Track of the Week

TOTW Signs Off

2006-03-03T00:31:00.000-05:00

It seems that I neglected to inform readers of this website of my impending resignation. Those who are curious can read my good-byes (Parts One and Two) over at Story of the Day. I've moved on to what I believe will be greener pastures over at Violent History, my first original content project and one that I expect to be very rewarding in the weeks, months, and who-knows-how-much-longer to come. There will occasionally be music and other unrelated material posted in the sidebar over there (once things are up and running in a week), but they will be updated even less frequenty than the weekly posts I made here.

TotW continues to get over 30 daily first-time visitors each day by nature of its googlable lyrics (for which I've received many grateful emails), so I apologize to those who will miss it. I strongly recommend shifting your attention over to Street Knowledge, an excellent music weblog that was frequently the original source for material posted here. I would also love to hear from some of you over at Violent History. Whether or not that is the case, I'll leave these pages up because of their great popularity among googlers. And that's all, folks.

Peace,
Isaac

Love Me, I'm a Liberal

2005-12-10T13:20:00.000-05:00

"Love Me, I'm a Liberal"
performed by Evan Greer (original lyrics by Phil Ochs)

I trade Internet jokes about Dubya,
They sure are funny to me.
But don’t even think about asking
For me to give up my new SUV.
I don’t know what you mean about oil,
I just wish that gas could be free...
So love me, love me, love me, I’m a liberal!

Well I’ve signed about a thousand petitions,
And my golf score is six under par.
And I keep myself up on the issues
By listening to N.P.R.,
And you know that I’m changing the world
With these stickers all over my car!
So love me, love me, love me, I’m a liberal!

And you know that I’m not a racist,
I've been on the side of the blacks all along.
And I always give a few extra dollars
To the young man who mows my lawn!
And I’ve never read Emma Goldman,¹
But I know that she must have been wrong!
So love me, love me, love me, I’m a liberal!

Yes I went to that pro-choice rally,
I think women should get equal pay.
But it’s sure nice that my wife cooks me dinner,²
And she puts my clean laundry away!
And maybe our country ain’t perfect,
But revolution is never the way.
So love me, love me, love me, I’m a liberal!

[editor's note: these lyrics are posted at Evan's site but aren't in the live version, and too bad too-- I have a soft spot in my heart for Deanyboppers]
You know I support Gay marriage,
And I want the environment clean.
But I’m too busy at work to take action,
So I’m just voting for Howard Dean.³
I know we must work inside the system,
It’s the best one that I’ve ever seen!
So love me, love me, love me, I’m a liberal!

Yes, I cheered when they caught Saddam,
I knew that the news wouldn’t lie,
And I'm glad that the war is now over,
Cause my 401k's on the rise!
And you know that I love my country:
Best democracy money can buy!
So love me, love me, love me, I’m a liberal!

Oh, once I was young and impulsive,
I wore every conceivable pin.
Even went to the socialist meetings
And I learned all the old union hymns.
Ah, but I've grown older and wiser,
That's why I'm turning you in...
So love me, love me, love me, I'm a liberal!

(play mp3)

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

¹ This one goes out to Kenyon.
² And this one is for Casey.
³ And if you know me, you knew it was coming... this one goes out to the PSA.

I was too excited to get this up to wait until Sunday, so here it is a day early. I came across this song, a remake of my very favorite song ever written, quite by accident this week while searching for New England artists to bring to a concert organized by friends at the Maine Peace Action Committee and the Peace & Justice Center of Eastern Maine. A lot of my new friends in PA are fairly confused when they hear me picking on liberals and liberalism when they know that I'm somewhere to the left of center. This song is partly for them, to give them an introduction to where I'm coming from. It is also partly for my longtime friends and fellow activists who don't know this song (or at least this version) because I know it will put a smile on your faces. Last but not least, this song goes out to all the liberals-- even the ones I love-- because you need to hear it.

One People,
One Struggle,
Isaac

C.I.A. (Criminals in Action)

2005-12-04T18:07:00.000-05:00

"C.I.A. (Criminals in Action)"
by Zack de la Rocha, The Last Emperor and KRS-ONE

Zack:
This voice shatters the calm of the day like an alarm
So wake up bright anew and take up arms
Cause more is necessary than vocabulary war
Cause the toxic rock import's hitting on your door
CIA, I'll see you later 'cause your time is coming soon
I flip this shit like Pacino and it's your dog day afternoon
Attica, Attica, drug agents you bring your static-a
My alphabet will slash and then can flip you automatic-a
Dramatic like Ali-Shaheed Mohammed brought the vibe
I bring the sun at red dawn upon the thoughts of Frantz Fanon
So stand at attention devil dirch
You'll never survive choosing sides against the Wretched of the Earth
The infiltrator
Child intoxicator
People incarcerator
Liberation movement annihilator
We got you clocked pushing rocks and it failed
We got brothers trooping subways like the Ho Chi Minh trail
We got the Truth Addict, Last Emperor, KRS and history manifested
Tomorrow tha next lesson

Last Emp:
As free-market capitalism and technology expands
The third world's fertile soil becomes a desert wasteland
So it takes fans to demand the government provide answers
When Lady Liberty has me bewitched like Samantha
And poverty is one of the most malignant forms of cancer
To all my black magik romancers and acid rain dancers
Develop close ties like Jerry Seinfeld and George Costanza
We fear no man and throw jams that attack counter-intelligence programs
Exciting like the epic adventures of Conan
I colonize minds like Zaire by the Belgians
Now what hell is the problem with this system and what it sells us
I bring ancient relics like Wyclef did to zealots
I saw an iron curtain called hip-hop and got it open like Boris Yeltsen
Whirlwind tornadoes in the rain forest if you say so
KRS and the Last Emperor roar like the Green Hornet and Kato
Zack de la Rocha brings the enraged flow
But all three drop science and become the most powerful alliance since NATO

All:
You claim I'm sellin' crack but you be doin' that
You claim I'm sellin' crack but you be doin' that
You know the cops, they got a network for the toxic rock
You claim I'm sellin' crack but you be doin' that
So get that flashlight outta my face
You claim I'm sellin' crack but you be doin' that
The Last Emperor, KRS-One & Big Zack

KRS-ONE:
Need I say the CIA be criminals in action
Cocaine crack-unpacking, high surveillance-tracking
Prominent blacks and whites giving orders for mass slaughters
I want all my daughters to be like Maxine Waters
When they flooded the streets with crack cocaine I was like Noah
Now they lower 'cause the whole Cold War is over
Communism fell to the dollars you were grabbin in
All the assault and battering in the name of intelligence-gathering
Now it's karma you're battling a losing fight
I choose the mic to recite, ignite light in the night, aight
We should beat em, President Clinton should delete 'em
It's not hard, the CIA simply has no more job
Oh my Goddess, Mother, you can fix this
We rock over mixes, not 666s
Yo, this is the message to all that can hear it
If you got secret information now's the time to share it
Call your Congresswoman, your Senator, your Mayor
It's time for all the scholars to unite with all the playas
Rearrange and see, times is definitely changing, G
They used to tap the phone now they tapping while you paging me
It's crazy B, yet it's plain to see
Who the enemy? Who's left? The NRA, the ATF, the AMA?
OK, OK, it's all irrelevant
Cause in the new millennium there'll be no Central Intelligence

(download mp3)

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

This track comes from the first Lyricist Lounge mixtape put out by Rawkus Records in 1998. That album is excellent and features good stuff from Common, Jurassic 5, Sarah Jones, and Talib Kweli. The second volume is good too, with work from Mos Def, Dead Prez, and lots of other great artists. As with anything from Rawkus there's a mix of the mediocre and the downright offensive in there as well, but this is still one of my favorite albums. For those who liked Last Emp, he finally dropped his debut solo album Music, Magic, Myth two years ago. It's excellent, though almost completely apolitical, but unlike much of the industry (even indie / underground) it's at least not negative. It's definitely worth picking up. KRS has gone downhill in recent years and hasn't put out much of note, and we are all still waiting on Zack's absurdly postponed solo album in collaboration with DJ Shadow. I do have some unreleased material from Zack's post-RATM career, though, and that will make it's way to these pages shortly.

Ministry of Oil

2005-11-21T09:50:00.000-05:00

"Ministry of Oil"
by The Prince Myshkins

Once again we hear the word "precision"
From people who think bombs can be precise
We hear the price of fighting terrorism
From people who don't have to to pay that price
We see a cloud where there should be a college
We see a reservoir reduced to soil
And though they now admit
That the marketplace was hit
They didn't hit the Ministry of Oil

What they call a military target
Is sacred to all soldiers brave and loyal
You can bomb a shrine
You can bomb a power line
But you never bombed the Ministry of Oil

Once again the mayhem they call warfare
Is followed by the melee they call peace
Tearing through the stores and the museum
While the U.S. Army played police
How much do you suppose that artworks sold for
As their last remaining food began to spoil?
The situation's bad
But no place in Baghdad
Is safer than the Ministry of Oil

The medicine has all been confiscated
And soon there won't be water left to boil
And one might wonder who'd
Think up names like Oil for Food
When what mean mean is Ministry of Oil

If there's any logic in the universe
If the future isn't just absurd
If justice is precise instead of infinite
If freedom is enjoyed and not endured
I'll take my class out someday on a field trip
Past the shells of Shell and Uniroyal
And as they're roaming 'round
The musty White House grounds
I'll say kids, this was the Ministry of Oil

I'll say kids it was a peaceful revolution
There weren't any battles to embroil
And I'm very glad to tell
That not one person fell
It's an aspect of our history that every child knows well
How we failed to avoid
One building being destroyed
But at least it was the Ministry of Oil

(play mp3)

*****************************

If you like this, check out the Myshkins homepage with other lyrics and mp3s. They look like dorks but that is kind of the point. They are hilarious and brilliant and clever and radical and thoughtful and all kinds of other good things. I went to see them live at UMaine out of sympathy to friends who had organized the event and thought I would hate it, but I had as much fun as I've had at a concert in a long time. I'd like to be able to link these song lyrics to relevant news articles online, so if anyone could give me a hand finding those I would be grateful. Thanks, and enjoy.

Katrina Klap

2005-11-14T01:04:00.000-05:00

"Katrina Klap" (mp3 - video)
by Mos Def

This is for the streets
The streets everywhere
The streets affected by the storm called America
I’m doin’ this for y'all
As for me, for the Creator

God save these streets
One dollar per every human being
Feel that Katrina Klap
See that Katrina Klap

Listen homie
It’s dollar day in New Orleans
It’s water water everywhere and people dead in the streets
And Mr. President he ‘bout that cash
He got a policy for handlin’ the niggas and trash
And if you poor or you black
I laugh a laugh
They won’t give when you ask
You better off on crack
Dead or in jail or with a gun in Iraq
And it’s as simple as that
No opinion my man it’s mathematical fact
Listen: A million poor since 2004
And they got illions and killions to waste on the war
And make you question what the taxes is for
Or the cost to reinforce the broke levee wall
Tell the boss he shouldn’t be the boss anymore
...

God save these streets
One dollar per every human being
Feel that Katrina Klap
See that Katrina Klap
God save these streets
Quit bein’ cheap nigga freedom ain’t free
Feel that Katrina Klap
See that Katrina Klap
Lord have mercy
Lord God, God save our soul
Oh God save our soul
Oh God
Oh God save our soul
Lord God God save our soul
Oh God save our soul soul soul
Soul Survivor

It’s dollar day in New Orleans
It’s water water everywhere and babies dead in the streets
It’s enough to make you holler out
Like where the fuck is Sir Bono and his famous friends now?
Don’t get it twisted man I dig U2
But if you aint about the ghetto then fuck you too
Who care 'bout rock 'n roll when babies can’t eat food?
Listen homie man that shit ain’t cool

It’s like dollar day for New Orleans
It’s water water everywhere and homies dead in the streets
And Mr. President’s a natural ass
He out treatin’ niggas worse than they treat the trash

God save these streets
One dollar per every human being
Feel that Katrina Klap!
See that Katrina Klap!
God save these streets
Quit bein’ cheap nigga freedom ain’t free!
Feel that Katrina Klap!
See that Katrina Klap!
Soul Survivor
Good God God save our soul
Oh God save our soul
Oh God
Oh God save our soul
Lord God God save our soul
Oh God save our soul
Oh God
Oh God save us

God did not intend for the wicked to rule the world
Say God could not intend for the wicked the rule the world
God did not intend for the wicked to rule the world
And even when they do it’s a matter of truth
Before they wicked ruling is through

God save these streets
Dollar day for New Orleans
God save these streets
Quit bein’ cheap homie freedom ain’t free
God save these streets
One dollar per every human being
Feel that Katrina Klap!
See that Katrina klap!
God save these streets
Quit bein’ cheap nigga freedom ain’t free!
Feel that Katrina Klap!
Ghetto Katrina Klap!
Soul Survivor
Lord God God save our souls
Oh God save, God save our souls
Feel that Katrina Klap
Let’s make them dollars stack
And rebuild these streets
God save these streets
God save these streets
God save the soul
Feel that Katrina Klap!
See that Katrina Klap!
Soul Survivor
Don’t talk about it, be about it-- peace.

(play mp3)
(play movie)

********************

This track was recorded in a single take with producer Jeremy K. In a recent interview with the Guerilla News Network, he says: "my real aim with “Dollar Day” is, God willing, to raise $250 million independently, to help adjust the means of the poorest and the weakest, in not just New Orleans but all throughout the Delta region." Lyrics are incomplete, and suggestions are always appreciated.

The Happiest Place on Earth

2005-11-07T01:12:00.000-05:00

"The Happiest Place on Earth"
by Desaparecidos*

I want to pledge allegiance to the country where I live. I don't want to be ashamed to be American. But opportunity no it don't exist, it's the opiate of the populace. We need some harder shit now, the truth's gettin round and each public school is a halfway house where huddled masses sober up and up, enough! There's not enough to fatten the cows and feed all of us, it's just a rationing of luck. What can't be bought gets raffled off. Oh God, good God, shed greed on me. Your shining sea turned a dirty green from the industry off the shores of New Jersey.

I got a letter from the army so I think that I'll enlist. No, I'm not brave or proud of nothing I just want to kill something. Too bad that nowadays you just point and click swing low satellite hot white chariot. In the computer's blue glare bombs burst in the air there was a city once now nothing's there. Our freedom comes at their expense. Makes sense doesn't it? Dollars and sense. They're stretching barbed wire across the picket fence that's surrounding your housing development. In case you lack the confidence. Oh God, my God, give strength to me these amber waves, purple majesty is nothing but backdrops for Disney. Look up close it's superimposed on a blank blue screen it is fantasy, fucking magical. The dream flows like a chemical through each snapped synapse television pass and it's beautiful. No more... no more... no more...

(play mp3)

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

* Desaparacidos is a side project of Bright Eyes frontman Conor Oberst. Conor's is a homegrown Midwestern radicalism that seems to crop up once in a generation and deliver America some of the greatest lyricists of an era. He is no exception. If you like this track, check out their debut album Read Music | Speak Spanish. The album was recorded in the week after 9/11, a gut-check moment for Oberst: "It felt weird—I thought, Is it O.K. to release this anti-American album now? But then I realized that it was the most American thing you can do: dissent and progress."

If you're more into the Bright Eyes sound, go back to "Let's Not Shit Ourselves" (from Lifted), the title track from I'm Wide Awake, or these videos of Conor performing "When the President Talks to God" and "The Trees Get Wheeled Away" on Leno and Letterman, respectively. For another sample of Desaparecidos fare, check out "Man and Wife: The Former (Financial Planning)".

Though he's made his career on raw lyrics dealing with personal and usually romantic relationships, Conor has used all of his public performances to project the most political of his work. Whether or not he follows RM|SS with another Desaparecidos album, it's clear that future Bright Eyes projects will be increasingly socially conscious.

Is It For Freedom?

2005-10-31T14:07:00.000-05:00

"Is It For Freedom?"
by Sara Thomsen

Rulers of the nations as you fuss and fight
Over who owns this or that and who has the right
To design, build, sell and store and fire
All the bombs and guns to defend your holy empire

There are children hungry, children sick and dying
There are mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers crying
They're only pawns in your play of power and corruption
Slowly starve them, your new weapon of mass destruction

CHORUS:
And prove to me America, that you care
And prove to me America, that you're aware
Who's dying for your freedom in this land?
Who pays the cost for the liberties you demand?

Is it for freedom, or our comfort and convenience
Is it to profit for big business we pledge our allegiance
Are we prisoners in the land of the brave and the bold?
Held by indifference or hearts grown hard and cold

CHORUS

Children of the world, you have the right
To sing and dance, run and play, let your dreams take flight
As the innocent die you rulers carry the shame
And if we stand idly by we share in the blame

And oh, America, do we care?
Oh, America, are we aware?
Who's dying for our comfort in this land?
Who pays the cost for the convenience we demand?

Children of the world, you have the right
To sing and dance, run and play, let your dreams take flight

(play mp3)

New Kicks

2005-10-24T12:21:00.000-05:00

"New Kicks" (mp3 - video)
by Le Tigre

Peace... Now!
Peace... Now!
Peace... Now!
Peace... Now!

We are gathered here, we come from so many different places.
From different identities, different cultures.
Different backgrounds different religions.
And yet we can gather, under the guides of peace... now!

Peace... now!

"We say no to war!"
Peace up, war down!
"We say no to war!"
Peace up, war down!
"We say no to war!"
Peace up, war down!

"We made it. We're here. We're here right now and we're not leaving."

Now I feel you, I feel you people.
Now I feel you, I feel you people.
Now I feel you, I feel you people.
Now I feel you, I feel you people.
Now I feel you, I feel you....

"Now, we have reports that more and more people are just taking on ramps onto the bridge and are just taking it over.. it's just...just..."

"I mean, i'm just like..ahh!"

This is what democracy looks like!
This is what democracy sounds like!
This is what democracy looks like!
This is what democracy sounds like!

"Reports from protests from among Georgia... Amsterdam... and Bay Ruth Lebanon... East Seymour... Florence, Italy...London...Milano, Italy...Paris, France...
Dozens of cities in Spain... Reports in Athens, Georgia... Austin, Texas... Westford, Virginia... Charleston, South Carolina... Colorado Springs... and
Defiance, Ohio... Denver, Colorado as well as Durango... Geneva, New York and Houston, Texas... Cianis, Massachussetts...In Hawaii as well...
Lawrence, Kansas... Los Angeles, California... AND I AM ONLY NAMING A FEW!"

Peace...now! Peace...now!

And as Eleanor Roosevelt said...
"It isn't enough to talk about peace, one must believe in it. It isn't enough to believe in it, one must work at it"
And we here today... are working at it!

"Peace is possible, and even necessary. So drop the sword, pick up the hammer and the saw. And start building a better world!"

No blood for oil!
We will not be violent!
No blood for oil!
We will not be violent!
No blood for oil!

"We will not go to war, for a selected president, who wasn't even elected!"

We must stand unbroken, unbound and unashamed
We need healthcare!
We need education!
We need freedom in this nation!
Freedom in this nation!
Freedom in this nation!
Freedom in this nation!

"Thousands of people have taken over 3rd Avenue and are marching North. The crowd stretches at least 15 blocks from 44th street to 59th Street.
The police have just simply... given up."

This is what democracy looks like!
This is what democracy sounds like!
This is what democracy looks like!
This is what democracy sounds like!

"We will not sell out!
We will not back down!
We will not compromise!
We will go forward,
Until peace is on the world's agenda!"

I started a theory that there were no more heroes in the world.
But today, I see all the world's heroes standing before me.

"We say no to war!"
No war!
"We say no to war!"
No war!
"We say no to war!"
No war!

(play mp3)
(play video)

Panic in the Streets

2005-10-17T14:01:00.000-05:00

"Panic in the Streets"
by Rebel's Advocate

(play mp3)

My Favorite Mutiny

2005-10-09T23:47:00.000-05:00

"My Favorite Mutiny"
by the Coup (feat. Black Thought & Talib Kweli)

Black Thought:
Move, if you got the nerve
Lash out for your just desserts
It's not just the words
Some of y'all heads up in the clouds
I'ma bring y'all back to earth
It's Black back to burn
Bullshit y'all talking about out ya mouth
I'm not concerned cuz y'all got to learn
It's y'all turn like Detroit Red
When his head had an ultra perm
The long walk'll burn your bare heels hope you wore your boots
The gang camouflaged like army suits
But I can see it more clear cuz I came with The Coup in here
Ring the alarm and form the troops
Send 'em out into the world and go to war on a fluke
Eye to eye with a enemy you sworn to shoot
Now im comin' at your neck sick of hearin' somethin's wrong with me
Motherfucker somethin' wrong with you
When the Chief just way too smart to question
The enemy the brothas of a dark complexion
The governments of the world are shark-infested
They heavy on weaponry like Charlton Heston, man...

CHORUS:
I ain't rockin' wit' you
So what? What you gon' do?
"That's my favorite mutiny"
I ain't rockin' wit' you
Your logic does not compute

Boots Riley:
Death to the pigs is my basic statement
I spit street stories til I taste the pavement
Tryin' to stay out the pen where we face enslavement
Had a foolproof hustle til they traced the payments
I was grippin my palm around some shitty rum
Tryin' to find some #151
To forget what I'm owed as I clutch the commode
I'd rather put down the bottle and come get the gun
Let's get off the chain
Like Kunta Kinte with a MAC-10
They want us gone like a dollar in a crack den
Steadily subtractin' seeds and stems
Mind clouded thru the weeds and phlegm
Numbin' my brain offa that and them Jesus hymns
If we waitin' for the times to fight these is thems
Tellin' us to relax while they ease it in
We gettin greased again
They truth I write is so cold it'd freeze my pen
I'm Boots Riley it's a pleasure to meet you
Never let they punk ass ever defeat you
They got us on the corner wearin' pleather and seethru
All y'alls gold mines they wanna deplete you
I aint just finna rap on the track
I'm finna clap on the back
And it's been stackin' to that
Five hundred years before Ice Berg ever leaned back in the 'llac
Before they told Rosa "Black in the back!"
Before the CIA told Rickey Ross to put crack in the sack
The year Gil Scott traded rappin for smack
This be ... your platinum placques
I'd rather see a million of us ecstatic to scrap
Cuz if we rappin' 'em back
We automatically stacked

CHORUS

Talib Kweli:
...Boots and me
Activatin' the community
Up in the Bay like Huey P
It's sucka free it remind me of the ... love for me
But the beat's got it twisted I'll untangle it
The black mind intertwined like the ropes they used to hang us with
This my favorite shit
I came in the game with a new way to spit
They got your questionnaire who you bangin' with?
Take it back to Imhotep
Go a step deeper like a Poor Righteous Teacher with Holy Intellect
Killa flow for all my real niggas laughin' and...
Once again you can feel hip-hop
Underground still about my...
Gangsta like "Fuck the cops!"
Talib Kweli-- revolutionary emcee and that ain't about to stop

(play mp3)