In stitches

In Stitches by David Bazan (from his forthcoming album Curse Your Branches).

My body bangs and twitches

This brown liquor wets my tongue

My fingers find the stitches

Firmly back and forth they run

I need no other memory

Of the bits of me I left

When all this lethal drinking

Is to hopefully forget

About you

I might as well admit it

Like I’ve even got a choice

The crew have killed the captain

But they still can hear his voice

A shadow on the water

A whisper in the wind

On long walks my with daughter

Who is lately full of questions

About you

About you

When Job asked you the question

You responded, who are you

To challenge your creator

Well if that one part is true

It makes you sound defensive

Like you had not thought it through

Enough to have an answer

Or you might have bit off more than you could chew

Listen here. See also the recent article.

Songwriting as prophetic voice

Check out my Dad’s new series of posts on the prophetic voice of songwriting at rogerflyer.com

His own description of the series:

“In this series of blog posts I am postulating that songwriters serve as prophetic voices to tribes, governments, popular culture and to Christendom. Whether or not they are God’s prophets is where the conversation begins….”

So far he’s written four great posts, most of which are lyrics of his own songs:

1) Where have all the flowers gone?

2) Jesus was from Jersey

3) Blood and Land

4) Where you Greta Garbo?

Music Meme

D.W. Horskoetter over at Flying Farther tagged me in a music meme. This one takes a little while folks, so prepare yourself. I have to say it is well worth the time. It is interesting to think the music that has helped define your lifespan. So, the meme is to list your favorite albums for each year you have lived. The album doesn’t necessarily have to coincide with the year you listened to it. Although I probably listened to Bob Dylan’s Infidels and Bruce Cockburn’s Stealing Fire when I was a baby, I obviously don’t recall it. This is a difficult exercise and I could probably spend much more time on it, but this is the list I came up with in an hour. I’ll tag Roger, Erin, Steph, David, Joel, Markus, and Drew.

1983: Bob Dylan, Infidels

1984: Bruce Cockburn, Stealing Fire

1985: The Pogues, Rum Sodomy & The Lash

1986: Paul Simon, Graceland

1987: U2, The Joshua Tree

1988: Tracy Chapman, Tracy Chapman

1989: Van Morrison, Avalon Sunset

1990: Uncle Tupelo, No Depression

1991: Pearl Jam, Ten

1992: R.E.M. Automatic For the People

1993: Counting Crows, August and Everything After

1994: Jeff Buckley, Grace

1995: Radiohead, The Bends

1996: Red House Painters, Songs for a Blue Guitar

1997: Radiohead, OK Computer

1998: Billy Bragg and Jeff Tweedy, Mermaid Avenue

1999: Pedro the Lion, The Only Reason I Feel Secure

2000: Sunny Day Real Estate, The Rising Tide

2001: Low, Things We Lost in the Fire

2002: Wilco, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot

2003: Bruce Cockburn, You’ve Never Seen Everything

2004: Sufjan Stevens, Seven Swans

2005: Damien Jurado, On My Way to Absence

2006: Bruce Cockburn, Life Short Call Now

2007: The National, Boxer

2008: Billy Bragg, Mr. Love & Justice

We Tell The Story

My dear friend Joel Mason at The Herb of Grace has posted a beautiful new song along with some reflections on the mission of the church. 

Dave Warne & R.O. Flyer @ Fine Line Tonight

Dave Warne and I are playing at the Fine Line Music Cafe tonight (318 1st ave n) @ 8PM. Doors open at 7 and we play right at 8. It’ll be a 45 min set and we’ll be doing a combo of both of our songs. Hope you can make it!    

My Poppa’s New Record

My wonderful and talented father, Roger Flyer, has just completed a new record called “Songs Hidden In Eggs” that is being pressed right now. Within in this week it will be “hot off the press,” so I thought I’d let you in early. They will go fast! He is also playing a number concerts in the next few months at which he will be promoting the new album.

David Bazan on MPR’s The Current

David Bazan, former singer of Pedro the Lion, has been one of the most influential figures in my life. I have seen him perform at least thirty times now. He was in town on Tuesday night at The 7th Street Entry. I stood about ten feet away from him during the opening band’s performance. I thought seriously about talking to him, but what do you say? If I would have managed to build up the nerve to speak to him, I think I would have told him that he helped save me from fundamentalism. I still remember listening to him when I was 14. He really changed my life.

When in Minnepolis he stopped in at The Current and did a “in-studio performance.” Take a listen.

Billy Bragg Podcast

Call It Democracy by Bruce Cockburn

Call it Democracy
By Bruce Cockburn

padded with power here they come
international loan sharks backed by the guns
of market hungry military profiteers
whose word is a swamp and whose brow is smeared
with the blood of the poor

who rob life of its quality
who render rage a necessity
by turning countries into labour camps
modern slavers in drag as champions of freedom
sinister cynical instrument
who makes the gun into a sacrament –

the only response to the deification
of tyranny by so-called “developed” nations’
idolatry of ideology
north south east west
kill the best and buy the rest
it’s just spend a buck to make a buck
you don’t really give a flying fuck
about the people in misery

IMF dirty MF
takes away everything it can get
always making certain that there’s one thing left
keep them on the hook with insupportable debt
see the paid-off local bottom feeders
passing themselves off as leaders
kiss the ladies shake hands with the fellows
open for business like a cheap bordello

and they call it democracy
and they call it democracy
and they call it democracy
and they call it democracy

see the loaded eyes of the children too
trying to make the best of it the way kids do
one day you’re going to rise from your habitual feast
to find yourself staring down the throat of the beast
they call the revolution
IMF dirty MF
takes away everything it can get
always making certain that there’s one thing left
keep them on the hook with insupportable debt

The Lonesome Death of Rachel Corrie by Billy Bragg

Listen to the song here

The Lonesome Death of Rachel Corrie by Billy Bragg

Billy Bragg
Tuesday March 28, 2006
Guardian

Rachel Corrie went to Gaza to draw attention to the plight of the Palestinians, whose voice is seldom heard in her country, the US. That she herself should be silenced – first by an Israeli bulldozer, next by a New York theatre cancelling a play created from her words – is a testimony to the power of her message. This song was written on a plane on March 20 and recorded at Big Sky Recordings, Ann Arbor, Michigan on March 22. The tune is borrowed from Bob Dylan.
An Israeli bulldozer killed poor Rachel Corrie
As she stood in its path in the town of Rafah
She lost her young life in an act of compassion
Trying to protect the poor people of Gaza
Whose homes are destroyed by tank shells and bulldozers
And whose plight is exploited by suicide bombers
Who kill in the name of the people of Gaza
But Rachel Corrie believed in non-violent resistance
Put herself in harm’s way as a shield of the people
And paid with her life in a manner most brutal

But you who philosophise disgrace and criticise all fears,
Take the rag away from your face.
Now ain’t the time for your tears.

Rachel Corrie had 23 years
She was born in the town of Olympia, Washington
A skinny, messy, list-making chain-smoker
Who volunteered to protect the Palestinian people
Who had become non-persons in the eyes of the media
So that people were suffering and no one was seeing
Or hearing or talking or caring or acting
And the horrible math of the awful equation
That brought Rachel Corrie into this confrontation
Is that the spilt blood of a single American
Is worth more than the blood of a hundred Palestinians

But you who philosophise disgrace and criticise all fears,
Take the rag away from your face.
Now ain’t the time for your tears.

The artistic director of a New York theatre
Cancelled a play based on Rachel’s writings
But she wasn’t a bomber or a killer or fighter
But one who acted in the spirit of the Freedom Riders
Is there no place for a voice in America
That doesn’t conform to the Fox News agenda?
Who believes in non-violence instead of brute force
Who is willing to confront the might of an army
Whose passionate beliefs were matched by her bravery
The question she asked rings out round the world
If America is truly the beacon of freedom
Then how can it stand by while they bring down the curtain
And turn Rachel Corrie into a non-person?

Oh, but you who philosophise disgrace and criticise all fears,
Bury the rag deep in your face
For now’s the time for your tears.

· My Name Is Rachel Corrie, co-edited by Alan Rickman and Guardian features editor Katharine Viner, opens at the Playhouse theatre tonight. Telephone 0870 060 6631. Listen to an exclusive download (MP3) of the song here.

Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2006