An ex-coworker of mine had a sign on his cubicle wall: “A good song can make you late for work. A great song can make you quit.” Most of us struggle with the work/life balance, and few of us get it right. Rock and roll is predictably uninsightful when it comes to this subject, because most players in this game have done just that all their lives: played. Look at Morrissey: he was essentially a blogger before blogs existed, and next thing he knew he hooked up with Johnny Marr and the rest is history. By the time the Smiths covered “Work is a Four-Letter Word,” Morrissey had already given us odes to David Brent-like bosses from hell who wrote “bloody awful poetry,” musings on how miserable he was after he found a job, and statements like “I wouldn’t bother” [going to work]. Well, sod him. What does he know?

And what does Paul Westerberg know, either? He pulled his bandmates out of school to gig with the ‘Mats. Now, I’m sure his work ethic was as bad as this demo claims:
The Replacements: Bad Worker (Paul Westerberg home demo)

But the point is these are not real people. They’re rock stars. So what of the rest of us?

Well, we’re left with a balancing act. Some of us merge work with play. Others punch our cards to fuel a hobby. Tonight I worked late, and now I’m blogging late, and I’ll be up early again tomorrow. The trick is to engage in both, to become vested in both. If you just punch a card, heaven knows you’ll be miserable. If you work so hard that you have no play to come home to, then not even rock and roll can save you.
Palace Music: Work Hard / Play Hard

The dedication, then, goes out to another ex-coworker, a regular visitor to this blog, Dave Crozier. I salute him for finding the right balance and carving out his own home studio (thanks for all the demos over the years, Dave!), and for taking weeks off here and there to create. This particular track was the result of one such sabbatical, back when he was advising me in project management for direct mail campaigns. He poured all of himself into both pursuits, took each seriously, and kept each in perspective. He has a wall full of guitars, real beauties, and they speak to him in primordial overtones. He is a disciple of the mystical Eighth Note Pulse. He thrives on the buzz and the growl. He just simply loves guitars. He also puts in a hard day’s work and takes pleasure from it. Here’s Dave Crozier’s heavy creation:
Dave Crozier: Heavy Creation