RANGER AGAINST WAR: Different Trajectories <

Monday, December 17, 2007

Different Trajectories

You dark the sun you
Rain down fire on everyone
Scabs, police, government thieves
Venal psychic amputees

I see your auto suggestion psychology
Elimination policy
A military industrial
Illusion of democracy
--Swastika Eyes, Primal Scream

I know a place
Ain't nobody cryin'

Ain't nobody worried

Ain't no smilin' faces

Mmm, no no

Lyin' to the races
--I'll Take You There,
Alvertis Isbell
___________

It's just interesting to see how folks end up. Not saying that Bob Dylan was exploitative of his time, but this troubadour of change is now hawking the Cadillac mega SUV, the Escalade. Not exactly a green day sort of vehicle.

Play
YouTube - Bob Dylan in Cadillac Escalade 60 sec.flv


The video has all the working man trappings: trains, windmills, clotheslines, cattle, 16-wheelers and a dusty terrain. And Mr. Dylan certainly does look bad in his black suit and gloves. The clip closes with the text, "Life. Liberty. And the Pursuit." I suppose somehow the Escalade will take you there.

In contrast, Dylan contemporary Joni Mitchell continues to burn the flame for responsible living. The New Yorker magazine ran her poem, "Bad Dreams are Good" (9/17/07). It goes, in part,

Everyone’s a victim here
Nobody’s hands are clean
There’s so very little left of wild Eden Earth
So near the jaws of our machines
We live in these electric scabs
These lesions once were lakes
We don’t know how to shoulder blame
Or learn from past mistakes


Mitchell's poem ran a month or so before Dylan's foray into the luxury SUV market, but the stanza below could damn him:

And you cannot be trusted
Do you even know you are lying?
It’s dangerous to kid yourself
You go deaf, dumb, and blind
You take with such entitlement
You give bad attitude
You have No grace
No empathy
No gratitude
You have no sense of consequence
Oh, my head is in my hands
Bad Dreams are good
In the Great Plan

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2 Comments:

Blogger The Minstrel Boy said...

far be it from me to even dream of castigating somebody for selling out. i'm sure that the price was right, at least i hope that it was. joni mitchell is a dream. she's one of the few who is just as real off stage as she is onstage. it's the same person. she doesn't have a persona or a personality that she puts on for the lights. one of the best examples of what she does came in the band's the last waltz. neil young (with the huge boulder of half snorted cocaine air brushed out of the final print) is onstage singing his beautiful song "helpless." behind a screen, shown in sillouhette, joni begins singing along. first harmony and then a brilliant improvised descant. always in the shadows, never shown otherwise, singing her heart out.

that's the woman i love to be around.

Monday, December 17, 2007 at 9:56:00 PM EST  
Blogger Lisa said...

MB,

Thank you for that wonderful expansion. The person you describe resonates with her lyrics and poetry.

Monday, December 17, 2007 at 11:14:00 PM EST  

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