Bob Dylan: Little Drummer Boy

I have been listening to my copy of Bob Dylan's "Christmas from the Heart." Bob Dylan's voice sounds weary and hopeful like a favorite and worn out pair of boots. The lyrics to the songs are easy to hear as he sings to the Andy William's style arrangements. The critics don't get it, but I love the album. Here is his video for "The Little Drummer Boy." The images bring back joyful memories of Christmas time filled with family and friends as well the mystery of a new born baby.

New Emmanuel Jal single: We Fall

Emmanuel Jal is allowing people to download his new single "We Fall" for free at EmmanuelJal.com. It is a catchy and heartfelt song like other songs by Emmanual Jal. It is a thank-you for the people who donate to Gua Africa. Emmanuel Jal's projects are aimed a arming children in Africa with an education. From someone who was armed with an AK47 when he was a child, he knows the importance of education.

Education is the only way for my country. When you don't educate the people, you're crippling them. You are, you're not giving them ways to survive. --Emmanuel Jal

You can learn more an donate here.

Here is a recent Washington Times article.

Here are previous posts I made on Emmanuel Jal.


Here is a recent and excellent CNN video from last month that talks about Jal's life, book, music, and movie. It also talks about work toward building a school for children in Sudan. The article is here.


The good news is that he has a new album coming out in 2010.

I don't think that Bob Dylan is Talking about Santa Claus

Bill Flanagan has a wonderful interview with Bob Dylan over at Street News Service. He talks with Dylan about his new Christmas album Christmas in the Heart. Dylan can be elusive to figure out at times, but on one question he is quite clear:

Flanagan: You really give a heroic performance of O’ LITTLE TOWN OF BETHLEHEM The way you do it reminds me a little of an Irish rebel song. There’s something almost defiant in the way you sing, “The hopes and fears of all the years are met in thee tonight.” I don’t want to put you on the spot, but you sure deliver that song like a true believer.

Dylan: Well, I am a true believer.

Bob Dylan: Christmas in the Heart

This is just fantastic, a Bob Dylan Christmas album. You know you have to get a copy. It is called Christmas In the Heart. The prodeeds go to Feeding America.



Songs include:

1. Here Comes Santa Claus 

2. Do You Hear What I Hear?

3. Winter Wonderland

4. Hark The Herald Angels Sing

5. I'll Be Home For Christmas

6. Little Drummer Boy

7. The Christmas Blues

8. O' Come All Ye Faithful (Adeste Fideles) 

9. Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas 

10. Must Be Santa

11. Silver Bells

12. The First Noel

13. Christmas Island

14. The Christmas Song 

15. O' Little Town Of Bethlehem

Bruce Cockburn: The Rose Above the Sky

Andy Whitman has a thoughtful post on the loss of things on the Image blog. He talks about the loss of jobs, marriages, life, and relates it to the music of Bruce Cockburn, in particular the song, "The Rose Above the Sky" form the Humans album. He states of a friend who lost a business this uear:

It’s a bittersweet little melodrama I’ve seen re-enacted again and again in the past year; the end of longstanding good. And it doesn’t stop with employment woes. 2009 will mercifully end in a couple months. Auld lang syne, and good riddance.

He says of Cockburn's music:

In times like these—in most times, in fact—I listen to Bruce Cockburn and pray. I pray because I don’t know how else to process life, and because I figure that God would prefer that I moan and complain to Him rather than ignore Him and try to tough it out on my own.

And I listen to Bruce Cockburn because, more than any other songwriter I know, he seems to grasp the connection between the invisible hand of love and the all too visible scars of a messy life. Cockburn is a mystic with dirt under his finger nails, and I’ve listened to his beautifully poetic songs for 35 years now. And if he holds out for meaning, for answers, for beauty in the end—and he does—he is equally insistent that the sorrow and pain are real, and cannot be glibly explained away. These are redemption songs that ache.

I think I bought my first Bruce Cockburn album in 1982, so I have enjoyed his music and take on life for many years. You can listen to "Rose Above the Sky" here.


Lyrics:

Something jewelled slips away


Round the next bend with a splash

Laughing at the hands I hold out

Only air within their grasp

All you can do is praise the razor

For the fineness of the slash


'Til the Rose above the sky

Opens

And the light behind the sun

Takes all


Gutless arrogance and rage

Burn apart the best of tries

You carry the weight of inherited sorrow

From your first day till you die

Toward that hilltop where the road

Forever becomes one with the sky


'Til the Rose above the sky

Opens

And the light behind the sun

Takes all


Ozone on the midnight wind

Got me thinking of the sea

And the mercies of the currents that brought

Me to you and you to me

And in the silence at the heart of things

Where all true meetings come to be


'Til the Rose above the sky

Opens

And the light behind the sun

Takes all

Here is a video of Bruce Cockburn's "Lovers in a Dangerous Time" with the great line "Got to kick at the darkness till it bleeds daylight" which U2 echoed in "God part 2" with "Heard a singer on the radio late last night. He says he's gonna kick the darkness.Till it bleeds daylight."




LOVERS IN A DANGEROUS TIME



Don't the hours grow shorter as the days go by

You never get to stop and open your eyes

One day you're waiting for the sky to fall

And next you're dazzled by the beauty of it all

When you're lovers in a dangerous time

Lovers in a dangerous time



These fragile bodies of touch and taste

This vibrant skin this hair like lace

Spirits open to the thrust of grace

Never a breath you can afford to waste



When you're lovers in a dangerous time

Lovers in a dangerous time

When you're lovers in a dangerous time

Lovers in a dangerous time



When you're lovers in a dangerous time

Sometimes you're made to feel as if your love's a crime

Nothing worth having comes without some kind of fight

Got to kick at the darkness till it bleeds daylight



When you're lovers in a dangerous time

When you're lovers in a dangerous time

When you're lovers in a dangerous time

Lovers in a dangerous time

Band of Skulls and Prefab Sprout: Breaking Up Songs

When I first listened to Band of Skulls, I was immediatly reminded of an English group I hadn't listened to in years called "Prefab Sprout". Both groups have a male and female singer, sometimes breathy singing, and a similar "feel" (jangly guitars) to their songs. I may be the only one to make this connection, but for some reason it is something I notice even though I can't put an exact finger on why they sound similar. Maybe it is because they both have interesting sounding "breakup songs": see the two videos below for the Band of Skulls song, "Cold Fame", and Prefab Sprouts 1980's song, "When Love Breaks Down". After writing my first post on Band of Skulls, I noticed that the Steve Stockman, author of the book, Walk On: The Spiritual Journey Of U2 had a post on his blog Soul Surmise on a new Prefab Sprout release called "Let’s Change the World With Music". Actually it was a 1992 recording that has just been released. Steve writes"

That McAloon (of Prefab Sprout) believes that music has power is not a surprise. Where I sat up and really started to listen was when I realised that he adds another vital contribution to the mix; God. For McAloon, music is a gift of God for the transformation of individuals and society.

God is everywhere on Lets Change The World With Music. For McAloon the voice of God in our fallen world comes through music. His take on Genesis and the genesis of this album finds God speaking:

“Let there be music,

music will be...

and you shall hear my story,

you will glimpse my glory

and find a refuge

from the trouble that you see.”


Throughout the piece you’ll hear angels sing and sweet Gospel music will carry the heavy hearts, ignite the romance of love and the fire the acts of constructive change. On Ride people “walking in the footsteps of the Lord” know Jesus by their side. On Earth: The Story So Far the birth of Jesus comes with a message of salvation and love. God Watch Over You even suggests incredulously that McAloon is not a believer but is wearing out his knees praying for his children.

Band of Skulls "Cold Fame" from "Baby Darling Doll Face Honey



What's the point of pain if it's been abused?
What's a kid like me even got to lose?
Here I am on your bed again-- its too big for the room it's in.
Wash your face and mouth just a little bit,
everybody knows that you're good at it.
Nothing hurts like an answer phone, drinking some, waking up alone.
Maybe if I try just a little more, I can take myself from this dirty floor.
Walk through buildings of elegance, just like you are intelligent.
But still I fall from grace with this microphone,
how'd you find yourself if you never roam?
Certainly I'm indebted baby, certainly, certainly...

I know my place, but it don't know me.
I know my place, but it don't know me.

No one wants to hear that you're breaking up,
it wasn't long ago we said start me up.
Now all your dreamin' will have to wait, what you deserve you'll anticipate.
Play your 45 with this late at night, open all the windows, turn out the light.
Mysterious creatures will fill the room, a midnight show just put on for you.
But still I fall from grace with this microphone,
how'd you find yourself if you never roam?
Certainly I'm indebted baby, certainly, certainly...

I know my place, but it don't know me.
I know my place, but it don't know me.

Cold fame in my brain, but it's okay cause I know it's the best for me...

Prefab Sprout "When Love Breaks Down" as performed in 1985 from the album "Steve McQueen". In America, it was renamed Two Wheels Good for legal reasons.



When Love Breaks Down

My love and I, we work well together
But often we're apart
Absence makes the heart lose weight, yeah,
Till love breaks down, love breaks down

Oh my, oh my, have you seen the weather
The sweet September rain
Rain on me like no other
Until I drown, until I drown

When love breaks down
The things you do
To stop the truth from hurting you

When love breaks down
The lies we tell,
They only serve to fool ourselves,
When love breaks down
The things you do
To stop the truth from hurting you

When love breaks down, when love breaks down

My love and I, we are boxing clever
She'll never crowd me out
Fall be free as old confetti
And paint the town, paint the town
When love breaks down
The things you do
To stop the truth from hurtin' you
When love breaks down
The lies we tell,
They only serve to fool ourselves,
When love breaks down
The things you do
To stop the truth from hurtin' you
When love breaks down
The lies we tell,
They only serve to fool ourselves,
When love breaks down
The things you do
To stop the truth from hurting you
When love breaks down
You join the wrecks
Who leave their hearts for easy sex
When love breaks down
When love breaks down

Vertigo at Foxboro: U2 Concert September 20, 2009

Last night I went down to Foxboro for the U2 concert at Gillete Stadium. If you missed the show, here is how you can recreate my experience. Go to your driveway and sit in a car for over 3 hours. Climb a ladder and get up on the top of your roof. Have someone place 4 action figures on the ground below you. Put a stool on top of them. On the stool place an old 19 inch TV (extra points if you put it on a rotating turntable). Lift up the antenna. Put a rubber chicken on top of it (it is easier to find than a rubber octupus). Light the whole thing up with Christmas lights. Next tell your neighbors with the large stereo system to turn it on in their basement, crank a U2 cd up all the way, and open their windows.  At some point have a flashlight shine skyward from the top of the TV. Look down and enjoy the show.

Well sitting up in the nosebleed seats of Gillette Stadium was an experience! Looking down at the band they looked like people on the ground do as an airplane settles in to a landing at the airport. If the little man held a guitar, I figured out it wasn't Bono down on the stage. The gigantic video screen as part of the set at least let me know what was going on so far below. The sound was muddled up so high, but the familiar pulsating beats of the songs from the U2 catalog were still fun to listen to. Besides the 3 hours of traffic getting into the stadium, the concert was a fun experience that I got to share with my son, Andrew.  The comments in the Boston.com article here, tell you about people's positive and negative experiences.

Here is the set list:

1. Breathe

2. No Line On The Horizon

3. Get On Your Boots

4. Magnificent

5. Mysterious Ways

6. Beautiful Day / Blackbird (snippet)

7. Elevation

8. I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For / Stand By Me (snippet)

9. Unknown Caller

10. New Years Day

11. Stuck In A Moment

12. The Unforgettable Fire

13. City of Blinding Lights

14. Vertigo / She Loves You (snippet)

15. I'll Go Crazy If I Don't Go Crazy Tonight (Remix)

16. Sunday Bloody Sunday / Rock The Casbah (snippet)

17. MLK

18. Walk On

19. One / Amazing Grace (snippet)

20. Where The Streets Have No Name

21. UltraViolet (Light My Way)

22. With Or Without You

23. Moment Of Surrender

We missed the first two songs and left before the final song, sprinting to our car and beating traffic. After dropping off Andy at Gordon College, I didn't get home until 1:45 am. Highlights were Amazing Grace transitioning to "Where the Streets Have No Name" (although the singing was muddy) and "Stuck in a Moment" as it reminded me of times back when it first came out.

Video of Amazing Grace/Streets and Stuck in a Moment from the concert here:




It was my second U2 concert, I saw them on the Pop tour in Foxboro also. I don't know if I would want to go through the parking and driving hassle again and I certainly would like better seats! But it was a memorable time spent with Andy.

Here are some videos I found of the U2 concerts at Foxborough.