The song I’m going to introduce for September is Freaky Finance. Last month I introduced Down at the Casino, and Freaky Finance is another song on Virtual Virgins with a money-related theme. It’s about online financial gurus who, if you’re not familiar with them, give advice and tips on how to play the system in order to free yourself from it – in other words, make life choices and investments that enable you to give up your 9-5 job.
I learned about it from a couple of people I know who were really into them. They wanted me to check it out for myself, so I did. But instead of following the advice, I used it to write a song. It always felt like a highlight on the album, and the pina colada in the accompanying soundcloud link is a reference to the lyrics.
Leaving aside any ethical issues about investment and tax avoidance, it’s not something that I’m interested in doing, mainly because it sounds like I’d have to dedicate quite a lot of time and mental energy that I’d rather spend on other things (even if, as these gurus point out, it may free up time for the things I love later on).
At a more general, or deeper, level, I think the song tries to capture that desire to escape from ordinary existence but, at the same time, reflect back that the dream of freeing ourselves is a bit of a mirage in the desert. If your idea of independence is routed in investments and playing the system, then you’re still very much integrated into, and helping to sustain, the world you don’t want to be part of.