Posted On: Saturday - November 25th 2017 8:17PM MST
In Topics: Commies Music
... sure about that? (Yeah, actually the song lyrics do imply my point, so we've got no argument with The Who here.)
The last couple of posts got Who songs going in my head, as "people forget" (about Communism) brings up "Eminence Front" and "hope I die before I get old" brings up "My Generation". Yeah, there was lots of great stuff from that supergroup of the B-b-b-boomer G-g-g-generation, baby, but the post about the Commies really suggests "Won't Get Fooled Again", a song written by Pete Townshend in 1971.
The lyrics are just perfect in describing the guys like N. Lenin below and his revolutionary followers along with the next Commies coming along:
"We'll be fighting in the street
with our children at our feet,
and the morals that they worship will be gone.
And the men who spurred us on
sit in judgment of all wrong.
They decide and the shotgun sings the song.
[Chorus]
I'll tip my hat to the new constitution,
take a bow for the new revolution,
smile and grin at the change all around,
pick up my guitar and play,
just like yesterday,
and I'll get on my knees and pray
we don't get fooled again
The change it had to come.
We knew it all along.
We were liberated from the foe, that's all.
And the world looks just the same,
and history ain't changed.
Cause the banners, they all were flown, in the last war.
[Chorus]
I'll move myself and my family aside.
If we happen to be left half-alive,
I'll get all my papers and smile at the sky,
for I know that the hypnotized never lie.
Do ya?
There's nothing in the street
looks any different to me.
And the slogans are replaced, by-the-by.
And the parting on the left
is now parting on the right,
and their beards have all grown longer overnight
[Chorus]
Yeah!!!
Meet the new boss,
same as the old boss!"
The Who:
Roger Daltrey - Lead vocals
Pete Townshend - Lead vocals and guitar
John Entwistle - Bass guitar
Keith Moon - Drums
Comments:
1. My wife is Chinese. So we used to watch Chinese movies together. Once we watched this piece of propaganda about the history of China. They had these two characters who were secret police. After every revolution, change of dynasty and so on, they had THE SAME TWO ACTORS playing the new secret police. Obvious, but clever.
2. When Bill Clinton [excuse me while I wash out mouth] infested the presidency, there was a "reporter" who described his feelings at the inauguration. He talked about how angry he got when jet fighters flew over. Then it hit him: "Those are OUR fighters now!"
3. I actually was part of the famous 1971 anti-war demonstration in San Francisco. I met another high school student and we hung out and marched together. Somehow we got side-tracked into going to a Safeway store to advocate boycotting grapes in support of the Caesar Chavez union movement. It seemed that Safeway did land-office business in grapes that day. My companion saw one older lady with grapes in her shopping cart and he went up to her and harangued her. I was really embarrassed and felt sorry for the lady who was clearly humiliated by the experience. My companion thought it was funny and laughed about it afterward.
This experience was formative as I came to realize that I was looking for a genuine alternative to the assumptions of the world, and that violence, which seemed to beget violence, was not that alternative. But that's another story....