Arms Like Boulders

I love the imagery in these impertinent observations by The War Against Drugs, getting at things a little sideways.

Let me tell you, your arms are like boulders,
And your shoulders are cliffs.
But your head keeps rolling off,
And your spine, it is weak
From the weight on your shoulders
And from difference of opinion.

Corporate Cannibal

A forbidding video presentation by Grace Jones amplifies the musical treatment of corporate greed.

i deal in the market, every man, woman and child is a target
a closet full of faceless nameless pay more for less empitness

Couldn’t resist a little rhyming

Tossing rhyme

My neighbor shines like a light.
Gardening is a delight, and a landscape invites.
Snow flies white when flashing shovel bites
into drifts from a snowfall overnight.
My walk appears and my neighbor grins with delight
beaming as other tasks invite…

My neighbor tells me that all can be quite
that sight. The coal inside
yearns to be consumed brightly
without wasting heft, its might.

We can be knights, my neighbor tells me,
but might, fright and spite can
blight delight
and plunge into night
despite the call of that carbon mite
to set it alight.

Some, says my neighbor,
fear the soul’s hope in flame,
and toil to control, to dole out
here a bowl, there a poll
fearing the whole when we lose control

Of the soul, that yearns to burn,
learn and turn to
incandescence.

Together

Recently on late-night TV a dynamite ensemble put together a bravura performance of this piece by Peter ConttonTale.

Put your hand in my hand and let’s walk
We could go a million miles together, yeah
‘Cus no one is an island but
Open up your shores like your heart, heart

Demolition Man

A friend suggested this Police oldie as the Trump farewell song. Nailed it!… especially given the Capitol debacle. Apologies for yanking the tune out of its context. It’s based on British politics, but it’s apropos, regardless.

I’m a walking nightmare, an arsenal of doom.
I kill conversation as I walk into a room.
I’m a three-line whip.
I’m the sort of thing they ban.
I’m a walking disaster.
I’m a demolition man.

Hanging Tree

Here’s a cross between folk and punk, thanks to Laura Jane Grace. It’s rough but appropriate.

Christ liked the American way
A burning crucifix and a hanging tree!
Automatic weapons and white supremacy!
Protected privilege without apology!
A nazi fucking president from reality TV.

This Is Not America

Thank you National Public Radio for a collection of fine music that combines unrest with a view toward the better. The collection is titled Music That Moves Fro Despair to Hope. Here, David Bowie lends a melancholy that is entirely appropriate.

There was a time…
A wind that blew so young…
For this could be the biggest sky…
And I could have the faintest idea…

When You Gonna Learn

This 1992 single by Jamiroquai, is a fitting intro to the album Emergency on Planet Earth. This band was an early leader in environmental awareness. Jay Kay says the video was intended to shock. I wonder if we can be shocked any more.

The crack band Backstage Collective recently covered the tune as well.

Yeah, yeah
Have you heard the news today?
Money’s on the menu in my favourite restaurant
Now don’t talk about quantity
There’s no fish left in the sea.
Greedy men been killing all the life there ever was
And you’d better play it nature’s way
Or she will take it all away
Don’t try and tell me you know more than her about right from wrong
Now you’ve upset the balance, man
Done the only thing you can
Now my life is in your hands

Auld Lang Syne

If a New Year’s rendition of Auld Lang Syne can be contemplative, Yam Hau does so with the retooling of this favorite. A friend who lives in Minneapolis twigged me to this video, created in that hard-hit city.

I’m clinging to the light my dear.
I’m clinging to the light.
Pass me a cup of kindness, yeah.
I’ll drink it down tonight.

Musical resolutions!

The Foo Fighters, bidding adieu to 2020, ushered in 2021 with a ferocious New Year’s resolution, “Woah!”

No son of mine will ever do
The work of villains, the will of fools.
If you believe it, it must be true.
No son of mine, no son of mine.

Harry Styles, in fine poppish style, also has a 2021 wish.

Maybe we can
Find a place to feel good,
And we can treat people with kindness.