Thanks bicyclops.

eta:

Carry on with the protest songs.

Like a wayward son?

I heard a good review of a blues movie -- well, a movie of a blues concert called something like "Lightning in a Bottle" this morning. Has anyone here seen it?

(Also, they reviewed the John Lennon Acoustic album which sounds like fun.)

Don't you cry no more, tommyrot.

Everybody's Crying Mercy - by Mose Allison. It's on Kojak Variety, EC's 2nd album of covers.

Bonnie Raitt also has a nice version on one of her early, pre-success albumns. It's a damn fine song.

More Gang of Four needed, I think.

You probably didn't notice the ten minutes when I had "This heaven gives me migraine" as my tagline the other day before I switched to the Fiery Furnaces. I only realized on Monday that this song is specifically (rather than generally) about Bush.

"We Got Back The Plague" - Fiery Furnaces
That easy-going man of blood
Mucking out in the McLennan county mud
If you're hoping he won't, well of course then he must
Driving his truck through the McLennan county dust

I read in my book on Sunday afternoon
So it's easy to think the end's coming soon
But though sometimes the signs from heaven are vague
Early November we got back the plague

While beautiful Laura's sweeping the porch
He's teleconferencing up his operation torch
And I don't care if he bombs Babylon to hell
Except for he's building Babylon here as well

Waking up in Cedar Rapids asking for allies
Praising his leeches and looking for likewise
Down in St. Charles local talent he hawks
Smirking and sowing the winds as he talks

In Northern Virginia on their excursions
L.U.V. in with all their diversions
Horns for hounds and spurs for horses
Release the committed 72-hour task forces

Bentonville and Dallas with gasoline douse
Then back to Crawford going over to the firehouse
Behind the curtains not turning much of a trick
Sicking ourselves to make ourselves sick

That easy-going man of blood
Mucking out in the McLennan county mud
If you're hoping he won't, well of course then he must
Digging us down under the McLennan county dust.

Other great protest songs:

• "Christmastime in Washington" - Steve Earle
• "I Ain't Got No Home," "Deportees," and "Pretty Boy Floyd" (amongst many, many others) - Woody Guthrie
• Just about anything by the Minutemen, but especially "Political Song For Michael Jackson To Sing," "Working Men Are Pissed," and "This Ain't No Picnic"
• "My Brain Is Hanging Upside Down" - Ramones
• most Gang of Four, but "Not Great Men" kicks major ass
• much of the Mekons, but maybe "Shanty" and "Heaven and Back" are speaking to me above others right now
• "Reuters" - Wire

John Denver's Ballad of Spiro Agnew should have been up there.

Johnny Cash - Singin in Vietnam Talkin Blues

Anything by Brecht & Weill, but especially Ballad of the Soldier's Wife and What Keeps Mankind Alive

Anything by Brecht

With the exception of Dirty Song:

If a woman's hips are ample
Then I want her in the hay
Skirt and stockings all a-rumple
(Cheerfully) - for that's my way

If the woman goes on loving
When I feel too tired to play
I smile and go off waving
(Amiably) - for that's my way

Ha! OK - ALMOST anything.

Guess what?

I get to spend the weekend picking the songs they'll playing on NPR for our interview.

I'll be America's DJ!!!! Bwahahahahahaha!