The Eerie Musical Prophecies Of The Past

[TheWatcher]

My friend and I were talking about Music tonight and we were discussing some of the Music from the past few years that has spoken out against what the current Madmen in power have been doing.

But after doing a bit of Googling on one of my favorite older bands, Rush, it occurred to me that there is a lot of Music out there that was written YEARS ago that is eerily Prophetic to what is going on now. Almost disturbingly so.

Here are a couple of examples that I found. See if you agree. And feel free to share your own examples as well.

In this Age Of Madness, sometimes we find that the perspective of the present can be made more clear by the voices of the past.

Witch Hunt (Moving Pictures 1981)

The night is black, without a moon.
The air is thick and still.
The vigilantes gather on
The lonely torchlit hill.

Features distorted in the flickering light,
Faces are twisted and grotesque.
Silent and stern in the sweltering night,
The mob moves like demons possessed.
Quiet in conscience, calm in their right,
Confident their ways are best.

The righteous rise
With burning eyes
Of hatred and ill-will.
Madmen fed on fear and lies
To beat and burn and kill.

They say there are strangers who threaten us,
Our immigrants and infidels.
They say there is strangeness to danger us
In our theaters and bookstore shelves,
That those who know what’s best for us
Must rise and save us from ourselves.

Quick to judge,
Quick to anger,
Slow to understand
Ignorance and prejudice
And fear walk hand in hand.


A Farewell To Kings (A Farewell To Kings 1977)

When they turn the pages of history
When these days have passed long ago
Will they read of us with sadness
For the seeds that we let grow
We turned our gaze
From the castles in the distance
Eyes cast down
On the path of least resistance

Cities full of hatred
Fear and lies
Withered hearts
And cruel, tormented eyes
Scheming demons
Dressed in kingly guise
Beating down the multitude
And scoffing at the wise

The hypocrites are slandering
The sacred halls of truth
Ancient nobles showering
Their bitterness on youth
Can’t we find
The minds that made us strong
Can’t we learn
To feel what’s right and what's wrong
What's Wrong?

Cities full of hatred
Fear and lies
Withered hearts
And cruel, tormented eyes
Scheming demons
Dressed in kingly guise
Beating down the multitude
And scoffing at the wise

Can’t we raise our eyes
And make a start
Can’t we find the minds
To lead us closer to the heart



And here is a VERY Eerie one from George Michael.....

Praying For Time

These are the days of the open hand
They will not be the last
Look around now
These are the days of the beggars
And the choosers

This is the year of the hungry man
Whose place is in the past
Hand in hand with ignorance
And legitimate excuses

The rich declare themselves poor
And most of us are not sure
If we have too much
But we’ll take our chances
Because God stopped keeping score
I guess somewhere along the way
He must have let us all out to play
Turned his back and all god’s children
Crept out the back door

And it’s hard to love,
There’s so much to hate
Hanging on to hope
When there is no hope to speak of
And the wounded skies above
Say it’s much too late
Well maybe we should all be
Praying for time

These are the days of the empty hand
Oh you hold on to what you can
And charity is a coat you wear
Twice a year

This is the year of the guilty man
Your television takes a stand
And you find that what was over there
Is over here

So you scream from behind your door
Say what’s mine is mine and not yours
I may have too much
But I’ll take my chances
Because God stopped keeping score
And you cling to the things
They sold you
Did you cover your eyes when
They told you
That he can’t come back
Because he has no children
To come back for

It’s hard to love,
There’s so much to hate
Hanging on to hope
When there is no hope to speak of
And the wounded skies above
Say it’s much too much too late
So maybe we should all be
Praying for time

[evlbstrd]

1. I just can't help myself, but Zappa said it so clearly long before Rush.

When the Lie's So Big

They don't make a noise
They tell 'em so well
Like a secret disease
That makes you go numb


With a big ol' lie
And a flag and a pie
And a mom and a bible
Most folks are just liable
To buy any line
Any place, any time


When the lie's so big
As in Robertson's case,
(That sinister face
Behind all the Jesus hurrah)


Could result in the end
To a worrisome trend
In which every American
Not "born again"
Could be punished in cruel and unusual ways
By this treacherous cretin
Who tells everyone
That he's Jesus' best friend


When the lie's so big
And the fog gets so thick
And the facts disappear
The Republican Trick
Can be played out again
People, please tell me when
We'll be rid of these men!


Just who do they really
Suppose that they are?
And how did they manage to travel as far
As they seem to have come?
Were we really that dumb?


People, wake up
Figure it out
Religious fanatics
Around and about
The Court House, The State House,
The Congress, The White House


Criminal saints
With a "Heavenly Mission" --
A nation enraptured
By pure superstition


When the lie's so big
And the fog gets so thick
And the facts disappear
The Republican Trick
Can be played out again
People, please tell me when
We'll be rid of these men

[TheWatcher]

2. My God That Is So Fitting

[evlbstrd]

3. Yes, yes it is.

And he said so much more. Check him out.

[TheWatcher]

4. And we must never forget Mr. Dylan

Come you masters of war
You that build all the guns
You that build the death planes
You that build the big bombs
You that hide behind walls
You that hide behind desks
I just want you to know
I can see through your masks

You that never done nothin'
But build to destroy
You play with my world
Like it's your little toy
You put a gun in my hand
And you hide from my eyes
And you turn and run farther
When the fast bullets fly

Like Judas of old
You lie and deceive
A world war can be won
You want me to believe
But I see through your eyes
And I see through your brain
Like I see through the water
That runs down my drain

You fasten the triggers
For the others to fire
Then you set back and watch
When the death count gets higher
You hide in your mansion
As young people's blood
Flows out of their bodies
And is buried in the mud

You've thrown the worst fear
That can ever be hurled
Fear to bring children
Into the world
For threatening my baby
Unborn and unnamed
You ain't worth the blood
That runs in your veins

How much do I know
To talk out of turn
You might say that I'm young
You might say I'm unlearned
But there's one thing I know
Though I'm younger than you
Even Jesus would never
Forgive what you do

Let me ask you one question
Is your money that good
Will it buy you forgiveness
Do you think that it could
I think you will find
When your death takes its toll
All the money you made
Will never buy back your soul

And I hope that you die
And your death'll come soon
I will follow your casket
In the pale afternoon
And I'll watch while you're lowered
Down to your deathbed
And I'll stand o'er your grave
'Til I'm sure that you're dead

[shadowknows69]

17. this line makes me weep

You've thrown the worst fear
That can ever be hurled
Fear to bring children
Into the world
For threatening my baby
Unborn and unnamed
You ain't worth the blood
That runs in your veins

Our world has made me decide not to have a lineage of my own. I won't bring a child into evil corporate slavery. Thanks assholes, my line gets to end because of your greed and destruction. There's no punishment just enough for making people not want to be parents.

[Syrinx]

6. Quote from Zappa, 1977

"The illusion of freedom will continue as long as it's profitable to continue the illusion. At the point where the illusion becomes too expensive to maintain, they will just take down the scenery, they will pull back the curtains, they will move the tables and chairs out of the way, and you will see the brick wall at the back of the theatre."

[Syrinx]

5. A lot of Rush haters here

I once scribbled those lyrics on my high school blackboard before the teacher arrived. And she appreciated them. If I were a high-school student today, I would probably be reported to Homeland Security. Such as it is.

[shadowknows69]

18. Rush

is probably the most talented rock band to ever have existed. and that's coming from a die hard Grateful Dead fan. :hippie:

[Al-CIAda]

19. Rush is indeed, by far, the most talented band of the latter 20th cen.

Ok, P Floyd gives them a run for their money, but as a fan and someone who has seen over 20 shows - I endorse them wholeheartedly.

[onager]

7. Well, since a flag desecration bill is coming...

Your Flag Decal Won't Get You Into Heaven Any More

While digesting Reader's Digest
In the back of a dirty book store,
A plastic flag, with gum on the back,
Fell out on the floor.
Well, I picked it up and I ran outside
Slapped it on my window shield,
And if I could see old Betsy Ross
I'd tell her how good I feel.

Chorus:
But your flag decal won't get you into Heaven any more,
They're already overcrowded from your dirty little war.
Now Jesus don't like killin'
No matter what the reason's for,
And your flag decal won't get you into Heaven any more.

Well, I went to the bank this morning
And the cashier he said to me,
"If you join the Christmas club
We'll give you ten of them flags for free."
Well, I didn't mess around a bit
I took him up on what he said.
And I stuck them stickers all over my car
And one on my wife's forehead.

Repeat Chorus

Well, I got my window shield so filled
With flags I couldn't see.
So, I ran the car upside a curb
And right into a tree.
By the time they got a doctor down
I was already dead.
And I'll never understand why the man
Standing in the Pearly Gates said...

"Your flag decal won't get you into Heaven any more.
We're already overcrowded from your dirty little war.
Now Jesus don't like killin'
No matter what the reasons for,
So your flag decal won't get you into Heaven any more."

(John Prine)

(Even I like this one, and I'm a hardcore atheist.)

[newswolf56]

8. Bob Dylan (like Taliesin) often foretold the future in riddles:

Above all we should never forget this:

Oh, what'll you do now, my blue-eyed son?
Oh, what'll you do now, my darling young one?
I'm a-goin' back out 'fore the rain starts a-fallin',
I'll walk to the depths of the deepest black forest,
Where the people are many and their hands are all empty,
Where the pellets of poison are flooding their waters,
Where the home in the valley meets the damp dirty prison,
Where the executioner's face is always well hidden,
Where hunger is ugly, where souls are forgotten,
Where black is the color, where none is the number,
And I'll tell it and think it and speak it and breathe it,
And reflect it from the mountain so all souls can see it,
Then I'll stand on the ocean until I start sinkin',
But I'll know my song well before I start singin',
And it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard,
It's a hard rain's a-gonna fall.

And this:

Well, John the Baptist after torturing a thief
Looks up at his hero the Commander-in-Chief
Saying, "Tell me great hero, but please make it brief
Is there a hole for me to get sick in?"

The Commander-in-Chief answers him while chasing a fly
Saying, "Death to all those who would whimper and cry"
And dropping a bar bell he points to the sky
Saving, "The sun's not yellow it's chicken"

(chorus)
Mama's in the fact'ry
She ain't got no shoes
Daddy's in the alley
He's lookin' for the fuse
I'm in the streets
With the tombstone blues

And of course for those of us who have been here before there is always the irony of this:

Now the bricks lay on Grand Street
Where the neon madmen climb.
They all fall there so perfectly,
It all seems so well timed.
An' here I sit so patiently
Waiting to find out what price
You have to pay to get out of
Going through all these things twice.

(chorus)
Oh, Mama, can this really be the end,
To be stuck inside of Mobile
With the Memphis blues again.

(All lyrics still under copyright -- the reason the entire songs cannot be set out here. I have merely tried to pick the most indicative and personally significant verses.)

[dbt]

9. How did John Lennon know that Mao would fall from grace?

I refer to the line in Revolution 19:68.

[annabanana]

12. umm... Mao never HAD much... except among ideologues

of the hard left (not the average American "commie-pinko-tree hugging-hippie-freak)

[VOX]

10. "The Walls Came Down" by the Call, from 1983...

Well they blew the horns
And the walls came down
They'd all been warned
And the walls came down
They just stood there laughing
They're not laughing anymore
The walls came down

Sanctuary fades
The congregation splits
Nightly military raids
The congregation splits
It's a song of assassins
Ringin' in your ears
We got terrorist thinking
Playing on fears

Well they blew the horns
And the walls came down
They'd all been warned
But the walls came down
I don't think there are any Russians
And there ain't no Yanks
Just corporate criminals
playin' with tanks

[Freedomfried]

11. Mr.Zappa decribes Faux News in this delightful little ditty

I am gross and perverted
I’m obsessed ’n deranged
I have existed for years
But very little had changed
I am the tool of the government
And industry too
For I am destined to rule
And regulate you

I may be vile and pernicious
But you can’t look away
I make you think I’m delicious
With the stuff that I say
I am the best you can get
Have you guessed me yet?
I am the slime oozin’ out
From your tv set

You will obey me while I lead you
And eat the garbage that I feed you
Until the day that we don’t need you
Don’t got for help...no one will heed you
Your mind is totally controlled
It has been stuffed into my mold
And you will do as you are told
Until the rights to you are sold

That’s right, folks..
Don’t touch that dial

Well, I am the slime from your video
Oozin’ along on your livin’room floor

I am the slime from your video
Can’t stop the slime, people, lookit me go

[annabanana]

13. Not so strange, that poets should have vision......

(The words of the prophets are written on subway walls....)

[TheWatcher]

15. Zappa was so in tune to things.

He seemed to grasp so much, and he always hit the nail so hard on the head it would jar you.

I really wish we had him here now.

He is sorely missed.

[Mad_Dem_X]

20. Times like this make me miss Lennon all the more

If he were still alive, he'd be in the streets with us.:hippie:

[Ravy]

14. Don't forget "Madman across the water" by Elton John... (n/t)

[mogster]

16. I could add several punk lyrics

From the 80's and 90's that didn't mince the words. They spat in your face, then told you where to go to riot.

Not to bring anyone down here, but isn't this thread a bit wistful seen from a modern perspective? Where are the bands of TODAY, creating the kind of momentum a true liberal force needs?
Where are the beat poets? Where are the writers, songwriters and dreamers mouthing the voice of TODAY?
IS there a voice of today, and if so, why doesn't it make people FEEL something? Where's the HOPE for a better future and the willingness to kick ass to see that hope come through? Where's the willingness, no, the fucking NEED, to make our voices heard?

Where's today's Woodstock spirit? Did the 90's phoney commercial replica kill it altogether? Where is today's Johnny Rotten, today's Clash, Sham 69 or Stiff Little Fingers?. Ramones? Stranglers? Bob Marley?
Where's the Rolling Stones of today? Christ, I've seen a hundred cartoons depicting the cranky old farts in wheelchairs. Fine. They did their thing - we can't flog a band more than once. You're not up to it when you're in your late 60's, exit Mick Jagger - but where the hell is the new material?

Who is taking up the glove and speaking for today's kids? Who's bringing them out of their capitalist doze and into the streets?
How much fake Jesus can repub kids take before they slam the door on their parents and hike across the US continent to go see LIFE? Who's gonna radicalize these kids and make them see they're being HAD, from crib to grave, by a system that isn't even sustainable?

Jesus H. Christ with his head in a sling!! I think we've forgotten how it is to be sixteen; to be on top of the world and so sure of your views you don't even BOTHER to listen to authorities, parents, teachers, but instead go find your own heroes, build them up and fuse them with your unchecked, soaring APPETITE FOR LIFE into something Authority never really understood: Core liberalism.

And THAT has nothing whatsoever to do with politics.

OK. Rant _almost_ over. I'll keep punching the keyboard now. Can you hear me typing? *toc* *toc* *toc* Soon I'll be hungry and will order a pizza. Can you hear me chewing? *chew* *chew* *chew* I'll be ordering in, of course. No reason to face the world unless I have to, better sit in my cozy condo with no luxury more than a click away.
*click* *click* *click*

I grew up with the punk movement, and my time is up. I'm 40.
By any youth standard, I've been dead for ten years - at least.

But then, so are the core liberalism.

[Karenina]

21. Eve of Destruction

Barry McGuire, IIRC...

[B3Nut]

22. More good stuff...

How 'bout Bruce Cockburn (yeah, one of my faves, got a line from one of his tunes in my sig)

Snip from 'Maybe The Poet' (from Stealing Fire)

Maybe the poet is gay
But he'll be heard anyway

Maybe the poet is drugged
But he won't stay under the rug

Maybe the voice of the spirit
In which case you'd better hear it

Maybe he's a woman
Who can touch you where you're human

Male female slave or free
Peaceful or disorderly
Maybe you and he will not agree
But you need him to show you new ways to see

Don't let the system fool you
All it wants to do is rule you
Pay attention to the poet
You need him and you know it

from 'The Trouble With Normal'

Strikes across the frontier and strikes for higher wage
Planet lurches to the right as ideologies engage
Suddenly it's repression, moratorium on rights
What did they think the politics of panic would invite?
Person in the street shrugs -- "Security comes first"
But the trouble with normal is it always gets worse


Mighty Trucks of Midnight (from Nothing But A Burning Light)

Used to have a town but the factory moved away
Down to Mexico where they work for hardly any pay
Used to have a country but they sold it down the river
Like a repossessed farm auctioned off to the highest bidder

Mighty trucks of midnight
Moving on
Moving on

-

Some of his stuff is downright spooky in its prescience.

Bob Marley wrote some killer stuff as well. At one point I was afraid Ashcroft was going to float the idea of banning records...

Todd in Beerbratistan

[TheWatcher]

23. Excellent Choice. :)

Here's Another.....

XTC

President Kill Again

Here comes president kill again,
Surrounded by all of his killing men.
Telling us who, why, where and when,
President kill wants killing again.

Hooray, ring out the bells,
King conscience is dead.
Hooray, now back in your cells,
We’ve president kill instead.

Here comes president kill again.
Broadcasting from his killing den.
Dressed in pounds and dollars and yen,
President kill wants killing again.

Hooray, hang out the flags,
Queen caring is dead.
Hooray, we’ll stack body bags,
For president kill instead.

Ain’t democracy wonderful?
Them russians can’t win!
Ain’t democracy wonderful?
Lets us vote someone like that in.

Here comes president kill again,
From pure white house to number 10.
Taking lives with a smoking pen,
President kill wants killing again.

Hooray, everything’s great,
Now president kill is dead.
Hooray, I’ll bet you can’t wait,
To vote for president kill instead...