Big Mattress Song of the Week
Randy Newman: In Defense of Our Country.
(Click below for lyrics.)
A Few Words in Defense of Our Country
I’d like to say a few words
In defense of our country
Whose people aren’t bad nor are they mean
Now the leaders we have
While they’re the worst that we’ve had
Are hardly the worst this poor world has seen
Let’s turn history’s pages, shall we?
Take the Caesars for example
Why within the first few of them
They were sleeping with their sister
Stashing little boys in swimming pools
And burning down the City
And one of ‘em, one of ‘em
Appointed his own horse Consul of the Empire
That’s like vice president or something
That’s not a very good example, is it?
But wait, here’s one, the Spanish Inquisition
They put people in a terrible position
I don’t even like to think about it
Well, sometimes I like to think about it
Just a few words in defense of our country
Whose time at the top
Could be coming to an end
Now we don’t want their love
And respect at this point is pretty much out of the question
But in times like these
We sure could use a friend
Hitler. Stalin.
Men who need no introduction
King Leopold of Belgium. That’s right.
Everyone thinks he’s so great
Well he owned The Congo
He tore it up too
He took the diamonds, he took the gold
He took the silver
Know what he left them with?
Malaria
A President once said,
“The only thing we have to fear is fear itself”
Now it seems like we’re supposed to be afraid
It’s patriotic in fact and color coded
And what are we supposed to be afraid of?
Why, of being afraid
That’s what terror means, doesn’t it?
That’s what it used to mean
[To the first eight bars of “Columbia The Gem Of The Ocean”]
You know it pisses me off a little
That this Supreme Court is gonna outlive me
A couple of young Italian fellas and a brother on the Court now too
But I defy you, anywhere in the world
To find me two Italians as tightass as the two Italians we got
And as for the brother
Well, Pluto’s not a planet anymore either
The end of an empire is messy at best
And this empire is ending
Like all the rest
Like the Spanish Armada adrift on the sea
We’re adrift in the land of the brave
And the home of the free
Goodbye. Goodbye. Goodbye.
Comments
Always on the cutting edge of satire this little ditty was banned from BCN in '74. Actually all of Boston, it was during Forced busing.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-W8WmkHPpZ4
Posted by: Danny | May 9, 2008 10:57 AM
Penned before '74.
Amazing how much things change but still stay the same.
How long can we hang on?
Posted by: deke | May 9, 2008 03:22 PM
Is it just me, or did Louise Day Hicks using the campaign slogan, "You know where I stand," to exploit racial division in the city's urban island ethnic enclaves to advance from Boston School Committee member to City Council amidst the busing controversy, invoke the memory of Lester Maddox, notorious as the defiant ax handle-wielding segregationist who used his stance to become governor of Georgia?
If this were the Colbert Report, a caption saying "against liberty and justice for all" would have appeared in the right hand column as you read the previous paragraph.
Keep Louise in mind as you enjoy Danny's listening suggestion, which mentions Lester in its opening line.
And remember, that in 1974, in the city that calls itself "the cradle of liberty," anti-integration demonstrators clubbed a black passerby with the American flag just a short distance from where another black man was among the three fatalities of the Boston Massacre... in 1770.
Posted by: Mono | May 9, 2008 06:20 PM
Mono,
Calm down! It's a TOTAL put down of the likes of Louise Day Hicks, and Lester Maddox. Don't tell me you took it seriously?
Posted by: Danny | May 9, 2008 07:33 PM
Randy's a brown-skinned guy trapped in a pink-skinned guy's body.
Posted by: nooch | May 10, 2008 01:30 AM
Gotcha.
If this were the Colbert Report, a caption saying "psych" would appear in the right hand column as you read this paragraph.
Posted by: Mono | May 10, 2008 02:09 AM
Ignore it to your own sorrow
Posted by: joe 01 | May 12, 2008 07:31 AM