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April 15 looms large, and all of us tax-payin' citizens are coming down with the jitters. Refunds and penalties and deductions and long-forms
and line items and...whoa, whoa, hit the brakes. If you've ever fretted
about the profound way money makes us crazy in April, you're not alone.
Here's a list of tunes all about living with and without the burden of
quarterly payments. |
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Click song title to listen to a clip. Click artist name for bio, news, CDs, and more. |
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Bills, Bills, Bills |
Destiny's Child
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| Beyonce and her friends are saddled with sad sacks who like nothing better than maxing out their credit cards. "Can you pay my bills?" they ask over some stuttering funk. Sorry, ladies, but have you thought of setting yourselves up as a charity?
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Me and the I.R.S. |
Johnny Paycheck
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| The country renegade says he's had enough of how "the big man rakes it in and the little man coughs it up." As he explains where those 1044s should be shoved, he strikes a blow for every blue-collar bum with monetary pressures.
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Money Changes Everything |
Cyndi Lauper
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| Lauper breathes real disappointment into her anthemic warning, ruefully noting that a lot more than your tax bracket changes when cash enters the picture. As well as facing bigger bills, you might lose your girl and your ideals, too.
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Paid in Full |
Eric B. & Rakim
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| Rappers have something in common with the Internal Revenue Service: both want their "dead presidents" to be delivered on time. Here's one hip-hop anthem that the feds can use as a soundtrack for the tax season.
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Love Don't Cost a Thing |
Jennifer Lopez
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| Over kettledrums and harpsichords, J.Lo offers a thundering corrective to Destiny's Child. You can throw Escalades and ice at her, but, she says, "even if you were broke/ My love don't cost a thing." On April 16, that's something we'll all need to hear.
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Money |
Pink Floyd
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| "Keep your hands off of my stack," warn the classic space rockers as closing cash registers provide the beat. Alas, no one took heed. The band later had to flee into tax exile in the South of France after losing an investment of nearly two million pounds. |
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Tax Free |
Jimi Hendrix
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| It's one of the guitar hero's under-appreciated instrumental tracks. With an ominous vibe enhancing its martial beat, it makes a good soundtrack for filling out your forms and hiking over to the mailbox for the midnight drop-off. |
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The Payback |
James Brown
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| The Godfather is talking about revenge, not rebates. But this classic groove tune contains cool couplets like "I can dig rappin'/I can dig scrappin.'" If you've ever been audited, it's like you know what he's talking about. |
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Kill You With Tax |
Macka-B
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| Rock stars have grumbled about England's heavy tax burdens for decades. The dancehall toaster falls into line with that crowd, chanting down the British government, and claiming they may as well tax "the air that we breathe."
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