Takin it to the Streets! I heard this today -- not a coincidence. I love the original by the Doobie Brothers w/Michael McDonald, but this live performance is just as fantastic:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NQmYB7_Z93Q
Takin It to the Streets
performed by the Dukes of September
Music & lyrics by Michael McDonald
You don't know me but I'm your brother
I was raised here in this living hell
You don't know my kind in your world
Fairly soon, the time will tell
You, telling me the things
you're gonna do for me
I ain't blind and I don't like
what I think I see
(Takin' it to the streets)
Takin' it to the streets
(Takin' it to the streets)
No more need for running
(Takin' it to the streets)
Take this message to my brother
You will find him everywhere
Wherever people live together
Tied in poverty's despair
Oh, you, Telling me the things
you're gonna do for me
I ain't blind and I don't like
what I think I see
(Takin' it to the streets)
Takin' it to the streets
(Takin' it to the streets)
No more need for running
(Takin' it to the streets)
No more need for hiding
(Takin' it to the streets)
Hey, yeah, yeah
(Takin' it to the streets)
No more
(Takin" it to the streets)
Yeah, yeah
Kind of silly, but I woke up this morning with a song in my head that I haven't listened to in years:
Your Racist Friday by They Might Be Giants
I can't stand here listening to you
And your racist friend
I know politics bore you
But I feel like a hypocrite talking to you
And your racist friend
If anything was broken I'm sure it could be mended
My head can't tolerate this bobbing and pretending
Listen to some bullet-head and the madness that he's saying
I'll just sit here wondering how you
Can stand by your racist friend
I know politics bore you
But I feel like a hypocrite talking to you
You and your racist friend
I can't stand here listening to you
And your racist friend
I know politics bore you
But I feel like a hypocrite talking to you
And your racist friend
Your friend apologizes, he could see it my way
He let the contents of the bottle do the thinking
Can't shake the devil's hand and say you're only kidding
I can't stand here listening to you
And your racist friend
I know politics bore you
But I feel like a hypocrite talking to you
And your racist friend
@cc21, thank you for sharing the Black Pumas "Colors" video, lyrics and article. Really fantastic.
So glad you enjoyed it! The minute I first heard the song, I just loved it. It just draws you in.
Leonard Cohen's song Democracy , with some highlights. Of course, he also wrote the very dark and wonderful song, Everybody Knows, but I am clinging to this one right now.
From those nights in Tiananmen Square
It's coming from the feel
That this ain't exactly real
Or it's real, but it ain't exactly there
From the wars against disorder
From the sirens night and day
From the fires of the homeless
From the ashes of the gay
Democracy is coming to the USA
It's coming through a crack in the wall
On a visionary flood of alcohol
From the staggering account
Of the Sermon on the Mount
Which I don't pretend to understand at all
It's coming from the silence
On the dock of the bay,
From the brave, the bold, the battered
Heart of Chevrolet
Democracy is coming to the USA
The holy places where the races meet
From the homicidal bitchin'
That goes down in every kitchen
To determine who will serve and who will eat
From the wells of disappointment
Where the women kneel to pray
For the grace of God in the desert here
And the desert far away:
Democracy is coming to the USA
O mighty Ship of State
To the Shores of Need
Past the Reefs of Greed
Through the Squalls of Hate
Sail on, sail on, sail on, sail on
The cradle of the best and of the worst
It's here they got the range
And the machinery for change
And it's here they got the spiritual thirst
It's here the family's broken
And it's here the lonely say
That the heart has got to open
In a fundamental way
Democracy is coming to the USA
O baby, we'll be making love again
We'll be going down so deep
The river's going to weep,
And the mountain's going to shout Amen
It's coming like the tidal flood
Beneath the lunar sway
Imperial, mysterious
In amorous array
Democracy is coming to the USA
I love the country but I can't stand the scene
And I'm neither left or right
I'm just staying home tonight
Getting lost in that hopeless little screen
But I'm stubborn as those garbage bags
That Time cannot decay
I'm junk but I'm still holding up
This little wild bouquet
Democracy is coming to the USA
And for that man in the White House, a message from the brilliant author Isaac Asimov:
"Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent."
Herman Munster, who was played by Fred Gwynn, on the Munsters TV show, once taught his son something that is becoming popular to share right now. "It doesn't matter what you look like, you can be tall or short, or ugly or handsome, black or white - it doesn't matter, what does matter is the size of your heart and the strength of your character" Words to live by!
I actually got to meet Fred Gwynn once in the 80s. I was in Bedford, NY and got lost leaving a friend's house. It was late, dark and misty/drizzle rain. I got turned around/lost and pulled into a long driveway to turn my car around and go back the way I came but I had to calm myself down because I got nervous when I was lost. I was about to pull back out of the driveway, when a very tall and looming man came to my window. I was scared because I was in his driveway at night. He knocked on my window and I lowered it just a bit so I could talk to him. He asked If I was all right. I said "OMG, you are Herman Munster!" he said "Actually, I'm Fred Gwynn!" (lol). I told him I was lost and he calmed me down and then told me how to get back to the main road. He mentioned if I still got lost to come back and he would let me follow him in his car to the main road. I was so thankful and he was so sweet and nice.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9lYSKhRG6G8