Who is this song about?

Cafe Society
1

Fellow Dopers: Can you help me identify the people in this song please? I think I got the first guy right; I’m pretty sure he is from The Big Lebowski.

2

I’ve got nothing to add that could answer your question, but I want to say that since I first heard Camera One I’ve been a fan. Josh Joplin is wonderful music (IMHO)

Brendon Small

3

Excellent – a fellow fan! Do you have his latest, solo release? I was wondering what it is like.

It took me a while to get the second album, The Future That Was. I kept seeing it in the record store, but because the cover art looked so amateur, I automatically assumed it was a re-release of an earlier title. It wasn’t until I stopped to check the release date that I realized my mistake.

OK, so much for my guerrilla bump disguised as an anecdote.

4

An Amazon reviewer believes they are Thomas Edison & Son of Sam…

5

Thanks Wee Bairn; those are both really good candidates. I’ve been thinking Thomas Paine for some reason, but not really sure about the ‘dishonest’ angle.

6

I’ve never heard the song, but St Thomas Aquinas was my first guess, even though I know nothing about him.

7

As to the ‘not very honest’ bit about Thomas Edison - a lot of the inventions were products of his workshop, not necessarily work he did himself. That said, he deserves credit for being an excellent manager (in terms of results) and he had the ability to guide the work that was being done in the right direction.
Edison also led an underhanded campaign to discredit the AC power distribution system championed by Tesla and Westinghouse.

This site includes an anecdote from David Berkowitz about his rough experiences in school (see the Child of Torment) so that may be where the second one comes from.

8

You know Wee Bairn, I could have written that exact post. For a long time, I thought it was him and I didn’t know why. I guess I was making the religious connection with Jesus.

Thanks panamajack. There have been a lot of negative things about Edison over the years, but I totally forgot about the AC / DC wars. Your points would fit in well with the lyrics.

Also, I think Son of Sam is dead-on. It fits the details of the song plus the over-arching point of the song as well.