Songs That Tell Stories

check his biography. Pretty sad.

A very new song by New England artist Ellis Paul off his latest CD, The Day After Everything Changed, released this January, tells the story of Hurricane and the economy. It is Hurricane Angel and here are the words:

On the day the levee broke
The water did rise, The flowers did choke
I sat in my living room, Lit one last smoke
Then I watched it all drift away

Now my credit card's ringing up at thirty percent
There's a man in India wondering where the money went
But I can't pay

So I sat on my roof In Lake Pontchartrain
Singing woe to my chimney Singing woe to the rain
A stranger came by I never caught his name
He said he's rowing to the Rio Grande

Air Force One a blue streak in the sky
Mr. President, You can't afford to lie
Cause I can't afford to pay

Hurricane Angel I'm lifting my eyes over Baton Rouge
Lift up your wings let me hear your voice singing
Can you turn these black skies to blue again?

I'm laying on the floor of a trailer at night
with sixteen refugees waiting on daylight
I can't pay

I caught a flatbed ford up to Baton Rouge
with four worn out souls and one corkscrew
You can drown New Orleans but you can't drown the blues
so bartender pour away Exxon's having one hell of a year
three bucks a gallon man they're making it clear that I can't pay.

Lord, Lord, Lord
We haven't spoken in many a day
I got myself in trouble down in the Ninth Ward
thought I'd send a prayer your way

On my windowsill's
A stack of insurance bills
A man in Delaware says I can't have the pills until I can pay

Hurricane Angel I'm lifting my eyes over Baton Rouge
Lift up your wings let me hear your voice singing
Can you turn these black skies to blue again?

I'm laying on the floor of a trailer at night
with sixteen refugees waiting on daylight
I can't pay

On the day the levee broke
The water did rise and the flowers did choke
I sat in my living room lit one last smoke
and I watched it all drift away
----------------------
If you don't want to sit and listen to live streaming on WUMG.org where the song is often played and want immediate gratification (and gratifying it is . . . this from a woman who has not been an Ellis Paul fan), go to his web site:

www.ellispaul.com

to listen to this moving song that tells why we need folk music in general and protest songs in particular.

PS: The piano work is terrific.

A Tale of Arcadie. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

THIS is the forest primeval. The murmuring pines and the hemlocks,
Bearded with moss, and in garments green, indistinct in the twilight,
Stand like Druids of eld, with voices sad and prophetic,
Stand like harpers hoar, with beards that rest on their bosoms.
Loud from its rocky caverns, the deep-voiced neighboring ocean
Speaks, and in accents disconsolate answers the wail of the forest.
This is the forest primeval; but where are the hearts that beneath it
Leaped like the roe, when he hears in the woodland the voice of the huntsman?
Where is the thatch-roofed village, the home of Acadian farmers --
Men whose lives glided on like rivers that water the woodlands,
Darkened by shadows of earth, but reflecting an image of heaven?
Waste are those pleasant farms, and the farmers forever departed!
Scattered like dust and leaves, when the mighty blasts of October
Seize them, and whirl them aloft, and sprinkle them far o'er the ocean.
Naught but tradition remains of the beautiful village of Grand-Pré.
Ye who believe in affection that hopes, and endures, and is patient,
Ye who believe in the beauty and strength of woman's devotion,
List to the mournful tradition still sung by the pines of the forest;
List to a Tale of Love in Acadie, home of the happy.

You can find his poem in English, should you like to read it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ihwnTAFgaOA&feature=related

Wow! I looked today but did not find it on youtube! Thanks!

I took a shot - ya know?

"Guess there are times when we all need to share a little pain
And ironing out the rough spots
Is the hardest part when memories remain
And it's times like these when we all need to hear the radio
`Cause from the lips of some old singer
We can share the troubles we already know

Turn them on, turn them on
Turn on those sad songs
When all hope is gone
Why don't you tune in and turn them on

They reach into your room
Just feel their gentle touch
When all hope is gone
Sad songs say so much

If someone else is suffering enough to write it down
When every single word makes sense
Then it's easier to have those songs around
The kick inside is in the line that finally gets to you
and it feels so good to hurt so bad
And suffer just enough to sing the blues

Turn them on, turn them on
Turn on those sad songs
When all hope is gone
Why don't you tune in and turn them on

They reach into your room
Just feel their gentle touch
When all hope is gone
Sad songs say so much

Sad songs, they say
Sad songs, they say
Sad songs, they say
Sad songs, they say so much
Turn them on, turn them on
Turn on those sad songs
When all hope is gone
Why don't you tune in and turn them on

They reach into your room
Just feel their gentle touch
When all hope is gone
Sad songs say so much

When all hope is gone
Sad songs say so much
When all hope is gone
Sad songs say so much
When all hope is gone
Sad songs say so much
When all hope is gone
Sad songs say so much"

Elton does that so well.

Did you ever see the Woody Guthrie bio-pic, Bound for Glory, starring David Carradine? It was good to have someone who sang and played in the lead so that there were none of those coy cut away shots to another pair of hands.

Ditto Jeff Bridges in Crazy Heart.

Yes. I loved it almost as much as The Grapes of Wrath. I never liked for any film to allow someone else to sing a great artist's songs. Why should they, when we have that artist to draw from.

Have not seen Crazy Heart.

Oh, then rent the dvd. It is a great film. I saw it was some women friends who are both music buffs (one is a professional musician) and film fans prior to the Academy Awards' presentation. We immediately wanted Jeff to win Best Actor but we saw Colin Firth as Jeff's biggest threat. We decided the difference between their two performances is that Jeff's character was more dynamic than Colin's but that both were brilliant in their respective roles.

I will eventually see it.

So? What's the story? Was it Warren?

I don't think it was Warren. It was rumored that it was David (I don't know his last name)

Geffen?