pitch correction for the lead vocal and the album is all the better for it! I also had a better mic this time.

The computer wave table synthesis of things like drums, bass and keyboards was also a considerable improvement and this was due to my painstaking assembly and calibration of my custom rock sound font bank. Sadly, Sound Font technology is now considered obsolete and is no longer supported, which pisses me off in the extreme! Now I might be wrong, but from what I can ascertain, there is no longer any independent user-loadable wavetable format that will work with every MIDI application. NOT HAPPY JOHN!!!

The songs on this album are mostly accurate and autobiographical although there is the occasional exception: most notably in "You're a Bum", where the events didn't actually happen to me, but they might well have happened to other dole-bludgers.

I am not too proud to refuse my muse and there are a couple of songs on this album where I have used other people's tunes, I think to great effect. People who thus believe their copyright to have been infringed should rest easy: I acknowledge their copyright in the tune and should the song ever make any money will happily ensure that they are paid their correct royalty. Such people who dislike adaptation being made of their work should note that these songs are parodies, and as such, are exempt from the requirement of adaptation permission.

This album is the fruit of more than 20 years of pain. It is the carefully considered work of a mature artist. Every word and every note has been chosen to form a powerful and cohesive whole. Every part of it was born of real experience. There are no weak songs. There are no major faults. It is a work of which I am proud. I set it free to seek its fortune. I hope it finds an audience.

Excelsior!

Downloads

You can download this album for free here, either the entire thing or just the tracks you want.
You can also download the album booklet in PDF format. It contains the album artwork, lyrics and comments for each track.

Credits

Vocals, Violin: Warren Mars
Lead Guitar: Warwick Marsh
Rhythm Guitar: Guerre En Masse
Keyboards: Worzel Maazel
Bass Guitar: Uoreno Marte
Drums: Marrer Swan

All songs by Warren Mars except:
"You're A Bum": Mars - Evans - Livingstone
"Tuckerbag Carpark Peartree Wine": Morgan - Mars - Young
All arrangements by Warren Mars.
All songs © Martian Music.

Recorded, Mixed & Mastered at Martian Studios, July - September 2007.
Audio Engineering - Ram Warners

Artwork: Little Green Men
Management: Walter Maher