(Apologies in advance if this has been discussed here. I couldn’t find it in my search.)
I was up last night with my CD player on random. I was just falling asleep when ‘This Mess We’re In’ came on. I’ve always loved this PJ Harvey/Thom Yorke duet - but last night I found myself close to tears. If you’re familiar with the song you’ll know that it’s about two lovers in New York, talking about the end of their relationship, but somehow, I kept thinking about the friends I had lost on Sept 11.
Shortly after that, my player shuffled on to ‘One’ by U2. You can imagine how I felt. It’s another song I love, and in the wake of what’s happened, the lyrics seem a lot more poignant than ever.
I don’t think I can ever listen to these two songs the same way again.
(Apologies again. I feel like I’m rambling. Somehow I’ve avoided talking about Sept 11 until now. And it’s really hitting me hard. Must…stay…away from CD player!)
Wow, after last night’s telethon, I suppose quite a few. Perhaps hearing “I Won’t Back Down” by Tom Petty will bring me back with positive thoughts of courage as we realize that there ain’t no easy way out.
You lost friends? Damn I’m sorry. I live in NYC and while my friends and family are OK, it seems like everyone knows someone who either perished, narrowly escaped, or was a first-hand witness. When Mayor Giuliani was asked, on Sept. 11, how many people were killed, he replied “more than we can bear.”
That They Might Be Giants song that goes, “Everyone’s your friend, in New York City! Everything seems beautiful, when you’re young and pretty. The streets are paved with diamonds, and there’s oh so much to see – but the best thing about New York City… is you and me.”
For some reason, those lyrics strike me as incredibly poignant right now.
I’m thinking it was a day or so after the attack/tragedy/event I was driving home after working 16 hours (FT & PT) and the radio station played “Thunderstruck” by AC/DC. All I could think of was "That song needs some new lyrics…they (that mythical ‘they’ being those whom were the perpetrators) will be feeling THUNDERSTRUCK after we get done with them.
I also think i’m sort of tired of hearing Lee Greenwood’s God Bless the USA. It is a GREAT song, don’t get me wrong…I’m about as patriotic as the next gal…I’m just saturated with it. Can we find a different song? What about the Star Spangled Banner? there’s more, but I’m having a song block right now.
(OMG! Tanya Tucker is singing God Bless America at the NASCAR Race @ Dover… :: faint ::…)
A couple of days before the incident, the wife and I were listening to a version When the Lights go on Again that was recorded in the fifties. I commented that it couldn’t mean as much then, or even now, as it had in the fourties. I remembered this on Tuesday, thinking that the song was very likely to be relevant again soon.
I had heard the song quite some time ago, and promptly dismissed it, not being a Don Henley fan. But “New York Minute” will forever bring back 9/11/01 for me. I get goose bumps just thinking of it.
I know everyone seems to be really tired of the montage songs they’re beating to death on the radio these days, but that particular one just gripped me. I heard it (as a montage song) the Friday after WTC and just sat in my parking lot at work, crying like a baby.
It was really, really touching and apt. If anybody wants to hear it, here’s the link:
I heard this song the day after the tragedy on my local rock station. It was a live version, maybe taken at some type of Woodstock festival? I’m not sure. If you haven’t heard of the song (somewhat unlikely I guess but hey), I gather it was written (to some degree at least) about a different tragedy - the death of Martin Luther King Jr. A person of peace died when he was killed - just like peace (in my personal world view, at least) died on September 11. When it got to the part that goes “they took your life but they could not take your pride,” I started bawling in the car.
(coming out of lurkdom hoping she didn’t do anything wrong!)
It won’t be easy, but see if you can find a copy of the original by a group called Cub. Their version (somewhere between TMBG and Sleater-Kinney, if that’s any help) was a lot more visceral.
Not surprisingly, I’m going to nomininate another U2 song. I heard "New Year’s Day this morning, and It stopped me dead in my tracks. The line that really got to me was “All is quiet on New Year’s Day.” The original premise was a description of Dublin in ruins after the killing was over. This song seems even more haunting when you think about the fact that New York is known for their New Years celebrations. It probably won’t be quite the same anymore.
Well I probably won’t be able to hear Steve Miller’s “Jet Airliner” in the same way for awhile…
But the most affective song that will probably always remind me of 9/11/01 is “Miami 2017” by Billy Joel:
“Seen the lights go out on Broadway,
I saw the Empire State laid low…
They said that Queens could stay
And blew the Bronx away
And sank Manhattan out at sea.”
I really don’t like Billy Joel but I read those lyrics today and have to say it was really sad for me having lived in New York for five years and moving back next month.
I’d have to say Ministry New World Order with all the samples of Papa Bush talking about the “New World Order” and pretty much every other Ministry song.
Also there is a band Muslimgauze which is kind of a noisy band that has many of the current themes running through their music.
Covenant Theremin “We dance to the sound of sirens, and we watch Genocide to Relax, we dance to the sound of sirens, we are the heroes of self deception.”
Oh yeah, Skinny Puppy Tin Omen, a song about Kent State seems pretty applicable in the current state where there has been a lot of ommissions in the mainstream press.
Not to mention the somewhat violent protests on college campuses where “peace” protestors bring pepper spray and mix it up with the cops as happened here the other day.
“flower power within kill me kill this way of life and be known one by one they’ll be coming down altogether sister machine gun automatic high what a ride what a trip tripped over the candlestick tanks arrive fire wall got to keep the camera alive tell the world whats going on here warning shots are fired at the stomach chest wound coed falls”
I’m sorry I don’t have a sentimental song that makes me think of all this, but these songs are the soundtrack I’ve got to choose from.
Windows of the World
Dionne Warwick
Words by Hal David; music by Burt Bacharach.
The windows of the world are covered with rain,
Where is the sunshine we once knew?
Ev’rybody knows when little children play
They need a sunny day to grow straight and tall.
Let the sun shine through.
The windows of the world are covered with rain,
When will those black skies turn to blue?
Ev’rybody knows when boys grow into men
They start to wonder when their country will call.
Let the sun shine through.
The windows of the world are covered with rain,
What is the whole world coming to?
Ev’rybody knows when men can not be friends
Their quarrel often ends where some have to die.
Let the sun shine through.
The windows of the world are covered with rain,
There must be something we can do.
Ev’rybody knows whenever rain appears
It’s really angel tears.
How long must they cry?
Let the sun shine through.
It’s interesting because it seems that almost every song has at least a verse that seems to remind me of that tragic day, but one that especially got to me was Don’t Give Up by Peter Gabriel and Kate Bush. I realize it is about someone contemplating suicide, but some of it just seemed so appropriate.
In this proud land we grew up strong
We were wanted all along
I was taught to fight, taught to win
I never thought I could fail
No fight left, or so it seems
I am a man whose dreams have all deserted
Changed my face, Changed my name
But no one wants you when you lose.
Another song would be Everything’s Coolby Pop Will Eat Itself…
