Song Lyric Sunday 11-27-16

I can’t believe I had to think so long to respond to this week’s Sunday Song Lyrics Challenge.

But I read a post today by one of my favorite Bloggers

(Marilyn Armstrong https://teepee12.com/2016/11/29/standing-with-standing-rock/)

And it triggered the landslide memory of this song from 1971. I remember its profound impact on me when I was just a pup, a budding Flower Child. I had been focused on racial injustice and Civil Right for Blacks, and had already served in VISTA in the Deep South. But I’d truly never even known about our treatment of Native Americans.

This song “blew my mind” as we said back then, and taught me a lot, and inspired me to action!

Indian Reservation by Paul Revere & the Raiders
They took the whole Cherokee nation
Put us on this reservation
Took away our ways of life
The tomahawk and the bow and knife
Took away our native tongue
And taught their English to our young
And all the beads we made by hand
Are nowadays made in Japan
Cherokee people
Cherokee tribe
So proud to live
So proud to die
They took the whole Indian nation
Locked us on this reservation
Though I wear a shirt and tie
I’m still part redman deep inside
Cherokee people
Cherokee tribe
So proud to live
So proud to die
But maybe someday when they learn
Cherokee nation will return, will return
Will return, will return, will return
Lyrics from Google Music
Songwriters: John Loudermilk / John D Loudermilk
Indian Reservation lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC

https://helenespinosa.wordpress.com/2016/11/26/song-lyric-sunday-theme-for-112716/

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SongLyricSunday-Gratitude #2

https://helenespinosa.wordpress.com/2016/11/19/song-lyric-sunday-theme-for-112016/#respond

Choice number two for this week’s Song Lyric theme of Gratitude from Helen Espinosa has to be…

 

Thank U
by Alanis Morissette
Lyrics by Google Play

How ’bout getting off these antibiotics
How ’bout stopping eating when I’m full up
How ’bout them transparent dangling carrots
How ’bout that ever elusive kudo

Thank you India
Thank you terror
Thank you disillusionment
Thank you frailty
Thank you consequence
Thank you thank you silence

How ’bout me not blaming you for everything
How ’bout me enjoying the moment for once
How ’bout how good it feels to finally forgive you
How ’bout grieving it all one at a time

Thank you India
Thank you terror
Thank you disillusionment
Thank you frailty
Thank you consequence
Thank you thank you silence

The moment I let go of it was the moment
I got more than I could handle
The moment I jumped off of it
Was the moment I touched down

How ’bout no longer being masochistic
How ’bout remembering your divinity
How ’bout unabashedly bawling your eyes out
How ’bout not equating death with stopping

Thank you India
Thank you providence
Thank you disillusionment
Thank you nothingness
Thank you clarity
Thank you thank you silence

Written by Narada Michael Walden, Walter Afanasieff, Clarence Clemons • Copyright © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Warner/Chappell Music, Inc, Universal Music Publishing Group, The Bicycle Music Company

 

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SongLyricsSunday-Gratitude

https://helenespinosa.wordpress.com/2016/11/19/song-lyric-sunday-theme-for-112016/#respond

Well, I think this is a great theme for this Thanksgiving week (and not at all “cheesy” Helen)!

I knew my song immediately…well, my first song anyway.

You know when that question shows up “If you could have ONE album to play while stranded on a desert island, which one would it be?” This comes from my choice. Don Henley’s Inside Job. His opus. His Therapy album. His masterpiece.

This song gave me great comfort when a 25 year long business (and friendship) partnership ended. I had to fight hard to not focus just on the loss, and move into gratitude.

I hope the video works. It is the only one I could find of Don Henley actually singing

My Thanksgiving

http://v.yinyuetai.com/video/117860   (copy and paste and wait just a second…it will start)

 

My Thanksgiving
Lyrics by Google Play

A lot of things have happened
Since the last time we spoke
Some of them are funny
Some of ’em ain’t no joke
And I trust you will forgive me
If I lay it on the line
I always thought you were a friend of mine

Sometimes I think about you
I wonder how you’re doing now
And what you’re going through

The last time I saw you
We were playing with fire
We were loaded with passion
And a burning desire
For every breath, for every day of living
And this is my Thanksgiving

Now the trouble with you and me, my friend
Is the trouble with this nation
Too many blessings, too little appreciation
And I know that kind of notion¡ªwell, it just ain’t cool
So send me back to Sunday school
Because I’m tired of waiting for reason to arrive
It’s too long we’ve been living
These unexamined lives

I’ve got great expectations
I’ve got family and friends
I’ve got satisfying work
I’ve got a back that bends
For every breath, for every day of living
This is my Thanksgiving

Have you noticed that an angry man
Can only get so far
Until he reconciles the way he thinks things ought to be
With the way things are

Here in this fragmented world, I still believe
In learning how to give love, and how to receive it
And I would not be among those who abuse this privilege
Sometimes you get the best light from a burning bridge

And I don’t mind saying that I still love it all
I wallowed in the springtime
Now I’m welcoming the fall
For every moment of joy
Every hour of fear
For every winding road that brought me here
For every breath, for every day of living
This is my Thanksgiving

For everyone who helped me start
And for everything that broke my heart
For every breath, for every day of living
This is my Thanksgiving

Written by Don Henley, Jai L. Winding, Stanley Lynch • Copyright © Universal Music Publishing Group

 

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