So, there I was, at the gym, right in the middle of my second set of biangle presses when this... absolutely, amazingly beautiful and moving song comes across on Pandora. Have you ever been brought to tears by a song while you're in the middle of lifting weights? The irony of that juxtaposition of imagery is not lost on me, believe me. LOL. But this song is just... incredible. I'm not one of those who often romanticizes the whole "greatest generation" thing - and I've had more than enough of the "baby boomers" to last ten lifetimes - but this was one of the most poignant tribute to the men and women who served in WWII that I've ever heard. Here it is, The War was in Color, by Carbon Leaf:
I just find that so incredibly moving.
BTW...Speaking of WWII, here's Cracked.com doing revisionist history the CORRECT way, as opposed to the Glenn Beck way: Five widely believed facts about WWII that are bullshit. Three cheers for the American, jingoistic education system, huh? In all fairness, I'm not saying that we should now blindly treat all of these as facts. But they certainly are interpretations that warrant some serious thought and consideration. (As opposed to the revisionist crap that Glenn Beck vomits out, which is only food for thinking how mindnumblingly stupid and/or completely bat-shit insane Glenn beck is.) Anyway, the article certainly gave me a lot to think about. Very interesting.
Anyway, I declare April 20 to be National "Punch a Conservative who thinks Liberals don't honor the Troops" Day! Who's with me? LOL.
One last thing, going back to the music. A few songs later Great Big Sea's rendition (they sofa king rock!) of "Dunken Sailor" came on. You know:
What do you do with a drunken sailor?
What do you do with a drunken sailor?
What do you do with a drunken sailor?
Earl-lie in the morning?
And the verses are along the lines of:
Shave his belly with a rusty razor!
Shave his belly with a rusty razor!
Shave his belly with a rusty razor!
Earl-lie in the morning!
And years ago a friend of mine who's also a huge fan of Irish music gave me an absolutely inspired LAST VERSE for the song. Whenever I sing it (car, shower) I always end with:
Put him at the helm of the Exxon Valdez!
Put him at the helm of the Exxon Valdez!
Put him at the helm of the Exxon Valdez!
Earl-lie in the morning!
Cheers!
I have always been a big fan of the "Put a lobster in his breeches" verse myself - a close second only to the "Put 'em in a rack 'wi the capt'n's daughter." (Rack is, of course, a bunk, and would probably end in a keel-hauling, or at least 'paying the devil.')
ReplyDeleteArr! Now I must talk like a pirate...
okiepoli
Thanks for the link to Cracked.com, Eddie. FINALLY someone has the stones to reveal that FDR brought down the Hindenberg.
ReplyDeleteI have, personally, (and I don't presume to think I'm alone in this) known that Russian forces had more to do with winning WWII than ours did. (They couldn't have done it without Lend-Lease, though.)I Have actually had to physically defend myself when pointing that out.
That song is really moving. Those white crosses never fail get to me. I have a friend, born in 1942, whose father was killed on Omaha Beach. One of his earliest memories is writing a letter to Daddy in Heaven, asking him to come home and make Mommy stop crying.
@Okiepoli - Shave his "body-part, not always 'belly' if you know what I mean" with a rusty razor, was always mine. Argh!
ReplyDelete@Conchobhar - Fuck. OK, NOW I'm crying!
Yeah, I know. He told me that when I got my draft notice. He was kind of apologizing for being, as a sole surviving son of a casualty, exempt. That's all I needed to know; I didn't for a moment resent his exemption, but I wasn't happy that he kept going and turned me into a puddle of tears.
ReplyDelete