The Lights In Fat City

This is the second-to-last of a series of 14 short posts which illustrate the tracks from the forthcoming album The Mint Hotel. The songs on the album are inspired by the 'Beat' generation of writers, artists and revolutionaries working from the 1950s to the early 1970s, providing an alternative view of the 'wholesome' American society advertisers and politicians wanted you to see. Each post features a piece of artwork related to the song, created using Artificial Intelligence software; and also an explanation of the inspiration for that song.

The name “Fat City” is used by Thompson to apply to Aspen, Colorado (whose name he campaigned it be changed to), but is just as applicable to Los Angeles, Miami or Las Vegas - any town where the rich and complacent rule the roost and louche and cynical behavior applies.

On the strip in Vegas, for example, where The Mint Hotel is located. “The big hotels and casinos pay a lot of money to make sure the high-rollers don’t have even a moment’s trouble with ‘undesirables’.” These people, of course among whom Thompson at times dwells, “are taken out to the parking lot by thugs and given a quick impersonal lecture about the cost of dental work and the difficulty of trying to make a living with two broken arms.”

Instrumental track with trumpet solo.