Sometime next month they’re going to have a circle jerk on CBS called "The Grammys".\u00c2\u00a0 Under the illusion of honoring achievement dolled-up stars supported by rich fuck execs are going to applaud their inherently flawed system.\u00c2\u00a0 One in which the public is considered ignorant and plastic discs must be sold at all costs.\u00c2\u00a0 The cost of progress, the cost of more music for more people, the cost of emotional well-being.<\/p>\n
But don’t blame the Grammys.\u00c2\u00a0 NARAS is just a zit on the ass of the problem.\u00c2\u00a0 A fucked up country of winners ignoring the losers.\u00c2\u00a0 America has gone from the land of opportunity to the land of I’ve got mine, FUCK YOU!\u00c2\u00a0 When even the "New York Times" no longer prints the truth, who do we turn to?<\/p>\n
Musicians.<\/p>\n
Artists save the country, make no mistake.<\/p>\n
It’s tough to be an artist.\u00c2\u00a0 Oh, you can go to Berklee, but really, a musician is self-taught.\u00c2\u00a0 He runs on inspiration.\u00c2\u00a0 From deep inside he’s driven to get his message out.\u00c2\u00a0 There’s no guarantee, only wide open spaces.\u00c2\u00a0 Within which you can tour and try to spread the word.<\/p>\n
Oh, we used to live in a democracy.\u00c2\u00a0 Radio stations played a broad swath of material.\u00c2\u00a0 The best rose to the top.\u00c2\u00a0 If you still believe this is the case, then you’ve never heard of Eliot Spitzer.\u00c2\u00a0 As for alternative forms of distribution, the big time content holders, the ones behind the Grammys, have hamstrung Internet radio, they don’t want any means of distribution, exploitation, EXHIBITION unless they control it, and own the lion’s share of what’s played.<\/p>\n
Who’s losing out here?<\/p>\n
The people.<\/p>\n
The people have been losing out this entire decade.<\/p>\n
Some don’t know it.\u00c2\u00a0 They’re too busy going to church.\u00c2\u00a0 Feeling that Jesus will save them when the government abandons them and Wal-Mart destroys their town.<\/p>\n
It’s about education.\u00c2\u00a0 A No Child Left Behind bill that is not funded.\u00c2\u00a0 As if someone who owes you and doesn’t pay you is doing something good for you.\u00c2\u00a0 If you’re stupid, if you’re fucking without protection and unable to read the newspaper, the fat cats will be able to do whatever they want.\u00c2\u00a0 With the complicit news media in tow.\u00c2\u00a0 Used to be America was about diversity.\u00c2\u00a0 Ain’t that a crock.\u00c2\u00a0 If you’re not Christian and Republican you’re not entitled to an opinion.\u00c2\u00a0 Don’t ask me, ask Bill Maher, the Dixie Chicks and everybody who Dick Cheney is deploring while he’s spying on them.<\/p>\n
Now I understand why people in third world countries sacrifice their lives for freedom.\u00c2\u00a0 I’d be willing not to ski another day if it meant freedom of speech and true science could survive in America.\u00c2\u00a0 And it might come to that.\u00c2\u00a0 For if we don’t live in a free society, life is barely worth living.<\/p>\n
And what are we presented with on the airwaves?\u00c2\u00a0 No-talents like Hilary Duff and Lindsay Lohan.\u00c2\u00a0 Rappers glorifying a thug life as their brethren are in a ghetto stranglehold.\u00c2\u00a0 There’s no fucking truth.\u00c2\u00a0 And what blew up this business was truth.<\/p>\n
You know truth.\u00c2\u00a0 It RESONATES!\u00c2\u00a0 You can’t DENY IT!<\/p>\n
Vietnam Vet with a cardboard sign We’re not America haters, we’re America LOVERS!\u00c2\u00a0 How can you send people off to war without the proper equipment?\u00c2\u00a0 How can the man who provided inadequate body armor throw a Bat Mitzvah for his daughter with a ten million dollar entertainment budget?\u00c2\u00a0 How can those shot up come home to no support?\u00c2\u00a0 Those are questions that are barely asked in the mainstream media.\u00c2\u00a0 Because they would reveal the maggots at the core.\u00c2\u00a0 It falls to the artist, who’s got nothing to lose, who MUST sing about what he sees, to delineate the truth.<\/p>\n That big ol’ building was a textile mill There’s no national health care so the car manufacturers set up shop in Canada.\u00c2\u00a0 But, the medical lobby is too strong.\u00c2\u00a0 The people don’t even get a say.\u00c2\u00a0 They’re just supposed to cope.<\/p>\n See those pallets piled up on the loading dock That would be a TV show.\u00c2\u00a0 Endless images of the detritus left behind when the American companies with headquarters offshore move their production to somewhere where the public has no choice, where they’re willing to work for pennies under terrible conditions to feed their families.\u00c2\u00a0 All done supposedly hands-off, it’s the LOCAL bosses who are responsible.\u00c2\u00a0 And, lock up those on drugs without jobs.\u00c2\u00a0 Ever think of giving them a gig, some OPPORTUNITY?<\/p>\n Some have maxed out all their credit cards There’s no longer a fresh start in America.\u00c2\u00a0 Congress gave the banks a pass.\u00c2\u00a0 The new bankruptcy bill will have you repaying debts for the rest of your life, even if some drunk hit you and you were in the hospital for a year and lost your job and are unable to work again.\u00c2\u00a0 And, the big companies will go out of business if there’s a living wage.\u00c2\u00a0 But what about the lives of those WORKING in the stores?<\/p>\n There’s a high school girl with a bourgeois dream Too many of the anti-abortion crusaders have HAD abortions.\u00c2\u00a0 Or their kids have.\u00c2\u00a0 But now, even if you want an abortion you can’t get one.\u00c2\u00a0 The clinics have shut down, the doctors afraid of being shot by zealots.\u00c2\u00a0 And NO ONE likes abortion.\u00c2\u00a0 But read "Freakonomics".\u00c2\u00a0 Legal abortion reduced the crime rate, never mind improved the life of those not burdened by unwanted children.\u00c2\u00a0 But science is passe.<\/p>\n Should I hate a people for the shade of their skin I’ll believe in the war when Barbara and Jenna Bush go.<\/p>\n But hell, why should they, their FATHER didn’t!<\/p>\n The government used to be OF the people.\u00c2\u00a0 Now it’s of a ruling class, using it to their own advantage.\u00c2\u00a0 If you don’t believe things are topsy-turvy, you’re one of the winners, ignoring the losers.<\/p>\n Will work for food How many kids got shot in Iraq because they couldn’t make it over here and they went in the Corps for the GIG?<\/p>\n Are those in the Ivy League schools, the WINNERS, having to do this?<\/p>\n Shit, start a draft and watch the war end instantaneously.\u00c2\u00a0 But, better to put the burden on the shoulders of those without a voice.\u00c2\u00a0 Nobody cares about them.<\/p>\n And that’s how it is You won’t find the truth on Fox News.\u00c2\u00a0 Not in the newspapers only running wire stories.\u00c2\u00a0 When confronted with violating the Constitution the President goes on OFFENSE, figuring this is the best DEFENSE!\u00c2\u00a0 We’re spreading democracy overseas, but here at home you want to be SAFE don’t you, you’re willing to give up your rights, RIGHT?\u00c2\u00a0 But no one asked you or me, we didn’t get a vote, they’re deciding for us.\u00c2\u00a0 They say they’re protecting us, but Katrina showed their competence is in serious question.\u00c2\u00a0 The nuclear plants and the ports are still unguarded half a decade after 9\/11, but we should trust those in charge.\u00c2\u00a0 BULLSHIT!<\/p>\n Get out of that limo Those town meetings Bush held in the run-up to the last election weren’t for us, they were for the pre-screened, the believers.\u00c2\u00a0 How come he can’t answer our questions.\u00c2\u00a0 Can’t anybody answer our questions?\u00c2\u00a0 Aren’t we ENTITLED to answers?<\/p>\n In Dayton, Ohio A friend said to equate "taxes" with "services".<\/p>\n The libraries have no books, and they’re barely open.<\/p>\n Hell, those not using the facilities shouldn’t be burdened by the cost.\u00c2\u00a0 Hell, I don’t have any kids, I shouldn’t pay for SCHOOLS!\u00c2\u00a0 Those without cars shouldn’t pay for roads.\u00c2\u00a0 Everybody should go to parochial school and grow their own food and get a gun to protect themselves.\u00c2\u00a0 You call this a SOCIETY?\u00c2\u00a0 I don’t.<\/p>\n The above song is entitled "We Can’t Make It Here".\u00c2\u00a0 By James McMurtry.<\/p>\n James McMurtry couldn’t make it in the major label system.\u00c2\u00a0 But he didn’t give up.\u00c2\u00a0 He didn’t go straight.\u00c2\u00a0 He soldiered on.<\/p>\n "We Can’t Make It Here" wasn’t on his first record, it came fifteen years on.\u00c2\u00a0 THIS is artist development.\u00c2\u00a0 Developing your craft so you can deliver your message articulately, in a way that moves people.<\/p>\n If you’re not moved by "We Can’t Make It Here", you have no ears.<\/p>\n Oh, the lyrics are great.\u00c2\u00a0 But it’s the way the music is circular, like a round, that enraptures you.<\/p>\n
Sitting there by the left turn line
Flag on the wheelchair flapping in the breeze
One leg missing and both hands free
No one’s paying much mind to him
The V.A. budget’s stretched so thin
And there’s more comin’ back from the Mideast war
We can’t make it here anymore<\/em><\/p>\n
It fed our kids and it paid our bills
But they turned us out and they closed the doors
We can’t make it here anymore<\/em><\/p>\n
They’re just gonna set there till they rot
‘Cause there’s nothing to ship, nothing to pack
Just busted concrete and rusted tracks
Empty storefronts around the square
There’s a needle in the gutter and glass everywhere
You don’t come down here unless you’re looking to score
We can’t make it here anymore<\/em><\/p>\n
Some are working two jobs and living in cars
Minimum wage don’t pay for a roof, don’t pay for a drink
If you gotta have proof just try it yourself Mr. CEO
See how far $5.15 an hour will go
Take a part time job at one of your stores
I bet you can’t make it here anymore<\/em><\/p>\n
Just like the pictures in the magazine
She found on the floor of the laundromat
A woman with kids can forget all that
And if she comes up pregnant what’ll she do
Forget the career, forget about school
Can she live on faith? Live on hope?
High on Jesus or hooked on dope
When it’s way too late to just say no
You can’t make it here anymore<\/em><\/p>\n
Or the shape of their eyes or the shape I’m in
Should I hate ’em for having our jobs today
No I hate the men sent the jobs away
I can see them all now, they haunt my dreams
All lily white and squeaky clean
They’ve never known want, they’ve never know need
Their shit don’t stink and their kids won’t bleed
Their kids won’t bleed in their damn little war
And we can’t make it here anymore<\/em><\/p>\n
Will die for oil
Will kill for power and to us the spoils
The billionaires get to pay less tax
The working poor get to fall through the cracks
So let ’em eat jellybeans, let ’em eat cake
Let ’em eat shit, whatever it takes
They can join the Air Force, or join the Corps
If they can’t make it here anymore<\/em><\/p>\n
And that’s what we got
If the President wants to admit it or not
You can read it in the paper
Read it on the wall
Hear it on the wind
If you’re listening at all<\/em><\/p>\n
Look us in the eye
Call us on the cell phone
Tell us all why<\/em><\/p>\n
Or Portland, Maine
Or a cotton gin out on the great high plains
That’s done closed down along with the school
And the hospital and the swimming pool
And dust devils dance in the noonday heat
There’s rats in the alley
And trash in the street
Gang graffiti on a boxcar door
We can’t make it here anymore<\/em><\/p>\n