A song from nearly 50 years ago meshes well with LA in the 21st Century.
How We Live Now: Tiny Dancer
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A song from nearly 50 years ago meshes well with LA in the 21st Century.
Next post: True But Forbidden 8
Previous post: Fresh Out of Science: Woodpile Meditations of Ol’ Remus
Mailing Address for the Blue Planet
Your Say
My Back Pages
Search American Digest’s Back Pages
Real World Address for Donations, Mash Notes and Hate Mail
Who Am I? by Carl Sandburg
My head knocks against the stars.
My feet are on the hilltops.
My finger-tips are in the valleys and shores of
universal life.
Down in the sounding foam of primal things I
reach my hands and play with pebbles of
destiny.
I have been to hell and back many times.
I know all about heaven, for I have talked with God.
I dabble in the blood and guts of the terrible.
I know the passionate seizure of beauty
And the marvelous rebellion of man at all signs
reading “Keep Off.”
My name is Truth and I am the most elusive captive
in the universe.
Duty, Beauty, Liberty, Country, Honor, Family, Faith — Plus a few simple easy to follow rules for guys
The Vault
Take It Where You Find It
Men saw the stars at the edge of the sea
They thought great thoughts about liberty
Poets wrote down words that did fit
Writers wrote books
Thinkers thought about it
Take it where you find it
Can’t leave it alone
You will find a purpose
To carry it on
Mainly when you find it
Your heart will be strong
About it
Many’s the road I have walked upon
Many’s the hour between dusk and dawn
Many’s the time
Many’s the mile
I see it all now
Through the eyes of a child
Take it where you find it
Can’t leave it alone
You will find a purpose
To carry it on
Mainly when you find it
Your heart will be strong
About it
[Chorus]
Lost dreams and found dreams
In America
In America
In America
Lost dreams and found dreams
In America
In America
In America
And close your eyes
Leave it all for a while
Leave the world
And your worries behind
You will build on whatever is real
And wake up each day
To a new waking dream
Take it where you find it
Can’t leave it alone
You will find a purpose
To carry it on
Mainly when you find it
Your heart will be strong
About it
[Chorus]
Change, change come over
Change come over
Talkin’ about a change
Change, change
Change come over, now
Change, change, change come over
I’m gonna walk down the street
Until I see
My shining light
I’m gonna walk down the street
Until I see
My shining light
I’m gonna walk down the street
Until I see
My shining light
I’m gonna walk down the street
Until I see
My shining light
I see my light
See my light
See my shining light
I see my light
See my light
See my shining light
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Thanks, Gerard.
Is it because I’m housebound with a broken toe? Is it because I grew up listening to EJ in the Seventies? Was it the vacation I took in LA last year (working vacation, mind you)?
Seems to be some dust in here, and getting in my eyes.
Unadorned:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UroApoVbKn0
That song will always live within me. Ironically, it was probably only a couple of years ago that I finally knew what some of the lyrics are.
God bless the internet. That was marvelous. Do people still watch TV?
Regarding the lyric comment, frequently I search for the real words to songs I grew up with.
Lay me down in sheets of linnen.
Never would have figured tjat one out.
Now try Benny and the Jets
Got me all misty, too. Good lord, I know every landmark in that video, and I’ve visited most of them at one time or other. Los. Fucking. Angeles. Hate this goddam place. Except I love it. We love to hate it and we hate to love it. But dammit, I am an Angelino. It is my city, my culture, my America. And yeah, it’s gone down hill, and it ain’t the LA I fell in love with anymore. But I’m a curmudgeonly old bastard now, myself. Still my city.
JWM
That was a piece of work, brother.
And as jwm noted above we are formed by our surroundings and adapt to the where and the what we are immersed in. By doing that we take on the flavor and texture of the meat, we feel the bones, and share the pain of our (OUR) place. As a kid I used to think doing that was peculiar to the Appalachian South since that was my place and my people made sure those origins were known to all within earshot; we were a tribe connected as much to the soil and air as to the family tree and all it’s roots. But it wasn’t just my circle that felt that way, we’re all like that and some of the connections are sweet, some are bitter, some are both.
Rob Ziobro, That’s the line I looked up, because I never could tell what he sang.
Again, you never disappoint. Thank you
A million people, a million stories, all unique.