Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Shuttin Detroit Down and it Has Nothing to do With Pigs...

I am a huge lover of country music. Mostly because the way they sing and write is so heartfelt and emotional. People stereotype country music to be about "your dog dying, your mama dying, your wife leaving, your husband cheating, losing a job, etc. etc." But if life were perfect and there were no conflicts to resolve where would ANY artform be?
There is a song by Sugarland called "Very Last Country Song" and the chorus goes...

If life stayed the way that it was
And lovers never fell out of love
If memories didn't last so long
If nobody did nobody wrong
If we knew what we had before it was gone
If every road led back home
This would be the very last country song

That being said...I also love country music because they sing about tough issues. Alan Jackson sang a song called "Where Were You When the World Stopped Turning" and Darryl Worley one called "Have You Forgotten" both of which are about September 11th. Toby Keith has the "Courtesy of the Red White and Blue" song about the war in Iraq. Dixie Chicks "I'm Not Ready to Make Nice". All these deal with political issues in one way or another. Now I know groups like U2, Green Day, etc..also write songs about political issues but it seems that they are all very democratically based...go figure. Now I'm not one who normally preaches about politics. Yes I have my opinions on issues and I am more than happy to debate my point of view (just ask my sister) but lately I feel like there has been a huge injustice done to the working people of our country. My mom has blogged about it numerous times probably because she is VERY vocal about her opinions on political issues but also because she is seeing this stuff happen in a place where she grew up so it hits close to home. I watch CMT pretty much every morning and lately one video that keeps playing over and over again is one by John Rich formerly of the group Big and Rich called "Shuttin Detroit Down". It's all about he auto industry in Detroit. Hundreds of people are losing their jobs and in turn losing their homes etc. The video is very moving as are the lyrics of the song. One line says something about how a man who has had a steady job for 3o years now "can't afford to die"...literally. What really makes me mad is that....HOW MANY BANKS HAVE BEEN BAILED OUT??? How many big corporations CEO's have had bonuses? But we can't "afford" to help the auto industry??? Really?
I read somewhere someone who said "I think that this new "Change" is a much bigger epidemic and problem than swine flu"
Amen to that.
Everyone should please watch the video HERE it will change your life.

1 comment: