"Once in a lifetime, hope and history rhyme."

This is how the Irish national news broadcast ended on Saturday, November 7th, after Joe Biden was declared the winner of the 2020 Presidential election. It is a must-watch.

The words come from the great Irish poet Seamus Heaney's The Cure at Troy: A Version of Sophocles' Philoctetes, a verse adaptation of Sophocles' play Philoctetes, first published in 1991.

Human being suffer.

They torture one another

They get hurt, and get hard.

No poem, or play, or song

Can fully write the wrong

Inflicted and endured.

History says, don't hope

On this side of the grave.

But then, once in a lifetime

The longed-for tidal wave

Of justice can rise up,

And hope and history rhyme.

So hope for a great sea-change

On the far side of revenge.

Believe that a further shore

Is reachable from here.

Believe in miracle

And cures and healing wells.

Call miracle self-healing:

The utter, self-revealing

Double-take of feeling.

If there's fire on the mountain

Or lightning and storm

And a god speaks from the sky

That means someone is hearing

The outcry and the birth-cry

Of new life at its term.

It means once in a lifetime,

justice can rise up

and hope and history rhyme.

***

I could think of no more appropriate song to accompany this post than "Drowning Man," one of U2's most beautiful songs, from their 1983 album War. The song, whose lyrics were adapted by Bono from the Bible (Isaiah 40 v28-31), was written about bassist Adam Clayton, who was struggling with serious substance abuse problems while the album was being recorded. Its message of brotherhood, perseverance, and hope, however, are timeless, and universal.

Take my hand

You know I'll be there

If you can

I'll cross the sky for your love

For I have promised

Oh, to be with you tonight

And for the time that will come

Take my hand

You know I'll be there

If you can

I'll cross the sky for your love

And I understand

These winds and tides

This change of times

Won't drag you away

Hold on, and hold on tightly

Hold on, and don't let go of my love

The storms will pass (the storm will pass)

It won't be long now (it won't be long now)

His love will last

His love will last, forever

Take my hand

You know I'll be there

If you can

I'll cross the sky for your love

Give you what I hold dear

Hold on, hold on tightly

Hold on, hold on tightly

Rise up, rise up

With wings like eagles

You run, you run

You run and not grow weary

Hold on, hold on tightly

Hold on, hold on tightly

To this love last forever

To this love last forever

Take my hand

Take my hand

I Still Believe

I wanted to share some songs of defiance, inspiration - and, most of all, hope - as one of the most important days in the history of the United States dawns. 

Let's start with Patti Smith, from her 1988 album Dream of Life:

Another from 1988 - Tracy Chapman's "Talkin' About A Revolution":

Next, one of my all-time favorite songs, and one I've posted several times here, by The Kinks:

Another from one of my all-time favorite albums, Big Country's The Crossing (1983). This version will get the blood flowing, guaranteed!

Of course, I have to include one from my very favorite all-time album, Darkness on the Edge of Town - "The Promised Land."

            

I'll end with a song from a criminally underrated band that I cannot believe I have never featured in a post before. The Call are probably best known for their song "The Walls Came Down," but they put out a number of excellent albums and had a well-deserved reputation as an incendiary live band. I had the good fortune to see them a number of times, and can attest to their power.

Lead singer/songwriter Michael Been (who passed away much too soon in 2010 at the age of 60) in particular was a riveting live performer.  Check out his bass playing on this version of "I Still Believe," from their 1986 album Reconciled (which also features the remarkable "Everywhere I Go"):

 

I'm out on my own

I'm walking the streets

Look at the faces that I meet

I feel like I'm lost

And I want to go home

What do I feel?

What do I know?

But I still believe

I still believe

Through the shame

Through the grief

Through the heartache

Through the tears

Through the waiting

And through the years

For people like us

In places like this

Who need all the hope

That we can get

I still believe

I still believe too. And later today we can take the first steps on the journey to take back our country. See you there.