Legendary punk band T.S.O.L. has released a new song ‘Is This Our Wonderful World?’ along with an accompanying video. The song is a parody of a classic song ‘What A Wonderful World,’ released by Louis Armstrong. You can check the video below.
T.S.O.L. frontman Jack Grisham explained the song and the way it happened, in the amazing interview with Alternative Press. He said: “A friend of ours, a fan. I did a portrait of him for the cover of one of our singles, ‘Low Low Low,’ a European seven-inch. We were going back into the studio to record something. And he said, “I’d really like you to record a cover of ‘What A Wonderful World.’” I told him, “We’ll just do a quick thing, and I’ll send it to you.” It was no big deal. I sang it as a joke, because that’s what it is to me: a joke, a naive look at reality. They wrote the song for Louis to sing like, “We’re in all this trouble, but look at the beauty.” I rewrote the words in five minutes.
The song was just piano and vocal. Then we added the strings on it. It was never even intended to be done with the band. It was just the keyboard player [Greg Kuehn] and me. It was a one- or two-take vocal, at the most. And we played it back. It was a really sad, emotional moment. It was like we were sitting in a funeral. The producer, Paul Roessler [Screamers, 45 Grave, Mike Watt And The Secondmen], looked at me misty-eyed and said, “That’s kinda heavy.”
“We’ve always done piano stuff. Then I played it for a string player, Eric [Gorfain]. He said, “Man, you need real strings. I love it. I’ll do it.”There was no thought in this, no plan, nothing. Our publicist asked me, “Where’s the link to buy the song?” [I’m] like, “No, we’re giving it away. It’s free.” It’s just a statement. It’s a piece of art. It’s not like I don’t need the money. I play in a punk band, man; I dig ditches when we’re not on tour. We’re making a statement. I want you to pause and think about this: Is this really a wonderful world? I knew that we weren’t going to sell it. But it’s hard to just give away a song. You can give away a couple-minute movie, though. If anything, it’s going to cost us. It’s just a statement, art. It’s a painting on the side of the road. It’s not a product. It’s nothing. It’s like a Banksy.”
Talking about the concept behind the video, Grisham said: “I know Trevor [Ward, the director] from the last video [the punk elegy ‘I Wanted To See You’]. The small homeless family, that [i[idea] as me. We have a really extreme homeless problem. I basically live on the beach. Right now, I’m sitting on my balcony. And between me and the beach, there’s a field of homeless people, camping. Now we’re denying travelers to come into the country. Are we really looking out for our brothers? Are we taking care of these people? Are we living up to the ideal that America was set up to be?
So I wrapped that homeless family in an upside-down American flag. And at the end, the camera comes off me. The idea is to pull away and be of service to people, without the limelight, just pure altruism. People are dying. How can you turn your back on them and say, “Well, the economy’s good. Fuck ’em”?”