Is anybody really alive out there ? – Nominate your favorite song that captures these times

[landplanner]

That question is what devoted and even marginally aligned fans of Springsteen would recognize as one of his stand-by,well-known opening greeting questions at most of his live concerts of recent memory. (it has been a few years since the last live tour with some sad deaths and departures from core E-Street band).

This posting is not about that. It is about by observation (I am not alone on this one) that the active social and cultural commentary and back-and-forth we had going here on several contemporary topics (primarily OWS)  just a few weeks back,  has gone somewhat dormant and diffuse. Even the irregular/regulars and “usual suspects” seem to be missing in action here. 

So try this topic on for size- What is a favorite song of yours that comes to mind that seems to best capture these national scale times, troubles and tribulations you may be experiencing or know someone else who is ?  List it here in your reply, give a link to its live performance if you can find one, and offer a drop of consciousness as to why it moves you.

Writing for myself here, I have many that come to mind, but this one by Don Henley, tops them all. For me it is as relevant and spot-on accurate in describing what was gripping our country, over ten years ago when it was first written. Even more hauntingly prescient now.

Inside Job

• Songwriters:  Michael W. Campbell,  Don Henley

While you were sleeping
They came and took it all away
The lanes and the meadows
The places where you used to play

It was an inside job
By the well-connected
Your little protest
Summarily rejected

It was an inside job
Like it always is
Chalk it up
To business as usual

While you were dreaming
This little island disappears
While you are looking the other way
They’ll take your right to own your own ideas

And it’s an inside job
Favors collected
Your trusted servants
Have left you unprotected

It was an inside job
Like it always is
Just chalk it up
To business as usual

You think that you’re so smart
But you don’t have a fucking clue
What those men up in the towers
Are doing to me and you

And they’ll keep doin’ it and doin’ it
Doin’ it, doin’ it, doin’ it
Doin’ it, doin’ it, doin’ it
Until we all wake up
Wake up, wake up, wake up, wake up

I know what I’ve done wrong
I am acquainted with the night
I know how hard it is
To always walk out in the light

And it’s an inside job
To learn about forgiving
It’s an inside job
To hang on to the joy of living

They know the road by which you came
They know your mother’s maiden name
And what you had for breakfast
What you’ve hidden in the mattress

Insect politics
Indifferent universe
Bang your head against the wall
But apathy is worse

It’s an inside job

[Roland Beinert]

“It’s the End of the World as We Know it” by REM

[Roland Beinert]

Now that I think about it, “Ignoreland” (also REM) would be another good choice.

[Boilerplater]

A Springsteen song has been in my mind a lot lately, only its the Rage Against the Machine version.  Its “The Ghost of Tom Joad”.  I think their version better communicates a sense of fear and of struggle against a malevolent economic and geographic landscape.  Springsteen’s original is just sad.  The line “Families sleepin’ in their cars out in the Southwest” is especially poignant for me, because I actually saw that happening, in the Southwest.  I even did it a couple of times when I drove from Las Vegas to LA for job interviews and was too broke for a hotel.  As I’m sure you know, Tom Joad was the patriarch of the Joad clan in Steinbeck’s Depression era novel, The Grapes of Wrath. Now we have cops beating guys AND girls.  Our Tom Joad is waiting in the wings somewhere, getting ready to step onto the national stage.

Man walks along the railroad track
He’s Goin’ some place, there’s no turnin’ back
The Highway Patrol chopper comin’ up over the ridge
Man sleeps by a campfire under the bridge
The shelter line stretchin’ around the corner
Welcome to the New World Order
Families sleepin’ in their cars out in the Southwest
No job, no home, no peace, no rest, NO REST!

And The highway is alive tonight
Nobody’s foolin’ nobody is to where it goes
I’m sitting down here in the campfire light
Searchin’ for the Ghost of Tom Joad

He pulls his prayer book out of a sleepin’ bag
The preacher lights up a butt and takes a drag
He’s waitin’ for the time when the last shall be first and the first shall be last
In a cardboard box ‘neath the underpass
With a one way ticket to the promised land
With a hole in your belly and a gun in your hand
Lookin’ for a pillow of solid rock
Bathin’ in the cities’ aqueducts

And The highway is alive tonight
Nobody’s foolin’ nobody is to where it goes
I’m sittin’ down here in the campfire light
With the Ghost of old Tom Joad

Now Tom Said; “Ma, whenever ya see a cop beatin’ a guy
Wherever a hungry new born baby cries
Whereever there’s a fight against the blood and hatred in the air
Look for me ma’
I’ll be there
Wherever somebodies stuglin’ for a place to stand
For a decent job or a helpin’ hand
Wherever somebody is strugglin’ to be free
Look in their eyes ma,
You’ll see me! [repeat 8 times]

And the highway is alive tonight
nobody’s foolin’ nobody is to where it goes
I’m sittin’ down here in the campfire light
With the Ghost of Tom Joad.

[Trace One]

“Chicago”, Crosby Stills nash and Young

[landplanner]

Boilerplater:

 

A great selection too in my mind, and not just because I am a Springsteen fan and opened up this forum with a quote from him.I have always felt that not only the title cut, but the entire “Ghost of Tom Joad” CD was a scathing commentary of the economic seizures and convulsions of that period (the Depression) and the life-altering way it affected an entire generation, for at least two generations after it.  I am in your camp, we are seeing mostly a contemporary renenactment here.

Why do we continue to see the persistent use (and almost overuse) of the phrase “The Lost Decade (Generation)”.

 

How do see and sense things are going in the regional economy of the greater Southwest right now ?

Landplanner

 

 

[landplanner]

Perhaps even a more potent song as the 2012 political conventions approach. I hope we are in the streets in a massive presence. Last time round, it really changed the political dialogue, but then again “law and order” was the prevailing knee-jerk reaction and we elected another ultra-paranoid  jerk named Nixon. I always felt one the great contradictions of his presidency was that, in order to stay fashionable and in vogue with the time, some of the most significant environmental achievements (e.g. EPA and Clean Water Act) took place.

[Tanya Olson]

“Woodstock”, but as a dirge. Its an ironic reminder of best hopes and ideals of the movement in the 60’s lost in the process of growing up, pushback, and the 80’s and 90’s….not exactly as specifically relevant of the other songs, but more zeitgeist….and darned sad in my opinion.

[Boilerplater]

I haven’t paid as much attention to the regional economy of the Southwest since I left in the spring after my girlfriend basically kicked me out.  Well, that’s a little harsh.  We basically agreed that since I couldn’t find work there I should move back east to be closer to my parents, who are getting up there in years.  Back here I’ve only been able to find temp and odd jobs.  I’m doing sales for a solar company, but they aren’t advertising, so no leads are coming in, and I haven’t sold any systems yet, so, no income.

There is such a huge supply of homes in most southwestern metros now.  It will be a long time before housing gets back up.  The companies I worked for in LV are shadows of their former selves.

[Andrew Garulay, RLA]

“Move On Up” by Curtis Mayfield

[Ryland Fox]

C.R.E.A.M. – Wu Tang Clan

[alland]

The River

[Clayton Munson]

“Letters to the President” – Hawk Nelson

 

http://youtu.be/N3J9Uxo6dho

[Author]

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