Open Thread - Thurs 16 Jun - Musical Lyrics

Lyrics' Meanings Grow as We Do: A Recent Example

A few days ago I was in the kitchen dancing around as I cooked dinner, Pandora radio blaring through my cellphone which was linked by Bluetooth to a speaker set. How things have changed, eh?

Anyway, I wasn't listening to any new music, I was playing my 'Madness Radio Thumbs Up Playlist'. Most of the playlist's songs are ska, reggae or punk, and a fair amount of them are from British bands, or West Coast (except the Ramones, of course Smile ) USA bands, or German bands. And all of the songs are old; 15-20 years old at the youngest.

A Rancid song came on. The band is from Berkeley, CA (here's their website). The song is from 1998, so it's 25 years old almost. The song is called 'Life Won't Wait'. Good song, I was dancing around, frying tortillas, making tacos. And I was singing along, because I know all the lyrics to these songs. But it suddenly struck me because of what's going on in the world, because of the great summaries and articles featured on this website and others (like this one from yesterday by gjohnsit or this weekly watch by lookout or this older article by snoopydawg), that this song is about Davos and the Great Reset, isn't it? How can it be?, it's 25 years old... but that's where my mind went. 25 years ago it took my mind to war protests, economic fights, racial justice and more. But now... "...the vision is a new world order..."

Here's the song: It is ska punk, recorded in Jamaica with some of the better known reggae/ska artists of the time.
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nlNvbmxdjbc]

And here's the lyrics (copied below), what do you think, seems like Davos' 'Reset'? I guess it shows how long the 'new world order' has been pushed at us, how long this danger of being ruled only by the economic elite without any democratic 'say' of the people has been looming.

Teach the children and disciples to wage a brand of war
Religious and prestigious keep the quest for the holy grail
The eye atop the pyramid is open and awake
The pagans own the rituals and the quiet world begins to say

The vision is a new world order
The vision is a new world order
The vision is a new world order
Come along and tell your sister and your brother

The force of war, dynamite blast
Writhes on the weak and the poor
Don′t want to see my brother in pain
When the little man fighting all big men's wars
Don′t know nothing 'bout no red, white and blue

Little men bring the big man too
Too many win, nobody lose
It all comes down to what will they choose

The vision is a new world order
The vision is a new world order
The vision is a new world order
Come along and tell your sister and your brother

The conscience of the public cannot be put to sleep
The conglomerate of the nations has no bounds in which they seek
Was it the mob tellin' the CIA to put us all in this state of fear
How many of us wish that we were at Jeff Kennedy′s hearing say

The vision is a new world order
The vision is a new world order
The vision is a new world order
Come along and tell your sister and your brother

See them try to rule the world
We don′t know why
Why they want to rule the world
Cuya

Only white men come and install the white power
With the mass destruction, them fighting about
While the world is under so much bondage
Here they come illuminati business

World wide they roam to keep us in fear
Well gangster treaties who keep us in fear
How much more can our people bear?
Need no more division

Need no more pride and I
I will keep on fighting to keep what's mine
We the people speaking our mind
And once more, would you say it for me now?

Dynamite blast of the force of war
Government rides on the weak and poor
Don′t want to see my brother in pain no more
When the little man fights all the big men's war

The senteries victimize
Mental slavery with the clever disguise
Our prides on our people must rise
Decide your fate and
Life won′t wait
Life won't wait
Oh, life won′t wait

The vision is a new world order
The vision is a new world order
The vision is a new world order
Come along and tell your sister and your brother

Isn't it kinda cool and kinda sad lyrics from that long ago, or longer (don't get me started on punk protest music from the 1970's and 80's, folk songs from the 1880s on, 1960's songs) can change meaning and adapt to what's current in our minds and still be relevant. And isn't it depressing how really, nothing has changed and yet everything has changed?

What older songs have changed meaning for you in the last few years, or given you a new take on aspects of life?

So, thanks for reading and here's the open thread - and remember, everything is interesting if you dive deep enough, so tell us about where you're diving!

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Sima's picture

Hope your day is going well! As usual, I'll be by in the afternoon/evening after chores are finished.

Today, the little bucks (now wethers) will be going to their new home. I'm excited because the new place looks to be great: lovely couple with a nice teenaged daughter, very interested in goats as pets.

I've had to put up anti-rabbit fencing in the garden for the first time ever. This is only the second year we've had rabbits bad here. I dunno if it's because we aren't mowing the fields as often (so they aren't taken by eagles and coyotes and so on as much) or if it's because our neighbors have put up more horse barns and so on. Or, maybe the rabbits are just infesting the area, as it's 'new' to them. Rabbits only got into this area about 10 or so years ago, a slow steady move north up the peninsula until they reached this location.

I'm remembering other lyrics that have become 'different' to me as I've aged. Most of them are tongue-in-cheek ribald verses, like 'baby's arm holding an apple' or 'pulling mussels from a shell'. Took me years, and living overseas, to understand those.

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7 users have voted.

If you're poor now, my friend, then you'll stay poor.
These days, only the rich get given more. -- Martial book 5:81, c. AD 100 or so
Nothing ever changes -- Sima, c. AD 2020 or so

Lookout's picture

Nice song.
War...what's it good for? Money and profit?

I learned this one a few years ago, and should start singing it again.
It is by Sting, but I learned it from the Duhks. I modified the lyrics a bit. Here's the original.
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ON0BV9Swwp4]
[Verse 1]
In the empire of the senses
You're the queen of all you survey
All the cities, all the nations
Everything that falls your way, I say

[Chorus]
There is a deeper world than this
That you don't understand
There is a deeper world than this
Tugging at your hand
[Verse 2]
Every ripple on the ocean
Every leaf on every tree
Every sand dune in the desert
Every power we never see

[Chorus]
There is a deeper wave than this
Smiling in the world
There is a deeper wave than this
Listen to me, girl

[Verse 3]
Feel it rising in the cities
Feel it sweeping over land
Over borders, over frontiers
Nothing will its power withstand, I say

[Chorus]
There is no deeper wave than this
Rising in the world
There is no deeper wave than this
Listen to me, girl

[Verse 4]
All the bloodshed, all the anger
All the weapons, all the greed
All the armies, all the missiles
All the symbols of our fear
[Chorus]
There is a deeper wave than this
Rising in the world
There is a deeper wave than this
Listen to me, girl

[Verse 5]
At the still point of destruction
At the center of the fury
All the angels, all the devils
All around us, can't you see?

[Chorus]
There is a deeper wave than this
Rising in the land
There is a deeper wave than this
Nothing will withstand

[Bridge]
I said, love is the seventh wave
I said, love is the seventh wave
I said, love is the seventh wave
I said, love is the seventh wave
I said, love is the seventh wave
I said, love is the seventh wave
I said, love is the seventh wave
I said, love is the seventh wave
I said, love is the seventh wave
I said, love is the seventh wave

Thanks for the OT!

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8 users have voted.

“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

enhydra lutris's picture

@Lookout

Thanks for the music, too. Music is akin to literature, visual arts, and poetry in certain respects:

Books act like a developing fluid on film. That is, they bring into consciousness what you didn’t know you knew.

That's from Clifton Fadiman who also said something more apropos to your OT which is what took me there:

When you reread a classic, you do not see more in the book than you did before; you see more in you than there was before.

Speaking of which, it's Bloomsday, but I won't belabor that (for now). A chickadee just gave a scrub jay hell in the tree outside my office window, feisty little shit. Haven't checked my plan/agenda for today yet, still working on coffee. Wink

Rabbits seem to proliferate wildly wherever they are introduced or otherwise manage to spread to, yet the young are shocking fragile and can literally die of fright, strange. Good luck dealing with them. Anything you come up with will, in turn, become a problem in and of itself.

be well and have a good one

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6 users have voted.

That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

Sima's picture

@enhydra lutris
Like you, I think the second one hits the spot on this OT exactly.

GO chickadee! They are giving my husband heck over keeping the feeders full. Well, them and every other bird around the place. We've got a rule here: if you start feeding the birds, you have to keep at it until Fall. But you can't stop in Fall, because Winter is coming, so you have to keep at it until Spring. But in Spring, it's baby time! In other words, we just feed the birds. Maybe that's why we've got rabbits now? Heh.

Watched one of the rabbits try to get into the fenced off spot I made in the garden. He/She couldn't do it. If they hop around, nibble here and there and mostly leave our food alone, I'm ok with that. Even if I have to work a lot harder to keep them out of the place. I might just put some chicken fence/wire around the whole garden. I'll have to turn it up every time I mow/weedeat around the garden but... it'll work and only be one rectangle of fencing, instead of tons of small garden bed.

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3 users have voted.

If you're poor now, my friend, then you'll stay poor.
These days, only the rich get given more. -- Martial book 5:81, c. AD 100 or so
Nothing ever changes -- Sima, c. AD 2020 or so

Sima's picture

@Lookout
and the Duhks :). I remember when that song came out, I listened to Sting a lot then. I should get back to doing that. I bet his songs will come with new meanings for me! Thanks for commenting on the song, I love this kind of learning!

up
1 user has voted.

If you're poor now, my friend, then you'll stay poor.
These days, only the rich get given more. -- Martial book 5:81, c. AD 100 or so
Nothing ever changes -- Sima, c. AD 2020 or so

I had rabbits under my house, and they got so used to me, they would come onto the porch while I sat there. Of course, I had nothing planted that they could harm, so I was glad for the company.
This year, no trace of them.
Sima, I would have a hard time cooking with that cool music blasting! I would be dancing all over the place!
Those lyrics could have been written today. Damn!
I am making a plan in my head for a week's vacation toward the end of August. We need a break already from this Texas heat.
The forecast for the next 10 days shows a low of 100 deg., a high of 104 deg. I want just one cool week.

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8 users have voted.

"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

Sima's picture

@on the cusp
I never thought of it, but they may be under the house here too. I think they are more out in the goat barns though, I've seen them racing across the path down there. I don't dislike them, actually. I don't want to hurt them. I like them. They just need to leave most of my food alone.

Teheh, I was dancing all over too. I count as I dance, every 20 fast beats, check the taco shell, unless the oil is really hot... then it's every 15. It is sometimes hard to keep the cooking straight, as I get too into the music!

104? I would melt, just melt. I'm to the point where I think it's 'hot' up here when it hits 75! So yea, take a vacation in the hottest weather!

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2 users have voted.

If you're poor now, my friend, then you'll stay poor.
These days, only the rich get given more. -- Martial book 5:81, c. AD 100 or so
Nothing ever changes -- Sima, c. AD 2020 or so

earthling1's picture

last week. Great album. "What do want from life" struck me as still relevant today I thought.
Have two rabbits hanging around the house. They haven't gotten in the garden yet, but I know they are going to be a problem soon.
I had a real problem with squirrels chewing the gas lines on two of my vehicles and the wiring on another. So I bought a trap and captured a couple dozen every year and take them down to the river, in the McMansion district, and bid them "Live long and prosper".
Rabbits would do well there.
Thanks for the OT.

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5 users have voted.

Neither Russia nor China is our enemy.
Neither Iran nor Venezuela are threatening America.
Cuba is a dead horse, stop beating it.

@earthling1 be better in a Beemer than a Ford.

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4 users have voted.

"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

earthling1's picture

@on the cusp
Had a T-Bird with the fuel pump in the gas tank, high pressure (40 psi). As soon as I turned the key on it started spewing gas all under the car, big time.
Don't know why, but something didn't seem right and I didn't start the car and as soon as I opened the door the smell overcame me.
Could have blown up right there.
Got a trap that day.

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6 users have voted.

Neither Russia nor China is our enemy.
Neither Iran nor Venezuela are threatening America.
Cuba is a dead horse, stop beating it.

@earthling1 God!
As my goofy nephew said decades ago, "You 'mart!"

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3 users have voted.

"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

Sima's picture

@earthling1
would do me in too. I'm glad it didn't blow up! Gads! How scary!

up
2 users have voted.

If you're poor now, my friend, then you'll stay poor.
These days, only the rich get given more. -- Martial book 5:81, c. AD 100 or so
Nothing ever changes -- Sima, c. AD 2020 or so

Sima's picture

@earthling1
Yep, still relevant. Very relevant. And I still love it.

Rabbits and the garden: my husband wants to try getting lattice (wooden) and/or fencing/netting and use rebar around the garden beds to make a simple, quick, easy to remove and move fence. I like the idea. Our garden has a fence around it, picket fence. I want to put chicken netting/wire on the picket fence but... I know I'll have to lift up the bottom to mow and weed eat. Bleh.

Squirrels and gas lines? My parents have problems with rats/mice doing the same thing, chewing the lines. Apparently the new lines are tasty, somehow. Since my parents have hybrids, the rodents have ruined the battery lines. Over 2k to fix the last time! I told them to get a cat, but my Mom won't do it. I love your idea of trapping the squirrels and moving them to McMansion-ville!

Thanks for commenting, love learning from your experiences... from everyone's experiences!

up
4 users have voted.

If you're poor now, my friend, then you'll stay poor.
These days, only the rich get given more. -- Martial book 5:81, c. AD 100 or so
Nothing ever changes -- Sima, c. AD 2020 or so