This song is a train song It’s a song about a train Not the Atchison and Topeka Not the Chattanooga Choo-Choo Nor the one that leaves at midnight For the state of Alabam’ This song is a train song Where the engineer is Uncle Sam
Here comes the Freedom Train! You better hurry down Just like a Paul Revere It’s comin’ into your hometown
Inside the Freedom Train You will find a precious freight Those words of liberty The documents that made us great
You can shout your anger from a steeple You can shoot the system full of holes You can always question “We the People” You can get your answer at the polls
That’s how it’s always been And how it will remain As long as all of us Keep riding on the Freedom Train
Riding’ all across this country Playing music for the people With the fellows in the band We’re singin’ of the liberty And freedom through the land
You can write the President a letter You can even tell him to his face If you think that you can do it better Get the votes and you can take his place
If you hate the laws that you’re obeying You can shout your anger to the crowd We may disagree with what you’re saying But we’ll fight to let you say it loud
That’s how it’s always been And how it must remain As long as all of us Keep riding on the Freedom Train
Ain’t no sunshine when she’s gone It’s not warm when she’s away Ain’t no sunshine when she’s gone And she’s always gone too long Anytime she goes away
Wonder this time where she’s gone Wonder if she’s gone to stay Ain’t no sunshine when she’s gone And this house just ain’t no home Anytime she goes away
And I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know I know, I know, I know, I know, I know I know, I know, I know, I know, I know I know, I know, I know, I know, I know I know, I know, Hey, I oughtta leave young thing alone But ain’t no sunshine when she’s gone
Ain’t no sunshine when she’s gone Only darkness every day Ain’t no sunshine when she’s gone And this house just ain’t no home Anytime she goes away Anytime she goes away Anytime she goes away Anytime she goes away
Oh, it’s a long, long while from May to December But the days grow short when you reach September When the autumn weather turns the leaves to flame One hasn’t got time for the waiting game
Oh, the days dwindle down to a precious few
September, November And these few precious days I’ll spend with you These precious days I’ll spend with you.
— from September Song (Music: Kurt Weill / Lyrics: Maxwell Anderson)
“That’s Super Stuff!” “Make Stuff” “I Love Free Stuff” “The Good Stuff” “My Stuff” “Stuff in My Life” “Stuff That Works”
“The Right Stuff”
“How’s Your Stuff?”
There are so many variations on the use of the word stuff. This last May we attended the last “Ken and Mary’s Blues Project” house concert in Porter, Texas. Before the music started, Kenneth Harris told the story of how the Project came about from his listening to Sunday blues on Houston’s KPFT. One Sunday he was listening to Nuri Nuri’s Blues Brunch.
“. . . he [Nuri] was interviewing this guy, and they played some of his stuff, and I called Nuri on the phone, and I said Nuri do you know anybody in the Houston area that can do that type of stuff, and he told me you meet me at Billy Blue’s like next Saturday night.”
Long story short, Kenneth found that stuff in the form of the Moe Hansum Band.
As I listen to Kenneth’s story I couldn’t help but think of Guy Clark’s “Stuff that Works.”
Stuff that works, stuff that holds up The kind of stuff you don’ hang on the wall Stuff that’ real, stuff you feel The kind of stuff you reach for when you fall
Continuing on this theme of “Stuff,” in the 1970’s there was a jazz-funk band called “Stuff.” The members were Gordon Edwards (bass), Richard Tee (keyboards), Eric Gale (guitar), Cornell Dupree (guitar), Chris Parker (drums), and later Steve Gadd (drums).
There is good stuff and not so good stuff, because of what we do with our stuff. We have too much stuff. Earth’s beauty is being scarred by the stuff we throw away daily. As someone who spends a lot of time outdoors admiring nature’s beauty, I see stuff on our trails, hanging in trees, blowing in the wind, in our lakes and streams.
In December of 2007, a short documentary was released. The documentary was critical of excessive consumerism and promotes sustainability, which has gone from a movie to a movement over the last ten years — a Community of more than a million changemakers worldwide, working to build a more healthy and just planet. This land is our land! You can join the movement.
For those of us who grew up in the 1960’s, there is much to remember. For me, it was the draft, war, motorcycles, Playboy, love, demonstrations, flower children, and of course, the music. Many songs carried the message of the times.
One such song was Buffalo Springfield’s “For What It’s Worth.” Over the years the song has been covered many times and the words still ring true, even more so today.
There’s something happening here What it is ain’t exactly clear There’s a man with a gun over there Telling me I got to beware
I think it’s time we stop, children, what’s that sound Everybody look what’s going down
There’s battle lines being drawn Nobody’s right if everybody’s wrong Young people speaking their minds Getting so much resistance from behind
It’s time we stop, hey, what’s that sound Everybody look what’s going down
What a field-day for the heat A thousand people in the street Singing songs and carrying signs Mostly say, hooray for our side
It’s s time we stop, hey, what’s that sound Everybody look what’s going down
Paranoia strikes deep Into your life it will creep It starts when you’re always afraid You step out of line, the man come and take you away
We better stop, hey, what’s that sound Everybody look what’s going down Stop, hey, what’s that sound Everybody look what’s going down Stop, now, what’s that sound Everybody look what’s going down Stop, children, what’s that sound Everybody look what’s going down
Monsoon Rain at Sunset in Tanuri Ridge — Image by kenne
. . . I would stand, If the night blackened with a coming storm, Beneath some rock, listening to notes that are The ghostly language of the ancient earth, Or make their dim abode in distant winds. Thence did I drink the visionary power; And deem not profitless those fleeting moods Of shadowy exultation: not for this, That they are kindred to our purer mind And intellectual life; but that the soul, Remembering how she felt, but what she felt Remembering not, retains an obscure sense Of possible sublimity. . . .
Looking Through the Looking Glass — Image by kenne
Once I walked along a field Another nightmare in my mind And beheld the fearful symmetry Everything was beautiful Even things that were dead And I surged with violent imagery
I walked a thousand miles just to see for myself Looked behind my eyes And found my hell And in the light of the sun we go Through rain and raging snow To find the things we do not know
I will go Never laying low Just tell me how to breathe And I will make it so You must know That this is not for show And if you are not wise (It will) be your demise
Joy on Galveston Island (She’s still in Houston with family and I’m here in Tucson.) — Image by kenne
Untitled Art by kenne
Kenneth Harris (May 20, 2017) — Image by kenne
Monsoon Rain at Sunset in Tanuri Ridge — Image by kenne
For those of us who grew up in the 1960’s, there is much to remember. For me, it was the draft, war, motorcycles, Playboy, love, demonstrations, flower children, and of course, the music. Many songs carried the message of the times.
One such song was Buffalo Springfield’s “For What It’s Worth.” Over the years the song has been covered many times and the words still ring true, even more so today.
There’s something happening here
What it is ain’t exactly clear
There’s a man with a gun over there
Telling me I got to beware
I think it’s time we stop, children, what’s that sound
Everybody look what’s going down
There’s battle lines being drawn
Nobody’s right if everybody’s wrong
Young people speaking their minds
Getting so much resistance from behind
It’s time we stop, hey, what’s that sound
Everybody look what’s going down
What a field-day for the heat
A thousand people in the street
Singing songs and carrying signs
Mostly say, hooray for our side
It’s s time we stop, hey, what’s that sound
Everybody look what’s going down
Paranoia strikes deep
Into your life it will creep
It starts when you’re always afraid
You step out of line, the man come and take you away
We better stop, hey, what’s that sound
Everybody look what’s going down
Stop, hey, what’s that sound
Everybody look what’s going down
Stop, now, what’s that sound
Everybody look what’s going down
Stop, children, what’s that sound
Everybody look what’s going down
— Stephen Stills
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