The buzzy songwriter tells the story of corporate healthcare in a John Prine-like ballad
Songwriter Jesse Welles has been turning heads with his solo acoustic protest songs about the war in Gaza (“War Isn’t Murder”) and capitalism (“Amazon Santa Claus”), earning a devoted following online and at his sold-out concerts, including the upcoming leg of his Fear Is the Mind Killer Tour. This week, Welles recounted the history of America’s healthcare industry in a new acoustic video and song, “United Health.”
With a melody pulled from John Prine’s “Fish and Whistle,” Welles cuts down UnitedHealthcare specifically — just a week after the shooting death of the company’s CEO in New York. (A suspect, Luigi Mangione, was charged with murder on Monday in connection with the assassination.) “Way back in 70 and 7, Mister Richard T. Burke started buying HMOs putting federal grants to work/made 50 billion buckaroos last year/the Warren Buffett of health the Jeff Bezod of fear,” Welles sings, detailing the origins of the healthcare giant and its founder, before dropping a wickedly sharp line about last week’s murder: “Now CEOs come and go and one just went/the ingredients you got bake the cake that you get.”
Welles, an Arkansas native, offers a cynical view of not just the U.S.’s healthcare system but the siloed state of the country in general. “There ain’t no ‘you’ in United Health, there ain’t no ‘me’ in the company/there ain’t no ‘us in the private trust/there’s hardly humans in ‘humanity,’” he sings.
The singer-songwriter, who previously fronted the Fayetteville, Arkansas, rock band Dead Indian — a group that recalls the sonics and social message of Nineties alt-metal greats Warrior Soul — will kick off his new tour in February, which hits venues like Bowery Ballroom in New York, Terminal West in Atlanta, and the Basement East in Nashville. All shows through April are sold out.
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