I have just spent an hour -in the morning!- dancing around the room and singing at the top of my lungs. Deviating from my normal high-volume lineup (Tori Amos, Godspell, Kate Bush, etc), I went to Real Player and Yahoo Radio and cranked up the volume on Green Day. I can now do a passable “Holiday” and “America Idiot.” I am so energized! I’m ready to run, to hit, to punch, to scream. Liberation!

Hear the dogs howling out of key
To a hymn called “Faith and Misery” (Hey)
And bleed the company lost the war today…

Hear the drum pounding out of time
Another protester has crossed the line
To find the money’s on the other side
Can I get another Amen (Amen)
There’s a flag wrapped around a score of men (Hey)
A gag
A plastic bag on a monument
I BEG TO DIFFER FROM THE HOLLOW LIES
This is the dawning of the rest of our lives

Don’t want a nation under the new mania
And can you hear the sound of hysteria?….
The subliminal mindf*** America.

Welcome to a new kind of tension
All across the alien-nation….

I’m not part of a redneck agenda.
Now everybody do the propaganda.
And sing along in the age of paranoia….

Information age of hysteria.
It’s calling out to idiot America….

Can you picture it? I mean, I’ve got it DOWN. I’m at back-row-of-the-theater full VOICE. And I’m jumping up and down and getting a stitch in my side because I am way too old to be doing this.

Anybody know any other terrific critical political music? I knew of Green Day, but really only had listened to what played on the radio – (Good Riddance-Time of Your Life). When they were on SNL the other night, I was struck by the performances. I was affected at so many different levels.

Music isn’t really as important or meaningful to me now as it once was, but once in a while something really hits me. The last one was Eminem “Mosh.” Before that, probably Ani DeFranco, “Self-Evident.” There were a few little criticisms in Tori Amos’ “The Beekeeper” – only really a line or two in songs like “General Joy” and “Mother Revolution.” I’ve seen the video for “Amerika the Brutal” by Six Feet Under, but that’s a little too harsh for everyday – I save that one for serious depressive moods! There’s another “Amerika” song, I think by Rammstein or something like that – the video is great, but again, not really music I can get into.

I would like to see a lot more music. Music can do and say more than argument at this point.
Writers, composers, musicians – get to it please! You’ve done it before, do it again!