Song for Day 81 - "Keep on Rockin' in the Free World" by Neil Young

Songwriter Neil Young.

Day 81 - "Rockin' in the Free World" by Neil Young

     Whether you listen to the solo accoustic  or group electric version, this song defined the difference between the right and left in the 2016 election.  When he used it to announce his candidacy, Trump used it without permission and much to the displeasure of the author.  With Neil Young's explicit and enthusiastic support, Bernie Sanders used it throughout his campaign.

     Enough said.

Lyrics for "Rockin' in the Free World" (1989):

There's colors on the street
Red, white and blue
People shufflin' their feet
People sleepin' in their shoes
But there's a warnin' sign
on the road ahead
There's a lot of people sayin'
we'd be better off dead
Don't feel like Satan,
but I am to them
So I try to forget it,
any way I can.

Keep on rockin' in the free world,
Keep on rockin' in the free world
Keep on rockin' in the free world,
Keep on rockin' in the free world.

I see a woman in the night
With a baby in her hand
Under an old street light
Near a garbage can
Now she puts the kid away,
and she's gone to get a hit
She hates her life,
and what she's done to it
There's one more kid
that will never go to school
Never get to fall in love,
never get to be cool.

Keep on rockin' in the free world,
Keep on rockin' in the free world
Keep on rockin' in the free world,
Keep on rockin' in the free world.

We got a thousand points of light
For the homeless man
We got a kinder, gentler,
Machine gun hand
We got department stores
and toilet paper
Got styrofoam boxes
for the ozone layer
Got a man of the people,
says keep hope alive
Got fuel to burn,
got roads to drive.

Keep on rockin' in the free world,
Keep on rockin' in the free world
Keep on rockin' in the free world,
Keep on rockin' in the free world.

Song for Day 59 - "After the Gold Rush" by Neil Young

Songwriter Neil Young.

Day 59 - "After the Gold Rush" by Neil Young

"No one understands infinity."

      Imagine if humankind were idiots.  I know that is a stretch, given our technology, but we did just elect Hair Backpfeifengesicht as Planet President so humor me.  Now imagine the species has a challenge--a destiny--to master science, becoming immortal and all-powerful.  As gods, our role becomes that of lifeguards, letting humans determine their own fate until they've destroyed Earth, at which point we find ourselves "flying mother nature's silver seed to a new home in the sun."

"Only ignorance is fatal."

      Now let's insert a complication.  Imagine some dissident gods rejecting isolationism.  These interventionalists, individually and collectively, abandon immortality and knowledge in order to join the cretins, hoping to subtly accelerate their evolution.  This completes a grand circle, from weak morons to omnipotent, omniscient gods and back to feeble imbeciles. Around and around we go, without beginning or end.

      Let's connect the last dot in this analogy.  The remote, self-absorbed, heartless Prime Directive isolationists?  Those are Republicans.  The self-destructive, disorganized meddlers who can't leave well enough alone?  Those are Democrats.

Lyrics to "After the Gold Rush" (1970):

Well, I dreamed I saw the knights
In armor coming,
Saying something about a queen.
There were peasants singing and
Drummers drumming
And the archer split the tree.
There was a fanfare blowing
To the sun
That was floating on the breeze.
Look at Mother Nature on the run
In the nineteen seventies.
Look at Mother Nature on the run
In the nineteen seventies.

I was lying in a burned out basement
With the full moon in my eyes.
I was hoping for replacement
When the sun burst thru the sky.
There was a band playing in my head
And I felt like getting high.
I was thinking about what a
Friend had said
I was hoping it was a lie.
Thinking about what a
Friend had said
I was hoping it was a lie.

Well, I dreamed I saw the silver
Space ships flying
In the yellow haze of the sun,
There were children crying
And colors flying
All around the chosen ones.
All in a dream, all in a dream
The loading had begun.
They were flying Mother Nature's
Silver seed to a new home in the sun.
Flying Mother Nature's
Silver seed to a new home.