P
Paul Kimball
Guest
Various meditations...
City of Angels
---------- Post added at 10:58 AM ---------- Previous post was at 10:56 AM ----------
Do You Think
I wrote this song in 1985, in my final year of high school, as a protest against Ronald Reagan's Presidency, and a call to think about what was happening. We recorded it in 1995 with Julia's Rain, and it was released as the final track on the "wonderful broken silence" CD. I've updated it for the 21st century, with new vocals added to the old... sort of a time travel duet with a younger me... and a President who was even worse and more dangerous than Reagan... (with a guess appearance by his Attorney General, John Ashcroft).
Eventually I plan to re-record it with better audio quality, but I also dig the low-fi version.
The Burial of Private Colin Patrick
Recorded on 4-track, 1997
There was no noise as the coffin was lowered
into the grave,
save for the sadness of the lonely bugle
hanging slowly in the withered air.
His comrades stood around
all of them hardened veterans of the war,
thinking of their fallen friend
while wondering which of the them
would be the next
to die.
The chaplain said a few words from the Bible
1 Peter, verses 4, 7 through 11,
after which the company commander stepped forward
and quoted from a certain President,
Abraham Lincoln,
who once said under somewhat similar circumstances
in another place:
It is rather for us to be here dedicated
to the great task remaining before us
that from these honoured dead we take increased devotion
to that cause for which they gave the last full measure
of devotion
that we here highly resolve that these
dead shall not have died
in vain
He concluded by telling the troops
how proud he had been to have served
with such a brave young man,
and then he turned and walked back
to the bunkers behind
the land of the red tabs.
The others marched slowly
in the opposite direction
heads bowed,
a few with salt in their eyes,
as they glanced back and bid farewell
to the mound of dirt and small white cross,
the only memorial to mark the place
of the burial of private Colin Patrick.
City of Angels
---------- Post added at 10:58 AM ---------- Previous post was at 10:56 AM ----------
Do You Think
I wrote this song in 1985, in my final year of high school, as a protest against Ronald Reagan's Presidency, and a call to think about what was happening. We recorded it in 1995 with Julia's Rain, and it was released as the final track on the "wonderful broken silence" CD. I've updated it for the 21st century, with new vocals added to the old... sort of a time travel duet with a younger me... and a President who was even worse and more dangerous than Reagan... (with a guess appearance by his Attorney General, John Ashcroft).
Eventually I plan to re-record it with better audio quality, but I also dig the low-fi version.
The Burial of Private Colin Patrick
Recorded on 4-track, 1997
There was no noise as the coffin was lowered
into the grave,
save for the sadness of the lonely bugle
hanging slowly in the withered air.
His comrades stood around
all of them hardened veterans of the war,
thinking of their fallen friend
while wondering which of the them
would be the next
to die.
The chaplain said a few words from the Bible
1 Peter, verses 4, 7 through 11,
after which the company commander stepped forward
and quoted from a certain President,
Abraham Lincoln,
who once said under somewhat similar circumstances
in another place:
It is rather for us to be here dedicated
to the great task remaining before us
that from these honoured dead we take increased devotion
to that cause for which they gave the last full measure
of devotion
that we here highly resolve that these
dead shall not have died
in vain
He concluded by telling the troops
how proud he had been to have served
with such a brave young man,
and then he turned and walked back
to the bunkers behind
the land of the red tabs.
The others marched slowly
in the opposite direction
heads bowed,
a few with salt in their eyes,
as they glanced back and bid farewell
to the mound of dirt and small white cross,
the only memorial to mark the place
of the burial of private Colin Patrick.
