I must confess that emo is not where I’m at right now. But Bright Eyes, aka Conor Oberst, who was introduced to me via dKos and last night’s Leno, is a fine representative of the genre. Bright Eyes sang When the President Talks to God. I know many of us here peruse dKos and a diary about this performance is currently on the rec list over there. I just wanted to point this out to you if you haven’t seen it yet. It’s a powerful song. A safe link to a .wmv file of the performance on Leno’s show is below, as well as the song’s lyrics.
When the president talks to God
Are the conversations brief or long?
Does he ask to rape our women’s’ rights
And send poor farm kids off to die?
Does God suggest an oil hike
When the president talks to God?
When the president talks to God
Are the consonants all hard or soft?
Is he resolute all down the line?
Is every issue black or white?
Does what God say ever change his mind
When the president talks to God?
When the president talks to God
Does he fake that drawl or merely nod?
Agree which convicts should be killed?
Where prisons should be built and filled?
Which voter fraud must be concealed
When the president talks to God?
When the president talks to God
I wonder which one plays the better cop
We should find some jobs. the ghetto’s broke
No, they’re lazy, George, I say we don’t
Just give ’em more liquor stores and dirty coke
That’s what God recommends
When the president talks to God
Do they drink near beer and go play golf
While they pick which countries to invade
Which Muslim souls still can be saved?
I guess god just calls a spade a spade
When the president talks to God
When the president talks to God
Does he ever think that maybe he’s not?
That that voice is just inside his head
When he kneels next to the presidential bed
Does he ever smell his own bullshit
When the president talks to God?
I doubt it
I doubt it
It’s certainly encouraging to see pop culture turn and fire on Bush (in the literary sense, of course). Have we finally reached the tipping point, the place where more people than not can see the horrifying path that Bush and his evil minions have led us down?
I must admit, that lately I’m feeling more hopeful about the world. Knowing that we are not alone in our visceral distaste for all things Bush/GOP/Talibaptist is helping me feel that way. Communities like this do as well. Take the time and download the video. It’s worth it.
Bright Eyes
Heh, I caught the Leno performance. I wonder if he is going to catch any flack from the Kool-Aid drinkers. Kudos to Conor Oberst for having the balls to sing that song for the world. The Bush Bubble is bursting! Thanks for the link.
I can’t remember the last time I saw something as powerful on television.
It’s not fair to offer me a sandwich before I decide in the poll.
I like the lyrics.
On another hopeful note, it appears the LibDem’s poll numbers are spiking just in time for the British elections.
trumping up the pretense for the Iraq invasion couldn’t have helped things much. ABB!
is a beautiful thing.
How come I’ve never heard of this guy?
Oh yeah, that’s right, because I’m 50 and not tuned in to stuff like this and I don’t watch much TV.
Here’s another guy you might want to listen to. I plug him every chance I get. His name is Roy Zimmerman and he has a wicked funny sense of humor. Take a listen:
http://www.royzimmerman.com/mp3/chickenhawk.mp3
Being a story teller and all.
Dick Cheney
Let’s Pretend
Both by by John McCutcheon
As his songs get put on CD’s they are no longer available to download. They are worth checking out.
This song is great as well.
Uncivil Rights by Adam Brodsky. Again mentions Ashcroft, but still pertinent.
Free mp3s of protest songs from all sorts of musicians and genres, from folk to electropunk. Set up by Sonic Youth’s Thuston Moore:
http://www.protest-records.com/
I’m always on the lookout for stuff like this.
was on Leno??? Jay Leno?
I do have more hope.
Wow . . . Leno . . . on a popular show. I wonder how many letters they are going to be receiving.
Thanks for this.
with a hearty handshake.
Listening to that song gave me the shivers.
I even think it may be the beginning of the
a new trend: courage to speak out on MSM.
Here’s hoping, hoping…
YES !!!!!!! The kids are coming alive, the campuses are coming alive, even the high schools are coming alive.
YES, even the old farts(me, being one) are shouting at the top of their lungs. Case in point some of the union protests of the SS issue. Let’s not forget MOSH by Eminem
“They ain’t gonna stop us they can’t, we stronger now more than ever
They tell us no we say yea, they tell us stop we say go
Rebel with a rebel yell, raise hell we gonna let em know
Stomp, push, shove, mush, Fuck Bush, until they bring our troops home (c’mon)”
And a touch more: “Let the president answer a higher anarchy
Strap him with an Ak-47, let him go, fight his own war
Let him impress daddy that way
No more blood for oil, we got our own battles to fight on our own soil”
LINK: http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/eminem/mosh.html
There will be more that speak out, buy their music, play it for your friends. Play it again and again. Look at the music of the 60s and the 70s. It helped, but it will take more. YELL at the top of your lungs.
Additional note on the video…. F**K bush was uttered when a soldier returning to his wife and young infant; was handed papers on his return home, to return to Iraq. When seen in the video the statement is underlined, and easily understood.
Track down the video, well worth watching.
Say a prayer for Leno, he will be attacked again and again.
tax bracket just went up, and his ratings with the talibaptist went down, as in to hell…LOL
I will have hope when the tele-vangelist’s mark of the beast, is titled, “Mark of the Bush” .
Then, there will truly be a “light” to walk, or run towards ; )
“When the president talks to God
Does he ever think that maybe he’s not?
That that voice is just inside his head
When he kneels next to the presidential bed
Does he ever smell his own bullshit
When the president talks to God?”
When boy bush speaks of god, insert satan in the place of god, then you can understand what bush is saying.
WHEN is enough, ENOUGH !!!
Easily printable lyrics at: http://www.plyrics.com/lyrics/brighteyes/whenthepresidenttalkstogod.html
:>)