Nine-to-five boredom, summertime blues
No time to take it easy, you’re still paying your dues
Spend eight hours under the boss’ oppressive gaze
When that last minute rolls around, your mind is in a daze
You swear you’re gonna cut it loose, that’s what you’re gonna do
‘Cause all your life you’ve been chained to this town where nothing’s ever new
The child has grown, the birds have flown, and the wind she’s blowing free
You had enough of this nothing life, so now you wanna flee
So when you feel the pressure come down at the end of the day
You just gotta slip on your Ray-Bans and hide yourself away
And when the sun goes down and nothing feels right
Put on your sunglasses and slip into the night
You say I’ve gone crazy since I joined up with this band
Well, babe, I may be crazy but at least I got my living in my hand
In high school you’d be cracking those books until your hands would bleed
While I was the one voted least likely to succeed
You went out to seek a profession
I went on to become a musician
And now look at who’s well off and who’s unemployed
No chance of succeeding, all your hopes and dreams destroyed
So when the heat is coming down and you don’t know who to blame
Then Incognito is the name of the game
Now that your everyday is on a downturn and you wanna make it right
Put on your sunglasses and you’re ready for the night
Well, everyone knows that beggars can’t be choosers
So what they’re given is all that they can take
But the ones who think they’re the machers are really the losers
They think they got it all, but it’s all a fake
I overestimated you, I thought you knew better
Than to give it all up without a fight
Don’t give up the hope, you won’t be lost forever
Keep on believing and that hope will shine its light
That hope will shine its light
On you tonight
So when you feel the heat come down at the end of the day
Just slip on your Ray-Bans and hide yourself away
And the sunset is here and nothing feels right
Put on your sunglasses and slip into the night
©2023 The Hesh Inc.
This song came about in 1984, after a conversation I had with a friend from high school who had told me, after listening to my music, that he was going to slave away in college with the goal of becoming a doctor and ending up in debt till age 70, while I would become a millionaire rock star by age 20. (It didn't quite turn out that way.) The music came to me around the same time while noodling on the piano at home. I turned the whole thing into my take on Bruce Springsteen's "Night," wrapping the whole thing in the motif of wearing my sunglasses at night, an affectation I had adopted during my tenure as a too-cool teenager. Oddly enough, the title had nothing to do with Corey Hart's hit "Sunglasses at Night" from around the same time, which I hadn't yet heard.
In December 1984, I recorded this song, along with three others, at a studio in the ultra-Orthodox neighborhood of Geula in Jerusalem run by and belonging to a fellow named Ariel, an unassuming Hasidic Jew originally from Argentina. The neighborhood and Ariel's outward appearance totally belied the fact that he was a wicked Hammond organ player and owner of a vast and eclectic record collection ... two things not usually associated with Hasidic Judaism. It was the first time I recorded with a Hammond (it was an M3), and also the first session I ever played in which the music truly came together and sounded like Rock. The other musicians at these sessions were my old friend Izzy Kieffer on drums, Eitan Kirsch on bass, and Moshe Gershenfeld on guitar. It's funny how these songs were recorded amidst all these Judaic/Israeli elements and yet came out sounding like an American rock record from the late 1970s. It is a testament to the professionalism of these players (and engineer) that we were able to pull this off.