MESSAGE SONGS

The Death of Education
Few songs have affected me as this one "Flowers are Red" by Harry Chapin (sounds better than it reads):

The little boy went first day of school
He got some crayons and started to draw
He put colors all over the paper
For colors was what he saw
And the teacher said.. What you doin' young man
I'm paintin' flowers he said
She said... It's not the time for art young man
And anyway flowers are green and red
There's a time for everything young man
And a way it should be done
You've got to show concern for everyone else
For you're not the only one

And she said...
Flowers are red young man
Green leaves are green
There's no need to see flowers any other way
Than they way they always have been seen

But the little boy said...
There are so many colors in the rainbow
So many colors in the morning sun
So many colors in the flower and I see every one

Well the teacher said.. You're sassy
There's ways that things should be
And you'll paint flowers the way they are
So repeat after me.....

And she said...
Flowers are red young man
Green leaves are green
There's no need to see flowers any other way
Than they way they always have been seen

But the little boy said...
There are so many colors in the rainbow
So many colors in the morning sun
So many colors in the flower and I see every one

The teacher put him in a corner
She said.. It's for your own good..
And you won't come out 'til you get it right
And are responding like you should
Well finally he got lonely
Frightened thoughts filled his head
And he went up to the teacher
And this is what he said.. and he said

Flowers are red, green leaves are green
There's no need to see flowers any other way
Than the way they always have been seen

Time went by like it always does
And they moved to another town
And the little boy went to another school
And this is what he found
The teacher there was smilin'
She said...Painting should be fun
And there are so many colors in a flower
So let's use every one

But that little boy painted flowers
In neat rows of green and red
And when the teacher asked him why
This is what he said.. and he said

Flowers are red, green leaves are green
There's no need to see flowers any other way
Than the way they always have been seen.

I didn't know that song. Chapin is amazing.

I also love the message of this one from CAROUSEL

YOU'LL NEVER WALK ALONE

When you walk through a storm
Hold your head up high
And don't be afraid of the dark
At the end of a storm is a golden sky
And the sweet silver song of a lark
Walk on through the wind
Walk on through the rain
Though your dreams be tossed and blown
Walk on walk on with hope in your heart
And you'll never walk alone
You'll never walk alone

Good Ones
I think I am going to enjoy watching this post!

Just Dropped In
The First Edition

(Written by Mickey Newbury)

(Yeah, yeah, oh-yeah, what condition my condition was in)

I woke up this mornin' with the sundown shinin' in
I found my mind in a brown paper bag within
I tripped on a cloud and fell-a eight miles high
I tore my mind on a jagged sky
I just dropped in to see what condition my condition was in

(Yeah, yeah, oh-yeah, what condition my condition was in)

I pushed my soul in a deep dark hole and then I followed it in
I watched myself crawlin' out as I was a-crawlin' in
I got up so tight I couldn't unwind
I saw so much I broke my mind
I just dropped in to see what condition my condition was in

instrumental break

(Yeah, yeah, oh-yeah, what condition my condition was in)

Someone painted "April Fool" in big black letters on a "Dead End" sign
I had my foot on the gas as I left the road and blew out my mind
Eight miles outta Memphis and I got no spare
Eight miles straight up downtown somewhere
I just dropped in to see what condition my condition was in

I said I just dropped in to see what condition my condition was in
Yeah yeah oh-yeah

SALT OF THE EARTH

Lets drink to the hard working people
Lets drink to the lowly of birth
Raise your glass to the good and the evil
Lets drink to the salt of the earth

Say a prayer for the common foot soldier
Spare a thought for his back breaking work
Say a prayer for his wife and his children
Who burn the fires and still till the earth

And when I see a faceless crowd
A swirling mass of gray black and white
They dont look real to me
In fact they look so strange

Raise your glass to the hard working people
Lets drink to the uncounted heads
Lets think of the wandering millions
Who need leaders but get gamblers instead

Spare a thought for the stay at home voter
His empty eyes stare at strange beauty shows
And a parade of the gray suited grafters
A choice of cancer or polio

And when I search a faceless crowd
A swirling mass of gray black and white
They dont look real to me
In fact they look so strange

Lets drink to the hard working people
Lets drink to the lowly of birth
Spare a thought for the rag taggy people
Lets drink to the salt of the earth

Lets drink to the hard working people
Lets drink to the salt of the earth
Lets think of the two thousand million
Lats think of the humble of birth

Red, White & Rock
I don't know how deep the lyrics are, but I'm watching "Red, White & Rock" on a PBS fundraiser. Those songs are my era and bring back some memories! An interesting coment dealt with how the young of today will have lost out on so much - the way it was - by not hearing these songs and shows like this preserve the times.

As an aside, one of my favorite movies is "The Wanderers," a look at growing up in the early 60s in New York. ANother is "American Graffiti." I'm getting all nostalgic here <sniff>.

The Eagles

Life In The Fast Lane
He was a hard-headed man
He was brutally handsome, and she was terminally pretty
She held him up, and he held her for ransom in the heart
of the cold, cold city
He had a nasty reputation as a cruel dude
They said he was ruthless, they said he was crude
They had one thing in common, they were
good in bed
She'd say, 'Faster, faster. The lights are turnin' red."
Life in the fast lane
Surely make you lose your mind, mm
Are you with me so far?

Eager for action and hot for the game
The coming attraction, the drop of a name
They knew all the right people, they took
all the right pills
They threw outrageous parties, they paid heavenly bills
There were lines on the mirror, lines on her face
She pretended not to notice, she was caught up
in the race

Out every evening, until it was light
He was too tired to make it, she was too tired
to fight about it

Life in the fast lane
Surely make you lose your mind
Life in the fast lane, everything all the time
Life in the fast lane, uh huh
Blowin' and burnin', blinded by thirst
They didn't see the stop sign,
took a turn for the worse

She said, "Listen, baby. You can hear the engine
ring. We've been up and down this highway;
haven't seen a goddam thing."
He said, "Call the doctor. I think I'm gonna crash."
"The doctor say he's comin', but you gotta pay him cash."
They went rushin' down that freeway,
messed around and got lost
They didn't know they were just dyin' to get off
And it was life in the fast lane
Life in the fast lane

An oldie but good for today
Back in the day, I spent a lot of time in coffeehouses in the Boston area. This is a song typical of the time.

Last Night I Had The Strangest Dream
words and music by Ed McCurdy

Last night I had the strangest dream
I'd ever dreamed before
I dreamed the world had all agreed
To put an end to war

I dreamed I saw a mighty room
Filled with women and men
And the paper they were signing said
They'd never fight again

And when the paper was all signed
And a million copies made
They all joined hands and bowed their heads
And grateful pray'rs were prayed

And the people in the streets below
Were dancing 'round and 'round
While swords and guns and uniforms
Were scattered on the ground

Last night I had the strangest dream
I'd never dreamed before
I dreamed the world had all agreed
To put an end to war.

TRO-©1950,1951 & 1955 Almanac Music, Inc.
New York, N.Y. Copyrights renewed
Used by permission

Another Oldie (do I detect a theme here?)
WHERE HAVE ALL THE FLOWERS GONE

Where have all the flowers gone, long time passing?
Where have all the flowers gone, long time ago?
Where have all the flowers gone?
Young girls have picked them everyone.
Oh, when will they ever learn?
Oh, when will they ever learn?

Where have all the young girls gone, long time passing?
Where have all the young girls gone, long time ago?
Where have all the young girls gone?
Gone for husbands everyone.
Oh, when will they ever learn?
Oh, when will they ever learn?

Where have all the husbands gone, long time passing?
Where have all the husbands gone, long time ago?
Where have all the husbands gone?
Gone for soldiers everyone
Oh, when will they ever learn?
Oh, when will they ever learn?

Where have all the soldiers gone, long time passing?
Where have all the soldiers gone, long time ago?
Where have all the soldiers gone?
Gone to graveyards, everyone.
Oh, when will they ever learn?
Oh, when will they ever learn?

Where have all the graveyards gone, long time passing?
Where have all the graveyards gone, long time ago?
Where have all the graveyards gone?
Gone to flowers, everyone.
Oh, when will they ever learn?
Oh, when will they ever learn?

Where have all the flowers gone, long time passing?
Where have all the flowers gone, long time ago?
Where have all the flowers gone?
Young girls have picked them everyone.
Oh, when will they ever learn?
Oh, when will they ever learn?

Words and Music by Pete Seeger (1955)
(c) 1961 (renewed) by Sanga Music Inc.

THIS BITTER EARTH

This bitter Earth
Will rot the fruit it bears
What good is love
That no one shares
And if my life is like the dust
That hides the glow of a rose
What good am I
Heaven only knows
Lord this bitter Earth
Yes can be so cold
Today you're young
Too soon you're old
But while a bitter voice within me cries
I am sure someone may answer my call
And this bitter Earth
May not - oh - be so bitter after all

Desolation Row is one of my favs, so is Visions of Johanna, and thanks for reminding me about Salt of the Earth edgar.

The Clash from the album Combat Rock

This is a public service announcement
With guitar
Know your rights all three of them

Number 1
You have the right not to be killed
Murder is a CRIME!
Unless it was done by a
Policeman or aristocrat
Know your rights

And Number 2
You have the right to food money
Providing of course you
Don't mind a little
Investigation, humiliation
And if you cross your fingers
Rehabilitation

Know your rights
These are your rights
Wang

Know these rights

Number 3
You have the right to free
Speech as long as you're not
Dumb enough to actually try it.

Know your rights
These are your rights
All three of 'em
It has been suggested
In some quarters that this is not enough!
Well..............................

Get off the streets
Get off the streets
Run
You don't have a home to go to
Smush

Finally then I will read you your rights

You have the right to remain silent
You are warned that anything you say
Can and will be taken down
And used as evidence against you

Listen to this
Run

HOMAGE TO MARAT - a song from a play: The persecution and Assassination of Jean-Paul Marat as Performed by the Inmates of the Asylum at Charendon Under the Direction of the Marquis de Sade

Four years after the revolution and the old king's execution
Four years after remember how those courtiers took their final vow
String up every aristocrat
Out with the priests Let them live on their fat
Four years after we started fighting Marat keeps on with his writing Four years after the Bastille fell
He still recalls the old battle yell
Down with all of the ruling class
Throw all the generals out on their arse
Good old Marat by your side we'll stand or fall
You're the only one that we can trust at all
Four years he fought and he fought unafraid
Sniffing down traitors by traitors betrayed
Marat in the courtroom Marat underground
Sometimes the otter and sometimes the hound
Fight ing all the gentry and fighting every priest
Businessman the bourgeois the military beast
Marat always ready to stifle every scheme of the sons of the arse licking dying regime
We've got new generals our leaders are new
They sit and they argue and all that they do
Is sell their own colleagues and ride upon their backs
And jail them and break them and give them all the axe
Screaming in language that no one understands
Of the rights that we grabbed with our own bleeding hands
When we wiped out the bosses and stormed through the wall
Of the prison they told us would outlast us all
Marat we're poor
And the poor stay poor
Marat don't make
Us wait anymore
We want our rights and we don't care how
We want our revolution now
Why do they have the gold
Why do they have the power
Why why why
Do they have the friends at the top
Why do they have the jobs at the top
We've got nothing
Always had nothing
Nothing but holes and millions of them
Living in holes dying in holes
Holes in our bellies and holes in our clothes
Marat we're poor
And the poor stay poor
Marat don't make us wait anymore
Poor old Marat they hunt you down
The bloodhounds are sniffing all over the town
Poor old Marat you work til your eyes turn as red as rust
poor old Marat
We trust in you ....

john steward:

Willard, he's a loner
Living by the railway
Living by the tracks beside his home
Willard, he's a loner
If you're going his way
Say hello, he ain't got no one to call his own

Soldiers of glass
Standing by the trash
Willard's coloured bottles in a line
Soldiers of glass
It's funny you should ask
But they're the only friends he has to pass the time
But they're the only friends he has to pass the time

And his Mamma knows that he was once a child
Mamma, she was the first one to hear his cry
And my Mamma knows that I was once a child
Could it be we're all just Willard in disguise?
Could it be we're all just Willard in disguise?

I hear they're tearing down
All the buildings in his town
The house where Willard Jefferson has stayed
But they can't tear him down
No he will always be around
'Cause he's as hard as all that old black, river clay

Yet his Mamma knows that he was once a child
Mamma, she was the first one to hear his cry
And my Mamma knows that I was once a child
Could it be we're all just Willard in disguise?
Could it be we're all just Willard in disguise?

Willard, he's a loner
Living by the railway
Living by the tracks beside his home
Willard, he's a loner
If you're going his way
Say hello, he ain't got no one to call his own

SOME OF THEM ARE OLD
Brian Eno



People come and go
And forget to close the door,
And leave their stains and cigarette butts trampled on the floor,
And when they do, remember me, remember me.

Some of them are old,
Some of them are new,
Some of them will turn up when you least expect them to,
And when they do, remember me, remember me.

Lucy you're my girl,
Lucy you're a star,
Lucy please be still and hide your madness in a jar,
But do beware: it will follow you, it will follow you.

Some of them are old
But it would help if you could smile,
To earn a crooked sixpence you'll walk many a crooked mile,
And when you do, remember me, remember me.

WHEN THE MODE OF THE MUSIC CHANGES
by Tuli Kupferberg

When the mode of the music changes
When the mode of the music is changed
When the mode of the music changes
The walls of the city shake

He who does not dance neither shall he eat
He who does not prance neither shall he drink
He who won't romance neither can he think
He who does not dance neither shall he eat

You can have the men who make the laws
You can have the men who make the laws
You can have the men who make the laws
Give me the music makers

When beauty barks I heel
When beauty barks I heel
When beauty barks I heel
When beauty barks I heel

Beware a man who is not moved by sound
Beware a man who is not moved by sound
Beware a man who is not moved by sound
He'll drag you to the ground
Drag you to the ground

Come dance with me
Come dance with me in Johnson's land
Come dance with me
Come dance with me we'll beat that hoary band

Music has alarums to wild the civil breast
Music has alarums to wild the civil breast
Music hath alarums to wild the civil breast
It does not bring me rest
It does not bring me rest

But in the bitter end
This wildness brings me rest
I sleep in the eye of the storm
And in the startling end
Bluewhiteness makes me calm
I dream in the eye of the wind

OH SISTER

Oh sister when I come to lie in yoiur arms
You should not treat me like a stranger
Our Father would not like the way you act
And you must realize the danger

Oh sister am I not a brother to you
And one deserving of affection
And is our purpose not the same on this Earth
To love and follow His direction

We grew up together
From the cradle to the grave
We died and were reborn
And then mysteriously saved

Oh sister when I come to knock on your door
Don't turn away you'll create sorrow
Time is an ocean but it ends at the shore
You may not see me tomorrow

by Bob Dylan and Jacques Levy

NOW THAT THE BUFFALO'S GONE

Can you remember the times
That you have held your head high
And told all your friends of your Indian claim
Proud good lady and proud good man
Your great great grandfather
From Indian blood came
And you feel in your heart for these ones

Oh it's written in books and in song
That we've been mistreated and wronged
Well over and over I hear those same words
From you good lady and you good man
Well listen to me if you care where we stand
And you feel you're a part of these ones

When a war between nations is lost
The loser we know pays the cost
But even when Germany fell to your hands
Consider dear lady consider dear man
You left them their pride and you left them their land
And what have you done to these ones

Oh it's all in the past you can say
But it's still going on here today
The governments now want the Navaho land
That of the Inuit and the Cheyenne
It's here and it's now you must help us dear man
Now that the buffalo's gone

by Buffy Sainte-Marie