What It Means
What kind of crazy fucked up world do we live in where a band of whites from the south writes the protest song of the year?
One in which everybody in pop music is so busy self-promoting their hedonistic vision that the sideshow becomes the real show.
Glenn Yarbrough died. If you lived through the sixties you’ll remember him from the Limeliters, from his solo hit “Baby The Rain Must Fall.” He was inspired by Woody Guthrie, he saw music could be an agent for change, it didn’t just have to be mindless drivel.
But that’s what we’re subjected to, in a nation where facts are irrelevant, everybody’s got their own agenda and we have not only political gridlock, but cultural and economic gridlock too. Both sides shout loudly and the issue gets covered up and we all put our tails between our legs and move on. But a song, it has power that transcends and maintains.
He was running down the street
When they shot him in his tracks
About the only thing agreed upon
Is he ain’t coming back
Dead is dead, it’s final. That’s something seemingly only friends and families of the deceased seem to know, for everybody else the person gone is a bargaining chip, a point of discussion to hang your viewpoint upon, after you assassinate the character of someone who cannot defend him or herself.
There won’t be any trial
So the air it won’t be cleared
There’s just two sides calling names
Out of anger, out of fear
Fear, it rules our nation, drummed up by wankers on TV and talk radio, saying how bad our nation is when the truth it’s safer than ever before. It’s all about perception as opposed to reality. And the outside agitators want to fan the flames of despair, it suits them, then you’ll pay fealty to the powers-that-be, give up power over your own destiny, pointing at others as opposed to marching forward yourself, how ever hard that might be.
If you say it wasn’t racial
When they shot him in his tracks
Well, I guess that means you ain’t black
It means that you ain’t black
The Supreme Court says we live in a post-racial society, that voter equality laws are passe, oversight is eliminated, and then the usual suspects make it harder for the underclass to vote.
I mean Barack Obama won
And you can choose where to eat
But you don’t see too many white kids lying
Bleeding on the street
Just because we have a black President, just because separate but equal laws have been struck down, that does not mean we have equality. Today, unless they’re athletes, African-Americans are demonized, as opposed to being given a hand up.
And it happened last weekend
And it will happen again next week
And when they turned him over
They were surprised there was no gun
I mean he must have done something
Or else why would he have run
He’s running because once you’re entangled with the police the games begin, it no longer becomes about the traffic violation, your entire character and past come into question. So, you’re scared. And when people are scared they don’t make the best choices.
And they’ll spin it for the anchors
On the television screen
So we can shrug and let it happen
Without asking what it means
The media… Fox has an agenda. As does Murdoch’s “Wall Street Journal.” But call this out and the right wing just attacks the bleeding heart liberal press trying to get it right, it’s the left wing media that blinks, not Bill O’Reilly or Sean Hannity stirring up discontent. News is purely entertainment, it’s about the narrative, the personages proud of being on screen and rich, right and wrong are secondary to ratings.
And that guy who killed that kid
Down in Florida standing ground
Is free to beat up on his girlfriend
And wave his brand new gun around
While some kid is dead and buried
And laying in the ground
With a pocket full of Skittles
George Zimmerman may have gotten off, but he’s turned out to be a bad actor, the shooting wasn’t an anomaly, but the discussion is about black kids in hoodies and white fear.
We’re living in an age
Where limitations are forgotten
The outer edges move and dazzle us
But the core is something rotten
And we’re standing on the precipice
Of prejudice and fear
Just because we all have smartphones that does not mean we are not humans, with foibles and problems that need to be addressed. Instead we’re told to be thrilled by social media breakthroughs and to be happy because we have flat screens, huh?
It’s not only the demonization of the blacks, but the poor whites and the hard-working immigrants too. It’s class warfare amongst the lower third, and those in charge, with power, are completely out of touch, or as even right winger Peggy Noonan pointed out…Syrians are settled in poor white communities as opposed to the Beltway. They don’t want people like them in their own neighborhood, even though they’re bleeding heart liberals.
Roger Ailes is a harasser who fostered a culture of sexual pressure and intimidation throughout Fox News. And when confronted, like every tribe throughout history the team just circled the wagons until Gretchen Carlson stood up for what was right.
Hillary Clinton is running for President as an advocate for us but she’s so entrenched with the rich financiers that she’s not sure what side she’s on.
Donald Trump has taken advantage of tax laws after being born on third base and confuses running for President with promoting a television show and this guy knows what’s going on on Main Street as much as a denizen of Ferguson knows what’s going on on Wall Street.
What’s a poor boy to do?
Play in a rock and roll band!
I don’t expect “What It Means” to get Top Forty airplay. Then again, it’s no “Eve Of Destruction,” it’s a rambling ditty which will make the band’s fans happy, they’ll sing along, but as for the rest of us…
We’ll never hear it.
Then again, I discovered “What It Means” via Spotify’s “Release Radar,” that’s right, algorithms are more trustworthy than personal recommendations, they’re unbiased, they surfaced this track for me.
And listening gives me hope.
“What It Means” won’t make the Drive-By Truckers rich, it will barely expand their audience, but they’re speaking from the heart, they’re doing what’s right, which is hard to achieve when a track has ten writers and just as many hooks put together for a short attention span audience.
Maybe it’s time we listened all the way through, to those saying something as opposed to trying to razzle-dazzle us into submission.
Every revolution starts with one step forward.
And the Drive-By Truckers just took one.
Now it’s your job to follow in their footsteps.
