#1030. Bonds of Freedom 2

Here’s the thing:

Even if you don’t believe

That the biblical narrative 

Is real,

It speaks to something important,

That life under Egyptian rule

Was probably 

Intolerable.

That’s what you really need

To take away

From that.

Somehow modern man

Struggles to comprehend 

Building the pyramids;

I don’t know how to explain 

To future generations,

Because even now

It seems,

Well,

Insane.

“Aliens did it!!!”

Well,

Slaves did it.

Just imagine.

That’s why we hate slavery,

By the way,

Forcing anyone 

To lug all those heavy stones

To someone else’s 

Eternal ego

That in a few thousand years

Is just a fancy tourist attraction…

And sure,

A hundred years or so ago

We all went crazy about Egyptians,

Started the whole,

Continuing,

Mummy craze,

Made King Tut

A celebrity 

Just when the rest of the world’s 

Royalty

Was fading

Into the past…

Well,

These Israelites,

These Jews,

They had a story

About a man named Moses

Who led his people

Out of bondage,

Into Freedom,

Into self-determination.

Moses,

Whom they saw

As an adopted son

Of the state,

Who somehow tricked himself 

Into supporting his own people,

Who unleashed

A series of plagues

Until the pharaoh 

Let his people go

Straight into the Red Sea,

Which parted

Thanks to God,

Straight into the desert,

Where these people

Still grumbled…

Look,

People like to complain,

But that’s the cost

Of Freedom.

#1029. Bonds of Freedom 1

250 years ago

Our forefathers

Struggled.

In Boston

They wondered

Why they couldn’t 

Merely get along

With their day,

Why the British

Were so interested 

In their activities,

Why they kept

Meddling.

And things

Kind of

Escalated.

Originally it was just Boston

But then

It spread

Across 13 colonies.

13 colonies,

The product of several

Ambitious empires 

In the Old World

Discovering the New,

Not the New World

Being discovered,

Which had been done,

Perhaps,

Over the Bering Strait,

But certainly by Vikings,

By the Chinese,

Neither of which

Decided to stay,

To do something substantial, 

There.

But eventually,

The Spanish,

The English,

The French,

The Dutch,

They all left their mark

Somewhere,

And that started

A ball rolling

Toward Freedom.

250 years ago

These colonies 

Declared Freedom.

They declared

Self-determination,

Which they thought

They’d already had

And defied 

An empire 

In order to secure.

They weren’t united.

In the beginning, they weren’t.

They squabbled,

These colonies,

And even when the war was won

They wondered how they would

Live together.

Factions arose.

The Virginians,

Perhaps originally recruited 

To add legitimacy 

To Boston’s struggles,

Began to assume control.

But that was Freedom,

The ability to squabble and still

Coexist.

Sometimes we assert

A Virginian’s suggestion 

That this struggle 

Be recapitulated 

To renew the idea

But we do it every day,

Which is the point,

Which we forget

Every day,

Which is the point.

That’s freedom.

That’s 250 years

Of Freedom.

#1028. Lineage of Song: “Istanbul (Not Constantinople)”

 

The Four Lads

They Might Be Giants

A playful way to end the Lineage of Song. A few years ago I realized I hadn’t posted here in a year, and that made me a little sad. Then I started posting again, and it led to this, a weekly revisit and two and a half years of regular posts. I had a lot of fun with it.

#1027. Lineage of Song: “Hard to Handle”

 

Otis Redding

The Commitments

The Black Crowes

I adore the film The Commitments. I didn’t learn classic rock from it, but I certainly learned how vital it can still be. It might’ve been the secret origin of the Lineage of Song.

#1026. Lineage of Song: Red Red Wine”

 

Neil Diamond

UB40

Two more left after this. Loved the UB40, another I had no clue was a cover.

#1025. Lineage of Song: “I Heard It Through the Grapevine”

Gladys Knight and the Pips

Smokey Robinson and the Miracles

Creedence Clearwater Revival

Marvin Gaye

Classic song. Classic covering.

 

#1024. Lineage of Song: “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun”

 

Robert Hazard

Cyndi Lauper

Lauper was a huge part of ‘80s pop culture. It’s surprising to consider that her most recognizable song was a cover. But if I leave you with nothing else from this Lineage of Song business, it’s not where the song came from, but what you do with it. Clearly she made it her own.