This machine kills fascists.

[walldude]

When the troop increase was announced, even though I knew it was coming, I was angry. Still am. When Bush was in office I marched, wrote, called, participated, I did all the things a good liberal should. I also realized that all that work didn't amount to a fucking thing. Nothing. So I decided that instead of using all this anger to fuel my protests I would use it to create something in the spirit of Woody and all the people he inspired.

This song is not quite finished and has no title yet but I should be done with the writing tonight and will start the recording tomorrow.



I wanna relay a story told by a
soldier I once knew
Vietnam was his war
back in 1972

His platoon was out on patrol
when they encountered the Viet-Cong
dove for cover in a nearby hole
and in a flash the fight was on

The shooting was intense
and they called for aid
when he saw a pregnant woman
with a hand grenade

He took aim and fired
and saved 10 men
but he would never
be the same again

He would never
be the same
again

Nothing I could say could comfort him
and so I didn't try
After a moment he began again
and there were teardrops
in his eyes

I can't get her face out of my head
and I can't sleep at night
I saw the shrink down at my local VA
and he tried to set me right

Son he said, you're a
good soldier
And you gotta get this weight
off your shoulders

I just looked at him
like he had sinned and said
A good soldier
I might have been

But I was a
lousy
human
being


Lost, 30 years now
I can't find my way
Her face, behind closed eyes
every night and day

I learned to live
with what I've done
But I'm just
passing days

Sometimes I see
others like me
and I just
can't believe

That we still
haven't
learned

As his story ended and
he walked away
He glanced over his shoulder and
had this to say

To have to live
with what I have done
is a fate I would'nt
wish on anyone

And with that he was gone
I never saw him again
but his story will stay with me
until the very end

And the men who sealed
his fate for him
moved on to a new war
and their next victims

without
a second
thought

[jefferson_dem]

1. Bravo...

Always love it when artists channel woody's proud social-political consciousness.

[COLGATE4]

2. Too goddamn true by half again

[dhpgetsit]

3. I'd like two of those, please.

Keep up the good work.

[Sinti]

4. This is heart-breakingly beautiful - and truth. I would really like to hear it

once it's recorded.

[Soylent Brice]

5. K&R to the greatest

[spanone]

6. woody lived it. he was a true citizen of america.

read his book 'bound for glory'

[dana_b]

7. The Nightwatchman (Tom Morello) channels Woody too!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZC-kn2xvwME&feature=PlayList&p=27BD4DF0755A6CCB&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=39

Maximum Firepower - The Nightwatchman

This one's for the shoeshine boy
And the farmer in debt
Each string is barbed wire
Each chord is a threat
This blues guy I met
That never had a hit
Said you don't gotta be loud, son
To be heavy as shit
Well I'm the triggerman, baby
And tonight I'll prove
That this machine here
Well it kills fascists too
And don't be surprised
If the sermon on the mount
Next time is delivered
In a little coffee house
'Cause somebody here's
Gotta let them know
I doubt it's me
But here I go
I hit the button
Tape started to roll
The song's got fire
But it's got no soul

There's a lonely stretch of blacktop
Between here and home
Drop down into the valley
Piano playin' in the living room
And when you see the white barn
You'll know the journey's through
My dog's barking in the backseat
'Cause he knows it too

You'll need a fake passport
And fix your disguise
And don't fire, sugar
Til you see the whites of their eyes
I turned the other cheek
But now I'm through
The skin you're in
Makes choices for you
I was checking off names
And I came late to dinner

Seems the slices of pie
Keep getting thinner and thinner
Brothers and sisters
Rejoice and repent
The landlord's dead
You can keep the rent
You got twelve fine friends
But one of 'em's rotten
There's a hole out back
Ain't got no bottom
Forty days in the wilderness
Forty sleepless nights
I'm confused, half blind
And sure I'm right

There's a lonely stretch of blacktop
Between here and home
Drop down into the valley
Piano playin' in the living room
And when you see the white barn
You'll know the journey's through
My dog's barking in the backseat
'Cause he knows it too

Officer please
I won't be long
Called the radio station
Requested this song
I had my doubts
About what I knew
So I turned it up
Then it sounded true

Kiss the ring
If the Queen will let you
But come over the fence
And the dogs will get you
On a rope hung the traitor
On a hook hung the meat
You and me are missing persons
Til we're counted in the streets
So seize the time
And storm the tower
And come correct
Maximum Firepower...

With Maximum Firepower
For the sins of the fathers
The son he must pay

The Nightwatchman giveth
And he taketh away
Thought hard about this next line
Pretty sure it's true
If you take a step towards freedom
It'll take two steps towards you
So mister I ain't scared
And mister I ain't worried
'Cause on that lonely stretch of blacktop
I sit as judge and jury

There's a lonely stretch of blacktop
Between here and home
Drop down into the valley
Piano playin' in the living room
And when you see the white barn
You know the journey's through
My dog's barking in the backseat
'Cause he knows it too

The clock strikes the hour
Tonight we ride
You've got three more seconds
To choose sides

[girl gone mad]

8. A story you might appreciate (kindred spirit):

Mark Pittman, Reporter Who Challenged Fed Secrecy, Dies at 52
http://bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601109&sid=afp8OC.OvRnI&pos=12">Bloomberg

Nov. 30 (Bloomberg) -- Mark Pittman, the award-winning reporter whose fight to make the Federal Reserve more accountable to taxpayers led Bloomberg News to sue the central bank and win, died Nov. 25 in Yonkers, New York. He was 52.

Pittman suffered from heart-related illnesses. The precise cause of death wasn’t known, said his friend William Karesh, vice president of the Global Health Program at the Bronx, New York-based Wildlife Conservation Society.

“He was one of the great financial journalists of our time,” said Joseph Stiglitz, a professor at Columbia University in New York and the winner of the 2001 Nobel Prize for economics. “His death is shocking.”

A former police-beat reporter who joined Bloomberg News in 1997, Pittman wrote stories in 2007 predicting the collapse of the banking system. That year, he won the Gerald Loeb Award from the UCLA Anderson School of Management, the highest accolade in financial journalism, for “Wall Street’s Faustian Bargain,” a series of articles on the breakdown of the U.S. mortgage industry.

Pittman’s push to open the Fed to more scrutiny resulted in an Aug. 24 victory in Manhattan Federal Court affirming the public’s right to know about the central bank’s more than $2 trillion in assistance to financial firms. He drew the attention of filmmakers Leslie and Andrew Cockburn, who featured him prominently in their documentary about subprime mortgages, “American Casino,” which was shown at New York City’s Tribeca Film Festival in May.

(snip)

“He was so large -- in spirit and in person -- and his passion for his craft was so great, it is impossible to think that it could just end,” said Jeffrey Taylor, Pittman’s editor on the “Faustian Bargain” series.

At the time of his death, Pittman’s outgoing messages offered a link to a black-and-white photo of folk musician Woody Guthrie. Written on Guthrie’s guitar: “This machine kills fascists.”

[walldude]

9. Thanks.. that story is where I got the picture from...

[G_j]

10. peace, love

and music!


:applause: