Proud Old Lefty

The Revolution Will Be YouTube-ised

2008-12-21T09:07:00.000-08:00

(I posted this also at my other site, www.community-organizer.com.

I love songs that tell a story. And sometimes putting songs from different artists together can create a narrative of it's own. And as I was cruising YouTube through the internet channel on my family's new Wii, I came across a few songs that have always spoken to me, and together I felt told a story of the crisis we're in.

So I start with a song that's at least twenty years old, "Revolution" by Tracy Chapman, who sings that "Finally the tables are starting to turn."

Then it's on to Peter Gabriel's haunting "Don't Give Up," from 1989, an ode to hanging on during hard financial and mental times. "Rest your head / You worry too much / It's gonna be alright / When times get rough you can fall back on us... Don't give up. Please don't give up."

Then I finish up with (who else) the Boss, Bruce Springsteen, from his most recent album, "Magic," singing about the "Long Walk Home." It's a song of redemption, of what it's going to take to get back to who we were: "And that flag flying over the courthouse means certain things are set in stone / Who we are and what wel'l do, and what we won't"

Yes, it's going to be a long walk home from where George Bush and Company have taken America and the world. But we'll get there. Don't give up. The revolution is just beginning. Be part of it. Be the change you want to see in the world.

Enjoy.

Tracy Chapman, "Revolution"

Peter Gabriel, featuring Kate Bush, "Don't Give Up"

Bruce Springsteen, "Long Walk Home"

Bye Bye, Miss American Pie

2008-11-05T06:33:00.000-08:00

Her 15 minutes of fame are up. How sad that she chose to use them the way she did.

Who-do Economics...

2008-10-29T08:04:00.000-07:00

She Should Be More Popular

2008-10-23T11:37:00.000-07:00

I haven't taken the time to really parse the lyrics of this Feist song, "My Moon My Man, because I'm too busy just watching. It's all about moooovement. There's something so...subversive...about this video. Look at the look in her eyes in the beginning at around :20. Then, I'm watching and wondering, What is this woman doing? Then watch how the camera subtly - brilliantly, I say - introduces more and more "movers" into the video, right at about :49. Then she's joined by more, more, and more of them doing the same thing. I don't know why...I just love it. Fun.

That Ipod Song - Avec Choir

2008-10-23T11:34:00.000-07:00

I know it's that's song on that old overplayed Ipod commercial, but I dig this version.