The Walls Came Down

A friend posted a link to this tune by The Cure, very recently inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

I don’t think there are any Russians

And there ain’t no Yanks

Just corporate criminals

Playin’ with tanks

Palestine Texas

A guitar wails. The track shuffles. And T-Bone Burnett emotes. Shoot, it’s good stuff.

Presidents come and presidents go
They rise like smoke they fall like snow
Do you believe the things you say
Your lofty thoughts are filled with hay.

Born in the U.S.A.

This searing song helped make Bruce Springsteen’s reputation. It’s easy to forget it’s about returning from service in Viet Nam and the disillusions in and after that conflict.

Down in the shadow of the penitentiary
Out by the gas fires of the refinery
I’m ten years burning down the road
Nowhere to run ain’t got nowhere to go.

My Way or the Highway

A Canadian writes a song directed at American voters. Thanks, Relient K.

I Can Do Hard Things

Here is, thanks to Jennifer Nettles, a new feminist anthem.

I know it’s a lot to look at all that I got
It’s a lot to see who I am and am not
But I can laugh and I can love and I can dream
And I can do hard things.

Elijah Ramsey

Quaker City Night Hawks perform a song with a little softer twang than most of their stuff, this from their album QCNH.

This lyric jumped out at me:

Too young to know the cost of war but with the warriors’ holy vengeance, I left home from [naves of stone] to hell smoke rising in the distance.

Wasn’t able to make out the words in the brackets…

Do Re Me

“If you ain’t got the do re mi.” So begins the chorus of this classic song by Woody Guthrie.

You Got To Run (Spirit of the Wind)

She’s in her 70s and she still rocks. Buffy St. Marie with Tanya Tagaq deliver a stirring word: “Sometimes you got to take a stand.”

Let It Be Me

“This is not a fighting song.”

Well, okay, but this Indigo Girls song certainly lays down a challenge.

Burn Down the Mission

You could have knocked me over with a feather. Elton John is including this tune in his farewell tour, according to Esquire. A very rich dude kicking against the pricks. Oh, well. It’s rock and roll.