The Alarm: My Town

I am back to listening to a lot of music from The Alarm this past week. It didn't arrive in time for Christmas, so my wife gave me the package of all four winter releases for my birthday (didn't receive the Christmas-or birthday card-though). I always have appreciated the music of Mike Peters and The Alarm (bought the original EP the first day it was released in America). Mike is such a nice guy (sort of like the Captain Kangaroo of Rock music)! I am sure I am the first to make that comparison, but he just makes you feel comfortable, like the Captain did (although I don't think the Captain could rock!). His lyrics are filled with hope, optimism, fight, and faith. One song that I have been reacquainted with on the new cds is called "My Town". It has a great sound and punctuates the atmosphere of a post 9/11 world. I just personally hate one line, "Not even Jesus Christ could separate the sinners from believers." I know Mike is trying to prove a point here about people, but he misses the point from scriptures that Jesus is the Good Shepard that know his sheep: "I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me— just as the Father knows me and I know the Father—and I lay down my life for the sheep." John 10:14-15. I don't appreciate that these lyrics strip Jesus of his power to know "who" belongs to him and who doesn't and this song always makes me feel uncomfortable (would the Captain ever do that?). We may not, as humans, be able to judge people accurately as this song suggests, but I think it is misguided to think that, even in a song, Jesus is as powerless as us. If I was writing the song, I think it would pack just as much punch to say, "That only Jesus Christ could separate the sinners from believers. It goes against my core beliefs, but otherwise it is a great song. Sorry Mike!

Here is a performance of the song from Fearlessmusic.com.

the

'My Town'

Here it comes the reaping of the whirlwind that was promised us
And all the streets are littered with the tension and the pressure
A culture spreads it's needles ‘round like flowers in the garden
The only thing that comes for free is the air we need to breathe
This is where I come from
This is my town

When I last looked everything was black and white but now it's grey
Not even Jesus Christ could separate the sinners from believers
Backpack bombs and cups of tea lying on the kitchen table
The only thing that I believe I'm fighting fit and able
This is where I come from
This is my town

Turn off the lights listen to the city by the river
Turn off the power listen to the pulse of your heart beating
Turn off the sound listen to the blood running through your veins
Turn off the voice that says that all of this has not been worth it

I can't take back the bullets fired in the name of God
Two wrongs don't make it right
Two rights don't make it wrong
This is where I come from
This is my town

Band of Skulls: Shock Sessions

Here is a studio romp through six of the songs off "Baby Darling Doll Face Honey" by the Band of Skulls. It can be found on Shockhound.com.

Fresh from contributing a track to the Twilight Saga: New Moon soundtrack, England's hottest new buzz band lays down a scorching live set in the ShockHound Studio. Songs include "Light Of The Morning," "Death By Diamonds And Pearls," "Patterns," "Blood" and "Impossible."

Here is a review of some of the influences found on the album.


Here is another Shockhound video session:

Southhampton, UK power trio Band Of Skulls rock the ShockHound stage for this exclusive Shock Sessions performance. Songs include "Patterns," "I Know What I Am," "Death By Diamonds And Pearls," "Blood," and "Impossible."

Here is a Shockhound video for Fires.


FIRES

Baby, Darling, Doll Face, Honey
Now I don't mean to cause you worry
It's only hands in my pocket
And the Queen on my money

Did you know I've been wanting you?
so leave your locks on the latches
If you bring the water, I'll bring the matches

'cause we are fires in the night
We are fires in the night
Let us bathe you in our heart
'cause we are fires in the night

Come on get up Romeo
Don't you know what the time is?
It's the fall of rock 'n roll,
That's what the news said

Did you know I've been wanting you?
so leave your locks on the latches
If you bring the water, I'll bring the matches

'cause we are fires in the night
We are fires in the night
Let us bathe you in our heart
'cause we are fires in the night

we are fires in the night
we are fires in the night
let us bathe you in our life
we are fires in the night

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