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. 

Dispatch from the Home Front

Hello everyone. I hope you're all doing well and staying safe in these perilous times.

I haven't posted in a long time, for a variety of reasons. Work has been very busy (I'm grateful to have a job, needless to say), and we're nearing a big deadline. I've also been working on two large personal writing projects as time permits, one of which I'll share here when I finally finish (hopefully in the next 4-6 weeks, if work eases up at long last). And finally, I'm dealing with a health issue that has impacted my energy level to an extent I haven't dealt with in quite some time. (I'll be OK; it's taken a toll that will require some time and rest to heal.)

The other reason it's been a while is a side effect of the horror show that is the United States the past four years. I had nearly finished a lengthy post about the ongoing destruction of my country by the traitor in the White House and his fellow travelers in the US Senate and the House (which fortunately is controlled by the party that actually loves America), but I decided to remove nearly all of it. (I suppose my views are pretty clear from the previous sentence, aren't they?)

I rarely write about politics here, although I have very strong views and support a number of causes with both my time and money. But what I'm witnessing here on a daily turns my stomach. To think that 30-35% of the population is perfectly OK with what is is going on makes me ashamed to share a country with them.

Suffice it to say that I am doing everything in my power, inconsequential though it may be, to help ensure that they are completely, totally, utterly annihilated at every single level of government, from the White House to dog catcher, in the election this November. And then I want to watch them suffer the consequences of their betrayal of everything this country, flawed though it may be, is supposed to stand for. And make no mistake: the good people of this country are going to make sure they face their day of reckoning, one way or another. Count on it.

OK, time to move on to more upbeat matters, for my own sake. (Rage is not a healthy place to reside for very long, and I spend far too much time there already.)  Follow along below the fold for the fun stuff.

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