![\"Lady](\"http:\/\/outoffog.net\/RESH\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Mme-Magna-Carta-300x300.jpg\")
Music to Direct, Documents to Protect<\/p><\/div>\n
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Had a thought a week ago about songs dealing with catastrophe such as we seem to face on many fronts and Barry McGuire\u2019s Eve of Destruction<\/b> started up in my internal player. Thursday last, as I was out navigating the aisles of a local grocery outlet, that very song came up, giving rise to reflections on how old you have to be before the soundtrack of your youth becomes the supermarket playlist, about how appropriate and topical the song remains, about how little progress we\u2019ve made toward some semblance of peace and justice in our governance. None of this seems very new, especially as I look back at some of the songs I\u2019ve embedded in my now-moribund on-line screed.<\/span><\/p>\n On Saturday, I got a notice that Danny Schmidt had put up a new recording: Danny is a Texas-based singer\/songwriter who passed through Vancouver Island once over a decade ago. He put on a lovely show with lots of stuff about building and ending relationships, but also material that touched on social issues, though with a light touch and a dose of humour and wit. The last bit of his work I engaged with was a song called Canaan, a very pointed comment on happenings (2024) in the Middle East:<\/span><\/p>\n CANAAN (lyrics):<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Somehow they got hold of thunder\u00a0<\/span><\/span> New blood in an old old battle<\/span><\/span> Once upon a mistake in judgement\u00a0<\/span><\/span> So who\u2019s in charge when a leader\u2019s chosen?\u00a0<\/span><\/span> Bridge:<\/span><\/span> When the sky\u2019s as black as the devil\u2019s laughter\u00a0<\/span><\/span> And now somehow they got hold of thunder\u00a0<\/span><\/span> The new effort is much more broadly targeted, and ultimately applicable in many geographical contexts, although clearly the current pass in the U.S. is the primary case study. The song is called Madame Magna Carta<\/b>:<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n MADAM MAGNA CARTA (lyrics)<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n When their best of worst intentions meets our greatest fear<\/span> Refrain:<\/span> The framers and the farmers both built fences round their fields\u00a0<\/span> Refrain<\/span><\/p>\n Just an inconvenient contract, that\u2019s all we\u2019ve ever been<\/span> Refrain<\/p>\n Madam Magna Carta, the once and fallen queen Refrain<\/p>\n These are available on Danny\u2019s Bandcamp site (https:\/\/dannyschmidt.bandcamp.com\/album\/madam-magna-carta<\/a>) on a \u201cname your price\u201d basis. I certainly value the work well above what streaming services pay and don\u2019t think that musicians should have to scrimp and scratch for a decent living or necessarily have a \u201cday job\u201d.<\/p>\n There was a time when I hoped that the message in music could move us to a society better able and more willing to ensure a dignified and fulfilling life for every one of us. I was wrong. For every Danny Schmidt, there is a Ted Nugent. For every Woody Guthrie, there is a Meatloaf. As well, it may be that the major corpus of musicians are just either ignorant of, or indifferent to the cataclysms on our horizon, or both, much like a good portion of citizens of most jurisdictions. Circling back to Barry McGuire, the portents from the Middle East, the blithe acceptance of violence as a mode of problem solving and the utter lack of either an adult presence to calm the waters or some sort of karmic enforcement mechanism makes Tom Lehrer\u2019s We Will All Go Together When We Go<\/b> an increasingly likely fate for all of us.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Had a thought a week ago about songs dealing with catastrophe such as we seem to face on many fronts and Barry McGuire\u2019s Eve of Destruction started up in my internal player. Thursday last, as I was out … Continue reading
\nSomehow they got told to strike\u00a0<\/span><\/span>
\nLittle hope leaves little wonder\u00a0<\/span><\/span>
\nThat those dogs will bite<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n
\nNew scars on an ancient stone<\/span><\/span>
\nBut short memories cast long long shadows\u00a0<\/span><\/span>
\nWhen the sun gets low<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n
\nOnce upon a recurring crime<\/span><\/span>
\nAn empty court made a empty promise\u00a0<\/span><\/span>
\nThen drew a muddy line<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n
\nThen who\u2019s to blame for the price of blood?\u00a0<\/span><\/span>
\nAnd who\u2019s to say when the fighting\u2019s over?\u00a0<\/span><\/span>
\nThe tail that wags the dove<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n
\nWhat makes holy land so holy?\u00a0<\/span><\/span>
\nWhat makes shifting sand hold still?\u00a0<\/span><\/span>
\nIt\u2019s the promise not to covet or to kill<\/span><\/span>
\nBut eyes for eyes for ever after<\/span><\/span>
\nOnly leads the blind to rapture<\/span><\/span>
\nLike echoes of the temple\u2019s fall\u00a0<\/span><\/span>
\nMothers crumbling at the wailing wall<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n
\nAnd the air\u2019s as hot as an angry god<\/span><\/span>
\nIf you plant your flag in your neighbor\u2019s pasture\u00a0<\/span><\/span>
\nIt\u2019s called a lightning rod<\/span><\/span>
\nIt\u2019s just a lightning rod<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n
\nAnd somehow they got told to strike<\/span><\/span>
\nBut who\u2019s a name and who\u2019s just a number\u00a0<\/span><\/span>
\nIn this blinding light?<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n
\nOur faces grow grotesque inside the mirror<\/span>
\nThey\u2019ve got our grandpa\u2019s swollen eyes and our grandma\u2019s woeful tears<\/span>
\nMelting off the paint of decent years<\/span><\/p>\n
\nFading away, fading away<\/span>
\nBless our hearts the Magna Carta coughs and turns away<\/span>
\nFading way, fading away<\/span>
\nThey bless our hearts while our heartbeat fades away<\/span><\/p>\n
\nTo hold this harvest high beyond repeal<\/span>
\nThe fair and tenured scarecrows stand in robes and powdered wigs<\/span>
\nThe posts that form the pen that holds the pigs<\/span><\/p>\n
\nJust an oath to keep some bones beneath our skin\u00a0<\/span>
\nThe parchment is the promise and the ink is not a choice<\/span>
\nIt\u2019s the right to speak our minds and raise<\/span>\u00a0our voice<\/span><\/p>\n
\nRetreats into the chambers of our dreams
\nCause who can pledge allegiance to the silence of the flag
\nThat\u2019s been twisted into a stark and spangled gag<\/p>\n