He's the Wiz and he lives in Oz.

A quite common (translation: all the time) occurrence around here is that I'll get a song stuck in my head, and then after awhile (could be minutes, days, years) another song will bump that song out of the way and take its place, and so on and so forth, until I am driven crazy because I can't think about anything other than the broken record lodged in my head. So what is today's song? Well, it's from a musical-made-movie called The Wiz (musical: 1973; movie: 1978). A suite of probably some of the most fantastically addictive song lyrics (although by far, not quite as addictive as manhamanha). I highly encourage you to rent/watch this movie - if not for the goodies and giggles, at least to see what Michael Jackson looked like when he was black and had a nose. You may hate it, that's fine, I don't care, (because, you see, if you hate it, then you've seen it, and you've done exactly what I wanted you to do by seeing it. It's all about control! So there you have it.). Anyway, it provides an excellent contrast to the regular ol' Wizard of Oz (unless of course, you've done "the Dark Side of Oz" - which is awesome in its own right and you are to be commended and are exempt from having to rent The Wiz. Those were the days...Pink Floyd, a black & white TV set, and some really groovy brownies...What was in those anyway?) So, to get your groove back on and see a not-so-whitebread, Harlem-esque, incandescent color, loud late 70s-style funk (and fashion) weird perspective on the time honored story of a girl who kills witches and follows a yellow brick road, then ease on down, ease on down the road and pop that ol' beta tape into your HDTV.

Well, now that you've had the intro to The Wiz (by the way, DIANA ROSS is in it TOO!), you may be wondering which song(s) are cycling through my head. Before I get to that, I should probably begin with how exactly how I fell in love with The Wiz, enough to have it stuck in my head. It was a long time ago, I was only a wee lass...ok enough crap - I'm not in love with it - I saw it a bunch when I was little - and it's got 2 or 3 funky catchy little tunes. It's so ridiculous that it makes me laugh (not hard to do, but still, it's funny). There are crows on motorcycles, for haven't sake, what couldn't there be to love?? Michael Jackson is a scarecrow with fortune cookie papers as his brain! Toto looks like a rat! Richard Pryor is the Wiz! And to top it off, Diana Ross is Dorothy! (She has an awesome afro in the movie - and I do mean awesome, and she's got some serious dance moves...) There's also some token old white chick who's a witch or something. Regardless, the movie kind of stinks, (SPOILER: she just clicks her heels together and goes home - sorry for ruining it!), but some of the songs are funny. TAKE, for example the one that is in my head. The lyrics go a something like this (hear the song snippet on the link below): "You can't wiiiiiin, you can't break even, and you can't get out of the game" (tone: kind of like a desperate, resigned plea) And why, dear friends, was I feeling the groove of this song today? Well, I'm here, chained to my desk...Realizing that I can't win the lottery with odds of 245,000,000,000 to 1; I definitely can't break even on the salary I'm getting paid; and I can't get out of this damn grown-up-work-everyday-cause-you-have-to-or-else-you'll-starve world. Ever have one of those days?? If so, maybe you'll ease on down, ease on down the road (don't you carry nothing that might be a load), and you can slide some oil to me, and let me lubricate my mind.

References, for your enjoyment, and so you aren't completely clueless as to what I'm talking about (the clips are only ~20-25 seconds long):
http://www.towerrecords.com/product.aspx?pfid=1191755

In this blog:
The title line song: He's The Wizard: March Of The Munchkins
You Can't Win
Ease On Down The Road - (#1)
Slide Some Oil To Me

I don't know if you should hear these before or after you read the blog. From one standpoint, if you hear them first, you are liable to think "damn, that's weird" and then be clued in on what the rest of the blog means. On the other hand, if you listen to them after reading the text, you're liable to think "Oh, I get it (the references) now, and damn, that's weird." Either way, I don't care, since you read this article to the end. And you know you read it to the end because you just were thinking "Yes, fine, you got me to read to the end." And after all, it's all about control...