Sunday, February 13, 2005

Music in "our land"

On Thursday night I went to one of the most phenomenal concerts I've ever been to. Lyle Lovett, John Hiatt, Joe Ely, and Guy Clark took the stage, sat on four chairs and took turns playing songs.
If you're not familiar with them, (and I hadn't really heard the last two) they are four singer/songwriters whose incredible talent is matched by their relative lack of commercial success. John Hiatt, whom I'm most familiar with, has written songs that have been made famous by Bonnie Raitt (Thing Called Love), Jeff Healy (Angel Eyes), BB King and Eric Clapton (Riding with the King) and probably many more. Joe Ely and Guy Clark have been playing in the Texas circuit for a long time and supposedly gave Lovett his first album deal. Lovett is probably the most well known, and well worth all of his fame.

They traded stories, joked with each other, sang and played back up, and just looked like they were having a good time. I imagine each of them has so many songs that they could play whatever moves them on a given night. Hiatt complained about the cold of Madison, leading him to play the humorous "Wintertime Blues" and winning local fans by doing it. This lead Lovett to play "Flyswatter/Ice Water Blues", his
song about the Texas heat.
The show ended with all of them playing a phenomenal rendition of Woodie Guthrie's "This land is your land". The first verse and chorus are a well known tribute to the beauty of the America. But the last versus compare that beauty to the injustices of a country with some of the wealthiest and poorest people in the world. Injustices that are still relevant and prevalent today:

The familar chorus is first, followed by the concluding versus:

This land is your land,
This land is my land,
From California
To the New York Island,
From the redwood forest,
To the Gulf stream waters,
This land was made for you and me.

As I was walkin' - I saw a sign there
And that sign said - no tress passin'
But on the other side .... it didn't say nothin!
Now that side was made for you and me!

Chorus

In the squares of the city - In the shadow of the steeple
Near the relief office - I see my people
And some are grumblin' and some are wonderin'
If this land's still made for you and me.

Nobody living can ever stop me
As I go walking
That freedom highway
Nobody living can make me turn back
This land was made for you and me

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