Wednesday, October 24, 2007

Christmas In Washington

By Steve Earle is a very good song. Add in Joan Baez and it gets even better.

Enjoy.




It's Christmastime in Washington
The Democrats rehearsed
Gettin' into gear for four more years
Things not gettin' worse
The Republicans drink whiskey neat
And thanked their lucky stars
They said, 'He cannot seek another term
They'll be no more FDRs'
I sat home in Tennessee
Staring at the screen
With an uneasy feeling in my chest
And I'm wonderin' what it means

Chorus:
So come back Woody Guthrie
Come back to us now
Tear your eyes from paradise
And rise again somehow
If you run into Jesus
Maybe he can help you out
Come back Woody Guthrie to us now


I followed in your footsteps once
Back in my travelin' days
Somewhere I failed to find your trail
Now I'm stumblin' through the haze
But there's killers on the highway now
And a man can't get around
So I sold my soul for wheels that roll
Now I'm stuck here in this town

Chorus

There's foxes in the hen house
Cows out in the corn
The unions have been busted
Their proud red banners torn
To listen to the radio
You'd think that all was well
But you and me and Cisco know
It's going straight to hell

So come back, Emma Goldman
Rise up, old Joe Hill
The barracades are goin' up
They cannot break our will
Come back to us, Malcolm X
And Martin Luther King
We're marching into Selma
As the bells of freedom ring
So come back Woody Guthrie
Come back to us now
Tear your eyes from paradise
And rise again somehow
If you run into Jesus
Maybe he can help you out
Come back Woody Guthrie to us now


3B's

10 Comments:

Blogger Sherry Pasquarello said...

how perfect! thanks.

5:10 AM  
Blogger pissed off patricia said...

Damn, one great song!

5:17 AM  
Blogger BadTux said...

Since Steve got out of prison he's been on a songwriting tear. Aint' sold a heckuva lot of records, but so it goes.

11:59 AM  
Blogger BadTux said...

Just to clarify, Steve ain't starvin', he just doesn't give a shit about selling records for the sake of selling records anymore. Prison seems to have beat that out of him. He was never exactly a shrinking violet, and has always been an extremely prolific songwrighter (I've seen video of him performing a couple of his songs when he was barely twenty years old, good songs too -- and they've never been recorded on any of his albums because he has so many songs he could be recording forever and never be done), but since he got out of prison he's gone to another level. Not always successfully, but with the words "retreat" and "surrender" not in his vocabulary.

Which of course is why Clear Channel and their ilk hate him and won't play him -- he won't suck up to their monopolistic dumbed-down formula. Their loss. Meanwhile, Steve isn't selling tens of millions of records, but he's selling plenty enough to get by and make more music, which is all he really cares about...

12:11 PM  
Blogger Unknown said...

Luckily, KGSR in Austin does play him. I cried the first time I heard Jersulem and Home to Houston.

1:58 PM  
Blogger The Minstrel Boy said...

on the upside of life, i heard he's doing just fine with downloads, and performing close to home. i love the boy. it was a shame he had to do that time, but he said nothing less would have slowed him down on his suicide run.

iTunes and some of the other by the tune sites are doing a brisk business.

5:44 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Steve has never been affraid to speak his mind and address controversial issues. One of his strengths is that he's never pigeon holed into any one style. Take his Copperhead Road CD. A hard hitting CD but it ends with Nothing But A Child which is about as pretty a Christmas song as I've ever heard. His CD's are a mixture of different styles except for The Mountain in which he decided to write a whole bluegrass CD. It's a gem too.

I like Steve, can you tell?

9:04 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Copperhead Road is one of my all time favorite cds. I heard that the Del McCoury Band quit wanting to play with him because he used the F word on stage too much. His wife Allison Moorer is a very good singer in her own right. Steve has been married a bunch of times and has said over and over he is not afraid of commitment.

yo soy Horsedooty!

9:49 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

He was married to one gal twice. His comment about it being that their divorce didn't work out.

8:14 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Thanks for posting this. I've been wondering about something. Are there cds of your music available to purchase or mp3s available to listen to or download?

9:49 PM  

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