Rob raps in a jazz-rock mode about "criminal injustice on a grand scale" and religious corruption in "They Call Me Free" featuring poetic zingers like, "99 years for a bag of dope, little children giving up hope, looking for help from the Pope and all he does is grope and grope and grope..." It is based on a true story about Rob's step-son who is currently in jail. [Not unlike the situation in Canada, former President Ronald Reagan closed down numerous mental facilities a few years ago, making it virtually impossible for anyone but a millionaire to get help for their mentally ill family members. He feels it is a travesty in a land as rich as the U.S. to have their mentally ill in jail or on the streets.
Offering an alternative to religious retribution, e.g. Muslim Jihad, Christian Armageddon, Rob gets into a funk-jazz groove, with a great brass section, on "Faith Bass". Tongue-in-cheek or not, he doesn't have to convince me that music is a very effective method of therapy as well as being a means of conveying messages that would otherwise be ignored.
"Election 2002", with its sub-theme of "America Held Hostage" , addresses the 2002 presidential election between Bush and Gore that offers a satirical solution in the form of a duel. It was originally or alternately titled "If the Vote is Moot, You Must Shoot".
"Oh Say Can You See", a funked-up rap, uses the title line from the U.S. national anthem to proclaim "If you don't stand up for something, you'll fall for anything" and strangely parallels monarchies with dictatorships.
"George Bush National Park" (where the air smells just like diesel) is a steel guitar country and western rant on environmental concerns from a hillbilly perspective - "Goldang Liberals - Give me something I can tap my foot to!" Calling the only endangered species the human one, Rob describes this park as having only snakes, skunks, rats and weasels (of the political variety, of course).
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