Friday, June 18, 2021

Your Evening Audio...White Man's World.

Don'tShutUp,And...
KeepSingingVille


I grew up on Southern Vancouver Island.

In my middle teens I became very good friends with three brothers who went to Catholic School. 

So much so that their family became my second family.

We did all kinds of things together, including forming our first garage band with egg cartons stuck to the reverberating walls and everything. 

One time, one of the brothers started making jokes about a bunch of other kids their school sports team played against.

And, when the joking started, I said nothing.

Despite the times, even then I knew my gutless act of going along to get along was the wrong thing to.

Because those 'other' kids came from a school on Kuper Island, which we all know is a place a good many of those kids didn't come from and never, ever wanted to go to.

So... Now is the time for all of us to listen, hard, to the folks that lived through the hell that was those schools. 

And then we must resolve to do the right thing by all of them.

OK?

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Jason Isbell grew up in Northern Alabama. 

He, too, said nothing when he was a kid and jokes about 'others' came up.

Now, though, he goes out of his way to speak up and try and do the right thing.

Which isn't an easy thing to do when you make your living as a good old boy writing and singing country rock songs. 

But that sure as heckfire hasn't stopped Mr. Isbell both speaking up and singing...





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Isbell does his professional six-stringed riffing thing on the song concerned...Here.
Isbell speaks, with author George Sanders...Here.


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2 comments:

nvg said...

Lyrics by Jason Isbell

I'm a white man living in a white man's world
Under our roof is a baby girl
I thought this world could be hers one day
But her mama knew better

I'm a white man living in a white man's town
Want to take a shot of cocaine and burn it down
Mama wants to change that Nashville sound
But they're never gonna let her

There's no such thing as someone else's war
Your creature comforts aren't the only things worth fighting for
Still breathing, it's not too late
We're all carrying one big burden, sharing one fate

I'm a white man living on a white man's street
I've got the bones of the red man under my feet
The highway runs through their burial grounds
Past the oceans of cotton

I'm a white man looking in a black man's eyes
Wishing I'd never been one of the guys
Who pretended not to hear another white man's joke
Oh, the times ain't forgotten

There's no such thing as someone else's war
Your creature comforts aren't the only things worth fighting for
You're still breathing, it's not too late
We're all carrying one big burden, sharing one fate

I'm a white man living in a white man's nation
I think the man upstairs must'a took a vacation
I still have faith, but I don't know why
Maybe it's the fire in my little girl's eyes
Maybe it's the fire in my little girl's eyes

RossK said...

Thanks NVG--

Better words than mine.


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