Inspired by the this thread and my own posting of Bob Dylan examples, I’m now listening to “The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan” and noticed once more what a great song “Masters of War” is. You can’t attack the “military-industrial complex” more powerful than this way, and it still rings so true today after 60 years. And the most damning lines are the last stanza, which is hard to swallow but which I absolutely subscribe to:
And I hope that you die And your death will come soon I’ll follow your casket By the pale afternoon And I’ll watch while you’re lowered Down to your deathbed And I’ll stand over your grave 'Til I’m sure that you’re dead
Well, if they freed me from this prison If that railroad train was mine, You bet I’d move it on a little farther down the line Far from Folsom Prison, that’s where I want to stay, And I’d let that lonesome whistle Blow my blues away.
—Folsom Prison Blues, Johnny Cash
And though they talked for just a little time Before she said she had to go He saw the meeting as a tiny sign That told him all he had to know
And so Louise Waved from the bus And as she left She gave that smile As if they were still lovers
Looking up from eyes of Amaranthine They can see the sky Is blue Knowing that their love Is true Dreams they never knew And the sky above is blue
—Flora’s Secret, Enya
I’ll be seeing you In every lovely summer’s day In everything that’s light and gay I’ll always think of you that way
I’ll find you in the morning sun And when the night is new I’ll be looking at the moon But I’ll be seeing you
—I’ll Be Seeing You, The Poni Tails (my favorite rendition)
It doesn’t matter whether skies are grey or blue It’s raining in my heart 'cause I can’t be with you I’m only living for the day you’re home to stay So it might as well rain until September September, September, Oh, it might as well rain until September
—It Might as Well Rain until September, Carole King
Hah! When in 2009 the Beatles remasters were released, my Beatles collection was very lacking, and I made it a point to get me the mono box because I wanted to hear them as initially intended (haven’t experienced them originally, was late to the party being born in 1968). But the mono version of “Helter Skelter” fades out before the “blisters” remark, which always bugged me.
Time for some country music! Let’s start with the most perfect country song ever written. (for those who don’t listen much to country music, to even qualify as a country song it has to be about mama, or trains, or trucks, or prison, or getting’ drunk). The last stanza nails it.
Well, I was drunk the day my mom got out of prison And I went to pick her up in the rain But before I could get to the station in my pickup truck She got run over by a damned old train
But let them all call me crazy gringo.
I laugh as I pay all my bills.
'Cause what they don’t know down in Sonora
Is this gringo is paying all his bills
With the gold he discovered in their hills.