Sock That Money

I recently realized that I have been gravitating toward all my personal favorites. Today’s song was one of Scot’s favorite songs. I was always slightly confused by the words. “Sock that money away...” This I understand. Saving money was one of Scot’s greatest pleasures. I was down with this to a certain degree. Scot realized early that if he was going to have a fighting chance of having a lifetime full of art making, he would have to learn how to live a ‘low-overhead’ lifestyle. This we did, with great aplomb, for many years.

I understand the “The scrapin’ for a dime, workin’ overtime” part. The part I have always been really confused about is the “Give your money to me, fulfill my destiny” part. This seems kind of antithetical to the “Sock you money away” message? Scot wasn’t usually a man of conflicting values. He was steady. The thing that is interesting to me is that Scot REALLY liked this song. To me it seems like kind of a little surrealistic pillow. I’m wondering, maybe I’m missing something?

There are many recordings of this tune, including several reggae versions. Today’s track is another solo demo recording, meaning that Scot is playing the guitar and doing the singing. It was recorded in 1991 in the front room of our Page Street (San Francisco) flat. Listen and you’ll hear a siren on the trailer screaming off into the city night.

Today’s artwork is a piece Scot did in 1978, the year we met. He put together several little books, organized around themes. In the book this drawing was taken from, every piece was based upon this '$" stamp. Scot loved books. I’ve come across several of theses little guys in my rough sort of the T. Scot Halpin Archive. This drawing shows a very practiced illustrative—almost cartoonish line. Scot loved this kind of graphic and would practic pulling his lines in sort of ragged ways or let his pen pool a little at a juncture.

Also, as previously discussed in this blog, Scot had a wide streak of airbrush artist in him. The spatters on today’s piece were actually applied with spray paint. A can of spray paint is in fact a chemically enhanced version of the airbrush. That’s why we call what makes a can of spray paint happen--propellant. This process is clearly in evidence in this piece.