Definitely not ok

I need to change the cover of Shake the World. Again. The moon in the clouds picture was too small. Sainte-Chapelle in Paris is too generic. So I'm coming up with concept number three. I'm mulling, I thought I'd give you some blah blah on the songs. I'm supposed to do that kind of thing on video while I'm recording, but I was a little busy.

The first song on the album, "Not OK," is also the oldest, and the last one I recorded. I wrote it in 1982 for an art-punk-dance band called Kinetic Ritual. The quarter-note snare and kick drums recall both "Annalisa" by Public Image Ltd. (I was a huge fan at the time) and "Mystery Achievement" by the Pretenders. Gang of Four is in there somewhere too.

Kinetic Ritual was about pushing boundaries, so I made the juxtaposition of chords and phrases purposely confusing. The change from G to E to G to E etc. is offset by two beats. So instead of something like GGGG EEEE, it goes GGEE EEGG. That was always hard to convey, even to myself, as I learned during this recording.

I'm not sure why I made such an ancient song part of the album, but it seemed to fit 2020. Was any of last year ok? Was anyone doing ok? The song was stuck in my head, although I did need to listen to a 1982 rehearsal recording on cassette to remember all the words. Being a political art-punk, I was railing against the loss of political content in post-punk music. We were now in the time of MTV and shiny New Wave dance music. And of course the title and refrain are purposely a play on John Lennon's line "I've got nothing to say, but it's okay" in "Good Morning, Good Morning."

I recorded "Not OK" in a frenzy of activity after Christmas. It's quick and dirty with some guitar that felt pretty good. I played the individual drums separately, both for better control of the sound and because it was hard enough for me to play one drum at a time on that song, never mind the whole kit. Respect for KR's drummer, Dr. Gym Shortz.