Aimee Mann – “Can’t You Tell”
The 30 Days, 30 Songs project is a new thing: A full month of musicians posting anti-Trump music in the lead-up to the election. Death Cab For Cutie kicked it off yesterday with their new song “Million Dollar Loan.” And today, the veteran badass singer-songwriter Aimee Mann has contributed the new song “Can’t You Tell,” a song that she actually wrote from the perspective of Trump. Singing in character as Trump, Mann paints a portrait of a disturbed man who’s in over his head: “Isn’t anybody going to stop me? / I don’t want this job, I don’t want this job / My god, can’t you tell I’m unwell?” Below, listen to the song and read Mann’s statement about it.
Mann writes:
I wanted to write about Trump in the first person because I think it’s more interesting to speculate on what people’s inner life might be. I had heard a theory that Trump’s interest in running for President was really kicked off at the 2011 White House Correspondent’s dinner when President Obama basically roasted him, so that’s where I started. And my own feeling was that it wasn’t really the job itself he wanted, but the thrill of running and winning, and that maybe it had all gotten out of hand and was a runaway train that he couldn’t stop.
Keep up with the 30 Days, 30 Songs project here. Meanwhile, Mann’s new album Mental Illness is due in spring.