New Music that Matters.

Two new albums recently that ROCK and are politically relevant...some excerpts...

1. Magic by Bruce Springsteen. This one again is with the E-Street band, as Bruce has ended (for now) his foray into folk music. Noteworthy is "Last to Die";

"We don't measure the blood we've drawn anymore
We just stack the bodies outside the door
Who'll be the last to die for a mistake
The last to die for a mistake
Whose blood will spill, whose heart will break
Who'll be the last to die for a mistake
The wise men were all fools
What to do...."

2. Revival by John Fogerty. John rocks out in the old Creedence style. Politically noteworthy is 'I Can't Take it no More';

"I Can't Take It No More
I Can't Take It No More
I'm sick and tired of your dirty little war
I Can't Take It No More
You know you lied about the casualties
You know you lied about the WMD's
You know you lied about the detainees
All over this world

Stop talking about staying the course
You keep a-beating that old dead horse
You know you lied about how we went to war
I Can't Take It No More
I bet you never saw the old school yard
I bet you never saw the national guard
Your daddy wrote a check and there you are
Another fortunate son ..."

Then there is "Gunslinger"
"Lookin' out across this town
Kinda makes me wonder how
All the things that make us greatgot left so hard behind
This used to be a peaceful place
decent folks hard workin' ways
Now they hide behind locked doors
afraid to speak their minds

I think we need a gunslinger
Somebody tough to tame this town
I think we need a gunslinger
There'll be justice all around..."

3. Finally there is the new Joni Mitchell album "Shine", her first in years....Politically of note is 'Strong and Wrong'

"Strong and wrong ...you win--
Only because That's the way its always been.
Men love war!
That's what history' s for.
History...A mass--murder mystery...
His story

Strong and wrong
You lose everything
Without the heart
You need
To hear a robin sing
Where have all the songbirds gone?
Gone!
All I hear are crows in flight
Singing 'might is right'
'Might is right!'..."

And finally, one that I can't resist posting in it's entirety...
Bad Dreams Are Good
by Joni Mitchell

The cats are in the flower beds
A red hawk rides the sky
I guess I should be happy
Just to be alive
But
We have poisoned everything
And oblivious to it all
The cell-phone zombies babble
Through the shopping malls
While condors fall from Indian skies
Whales beach and die in sand
Bad Dreams are good
In the Great Plan

And you cannot be trusted
Do you even know you are lying?
It’s dangerous to kid yourself
You go deaf, dumb, and blind
You take with such entitlement
You give bad attitude
You have No grace
No empathy
No gratitude
You have no sense of consequence
Oh, my head is in my hands
Bad Dreams are good
In the Great Plan

Before that altering apple
We were one with everything
No sense of self and other
No self-consciousness
But now we have to grapple
With this man-made world backfiring
Keeping one eye on our brother’s deadly selfishness

Everyone’s a victim here
Nobody’s hands are clean
There’s so very little left of wild Eden Earth
So near the jaws of our machines
We live in these electric scabs
These lesions once were lakes
We don’t know how to shoulder blame
Or learn from past mistakes
So who will come to save the day?
Mighty Mouse. . . ? Superman. . . ?
Bad Dreams are good
In the Great Plan

In the dark
A shining ray
I heard a three-year-old boy say
Bad Dreams are good
In the Great Plan