The Chris Moeller Archives

Don't let money fool ya'

Imagine having created something everlasting and then having that thing completely perverted by outside forces. Thus is the saga of the 1973 song and a Grammy Hall of Famer “For the Love of Money” from the O’Jays. It shuffled to the front of my iPod yesterday and I gave it another hard listen. It’s seven minutes and eleven seconds of rhythm, wisdom, and pure indictment of that “lean, mean, mean green.” It’s First Timothy, actually: “For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.”

Written by Kenneth Gamble, Leon Huff, and Anthony Jackson, and recorded by Eddie Levert and the O’Jays in Philly in '73, it was put to paper at a time when the authors were starting to experience terrific financial success, yet were reconciling their newfound monetary gain with their spiritual values. The tune features an unadorned and cautionary message to match Paul's first epistle to Timothy: “For the love of money/People will steal from their mother. For the love of money/People will rob their own brother. For the love of money/People can’t even walk the street.”

Then more: “People don’t care who they hurt or beat… a woman will sell her precious body… Money can drive some people out of their minds.”

And that it has. The song’s principal hook “Money, money, money, money” has proven to be too tempting to be left by others to its actual intent, and the focus of the song has shifted to one instead of idolatry, greed, and the celebration of money's accumulation. It has been appropriated by boxing champ Floyd Mayweather, Jr. as his “walk out” music. Mayweather, notable for being the world's highest paid athlete, has shown no capacity as of yet for a social conscience. Tax giant H&R Block uses the song unsuitably in television advertisements promoting how much money the company will get back for consumers from the United States Treasury. And of course, most famously, it was falsely incorporated by NBC to anchor Donald Trump’s reality-competition programs The Apprentice and Celebrity Apprentice. 'Trump loves money' is the unmistakable message of that show and its poorly-matched theme song. That accumulation of "money, money, money, money" has caused younger listeners, like my wife, to recognize "For the Love of Money" first and foremost, as President Trump's theme song. It followed him from NBC, first, to his appearance on the WWE professional wrestling circuit, and then he started breaking it out last year at his presidential campaign stops, At that point, the O'Jays had to finally gather the lawyers together and pump out a cease and desist.

An attorney's letter to Trump’s campaign co-chair Paul Manafort read in part, “Your use of our clients’ signature song, and utilizing the original recording, constitutes a patently false implication that Mr. Levert and Mr. (Walter) Williams have endorsed you or your political agenda or Mr. Trump’s agenda. Our clients unequivocally do not endorse you, your agenda nor your party’s views or those of Mr. Trump. On the contrary, Mr. Levert and Mr. Williams have actively opposed these ideals.” 

Levert followed with a personal statement, “[Trump] presents himself as supporting ‘law and order’ but, in truth, he’s not respecting the law at all. Mr. Trump resorts to painting pictures of gloom and doom and suggesting that he, alone, is the one savior who can fix things. This reminds me of another story and that would be the Book of Revelation.”

Could things get any worse for the O’Jays and their message? Let’s hope not. Their other signature song is “Love Train," and there's precious little room on board that one for any misinterpretation.

posted by CM @ 6:18 PM