My friend Victor says this song shows a depth of bitterness and cynicism that could only come from a long period of work in a large corporation. Actually it got its start from two sources. One was a friend's description of two francophone Canadians having an earnest discussion (at a hockey game, no less) of the correct translation of "quickie".
The other was indeed my former work experience - all of them. Every workplace had its pet phrase - "good enough for government work", "close enough for rock and roll", etc. - to describe a job that no one was going to take the time to get perfect.
Seemed to me those two ideas belonged together.
They came together at the 1999 SongAlong at Rasputin's folk cafe in Ottawa. "Quick and Dirty" wasn't my official songalong song, but we always sang another one, and that year Dean (Verger) decided to record and produce a CD of people's efforts - which has become another part of the annual tradition. The title seemed to fit the mood of the occasion, and it became the title track of that first CD.
Here is the recording of that first live performance. It's pretty raw - but gets the point across. When you hear the CD version you'll see there were a number of changes.
If you want to more about the discs that Rasputin's has sponsored, check the site at www.rasputins.ca/purchase.html
And a chord chart if you want to play along - the chord chart is for the version on my full CD - "the future whatever that means", which contains a fabulous solo by guitarist Danny Artuso. Even though it's just in G, I play it capo'd up to the third fret, so here's a chart from that position's point of view.
And here's a sample of the recording on the CD.