Page 16 - Effable Encounters

Krud

Lazaretto sighed. “Well, the first song is called ‘Bomb the Babies’;
this is going to cause a lot of problems, even more than ‘Spitting
Blood’ on your last release. It seems to us that your point could be
made without such direct incitement to infanticide; maybe call it
‘Baby Boom’ and add a touch of humor to make it a bit ambiguous.”
“Oh, come on, man.” Krud shook his head. “You don’t get my
point at all. It’s about abortion, very timely. Seems to me that, like,
birth is just an arbitrary point in time during someone’s life. So, if you
don’t want your child, or it turns out to be a real drag, you should be
able to blow it away. Anytime you want, until it’s eighteen years old.
Then the government takes over that privilege, right?”
Vince winced.
“All right. So maybe it’s satire, maybe you’re serious. Luckily, I
don’t have to figure you out. But, honestly: do you want it on your
conscience if murders are committed in your name?”
“Baloney. Murders are already being committed in my name: John
Q. Public, the tax-payer who subsidizes tens of thousands of killings
throughout the Third World. I say, let’s come out of the closet and
legalize it for the folks at home!”
The older man shrugged.
“Like I say, what I think about your opinions is unimportant. But
every church group in the nation is going to campaign against you.
Remember what happened to the Beatles after John Lennon said they
were more popular than Jesus.”
“I’m not old enough to remember,” said Schacht piously. “But I’d
guess that was just an excuse for the preachers to reassert their mind
control of the youth of America. Now it’s going to take stronger stuff
to break their heads loose again. Nope. ‘Bomb the Babies’ goes on
wax just the way I conceived it. Loud. Hypnotic. And very, very easily
understood lyrics.”
Lazaretto pulled a sheet of paper from the sheaf in his hands. He
had anticipated resistance. Nothing for it but to forge ahead. “Okay,
we’ll get back to that one later. Now, Lennie really liked ‘Dump it
Here’; it’s got a snappy refrain and the horns will pick it up in the
bridge. But our attorneys don’t want you listing specific corporations
by name. This kind of stuff is actionable; maybe you didn’t realize
that.”

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