Music and politics
For some reason I find myself almost obsessively interested in the outcome of today’s US Congressional elections. I’m not sure why, but it just seems that today will be the barometer of what America is really thinking as regards Bush. He's not part of the election, but sure as eggs it's all about him. I can kind of understand his re-election - perhaps a case of better the devil you know - but it seems that Americans have got to know the devil a whole lot better over the last two years.
I’ve been watching the political bumblings with fascination over the last couple of months - the standouts being the Mark Foley scandal and Democrats calling for Dennis Hastert’s (the Republican Speaker of the House) resignation over the possibility that he knew about Foley and did nothing. Along with that we have Kerry’s “botched joke” about ending up in Iraq if you don’t work hard at school - oh the drama. And the election intimidation I’ve been hearing about - phone calls warning people that they’re not enrolled to vote and if they turn up they’ll be federally prosecuted, or people being told that only Republican votes can be cast today, and Democrat votes tomorrow! (If you fall for that one you deserve to see the opposition win.)
It would just be so fascinating to see Bush trying to lead - and to impose his will on what happens in Iraq - without a Republican majority in either the House or the Senate! And I’m intrigued by the possibility, voiced by a Democrat campaign consultant, Howard Wolfson, that “if [we] take back the House, the world changes”. Hanging out for tonight.
...
I’m reading lots of things at the moment, but have been thinking for a while that I should read more poetry. I have a volume of Yeats in the car that I read at traffic lights, but that’s about the extent of it. Then I realised that I’m always absorbing poetry through the music I listen to. So I’m going to start posting the lyrics of songs I think can stand on their own as poetry. Here’s the first, probably my favourite.
Here Comes the Flood
When the night shows
The signals grow on radios
All the strange things
They come and go, as early warnings
Stranded starfish have no place to hide
Still waiting for the swollen Easter tide
There’s no point in direction
We cannot even choose a side.
I took the old track
The hollow shoulder, across the waters
On the tall cliffs
They were getting older, sons and daughters
The jaded underworld was riding high
Waves of steel hurled metal at the sky
And as the nails sunk in the cloud
The rain was warm and soaked the crowd.
Lord, here comes the flood
We’ll say goodbye to flesh and blood
If again the seas are silent
In any still alive
It’ll be those who gave their island to survive
Drink up, dreamers, you’re running dry.
When the flood calls,
You have no home, you have no walls
In the thunder crash
You’re a thousand minds, within a flash
Don’t be afraid to cry at what you see
The actor’s gone, there’s only you and me
And if we break before the dawn,
They’ll use up what we used to be.
Lord, here comes the flood
Well say goodbye to flesh and blood
If again, the seas are silent
In any still alive
It’ll be those who gave their island to survive
Drink up, dreamers, you’re running dry.
I’ve been watching the political bumblings with fascination over the last couple of months - the standouts being the Mark Foley scandal and Democrats calling for Dennis Hastert’s (the Republican Speaker of the House) resignation over the possibility that he knew about Foley and did nothing. Along with that we have Kerry’s “botched joke” about ending up in Iraq if you don’t work hard at school - oh the drama. And the election intimidation I’ve been hearing about - phone calls warning people that they’re not enrolled to vote and if they turn up they’ll be federally prosecuted, or people being told that only Republican votes can be cast today, and Democrat votes tomorrow! (If you fall for that one you deserve to see the opposition win.)
It would just be so fascinating to see Bush trying to lead - and to impose his will on what happens in Iraq - without a Republican majority in either the House or the Senate! And I’m intrigued by the possibility, voiced by a Democrat campaign consultant, Howard Wolfson, that “if [we] take back the House, the world changes”. Hanging out for tonight.
...
I’m reading lots of things at the moment, but have been thinking for a while that I should read more poetry. I have a volume of Yeats in the car that I read at traffic lights, but that’s about the extent of it. Then I realised that I’m always absorbing poetry through the music I listen to. So I’m going to start posting the lyrics of songs I think can stand on their own as poetry. Here’s the first, probably my favourite.
Here Comes the Flood
When the night shows
The signals grow on radios
All the strange things
They come and go, as early warnings
Stranded starfish have no place to hide
Still waiting for the swollen Easter tide
There’s no point in direction
We cannot even choose a side.
I took the old track
The hollow shoulder, across the waters
On the tall cliffs
They were getting older, sons and daughters
The jaded underworld was riding high
Waves of steel hurled metal at the sky
And as the nails sunk in the cloud
The rain was warm and soaked the crowd.
Lord, here comes the flood
We’ll say goodbye to flesh and blood
If again the seas are silent
In any still alive
It’ll be those who gave their island to survive
Drink up, dreamers, you’re running dry.
When the flood calls,
You have no home, you have no walls
In the thunder crash
You’re a thousand minds, within a flash
Don’t be afraid to cry at what you see
The actor’s gone, there’s only you and me
And if we break before the dawn,
They’ll use up what we used to be.
Lord, here comes the flood
Well say goodbye to flesh and blood
If again, the seas are silent
In any still alive
It’ll be those who gave their island to survive
Drink up, dreamers, you’re running dry.