A night or two after November’s general election, still shocked America had voted a spray-tanned corporate fascist into power, I was lingering around an East Austin backyard when I heard local folksinger Jacob Jaeger pickin’ a familiar tune so redefined by circumstance that it seemed prophetic.
Blaze Foley released “Oval Room” in 1984 as the B-side to a 45 issued by Vital Records with the deliciously goofball “Girl Scout Cookies” on the front end. In 2004, 15 years after the renegade folksinger was shot dead in South Austin, the same song spun as the title track of a posthumous live album, recorded at the Austin Outhouse in 1988.
Foley’s producer/collaborator/friend Gurf Morlix confirms the lyrics were penned about Ronald Reagan. And sure, the immaculately written first verse could relate to almost any U.S. president thereafter. Yet none sync up as well as Donald J. Trump, who seizes America’s highest office today.
“In his oval room, in his rockin’ chair,
He’s the president, but I don’t care.
He’s a business man, he got business ties.
He got dollar signs in both his eyes
.
Got a big airplane, take him everywhere.
Got his limousine, when he get there.
Everywhere he goes, make the people mad.
Makes the poor man beg, and the rich man glad.”
I’m not saying Foley was psychic (though I wouldn’t rule it out), but I do believe he recorded a perfect anthem for Inauguration Day 2017 … 33 years beforehand!
Expect the “Duct Tape Messiah” to cough up into our consciousness a lot in the next year or so. Austin native Ethan Hawke recently shot a film about his life and death. Titled Blaze, it’s based on the book Living in the Woods in a Tree by his longtime partner Sybil Rosen.
The film stars musician Ben Dickey as Foley and features Austin’s Charlie Sexton as Townes Van Zandt. Yesterday we glimpsed some behind-the-scenes footage, and wait ’til you see how much the latter looks like his character. Full disclosure: Chronicle co-owner Louis Black is one of the project’s producers.
There’s also a certain legendary Texas songwriter, who now lives in Hawaii, playing the title character’s father.
This article appears in January 20 • 2017.