Gotta relearn this – Extreme’s “Hole Hearted”

YouTube: “Extreme – Hole Hearted “:

Call me a hippie but I believe that you shouldn’t let ego ever get in the way of love and being there for others. Only that truly matters. This song sings that loud 🙂

Life’s ambition occupies my time
Priorities confuse the mind
Happiness one step behind
This inner peace I’ve yet to find
Rivers flow into the sea
Yet even the sea is not so full of me
If I’m not blind why can’t I see
That a circle can’t fit
Where a square should be
There’s a hole in my heart
That can only be filled by you
And this hole in my heart
Can’t be filled with the things I do
Hole hearted
Hole hearted
This heart of stone is where I hide
These feet of clay kept warm inside
Day by day less satisfied
Not fade away before I die
Rivers flow into the sea
Yet even the sea is not so full of me
If I’m not blind why can’t I see
That a circle can’t fit
Where a square should be
There’s a hole in my heart
That can only be filled by you
And this hole in my heart
Can’t be filled with the things I do
There’s a hole in my heart
That can only be filled by you
Should have known from the start
I’d fall short with the things I do
Hole hearted
Hole hearted
Hole hearted
Hole hearted

Food for thought links

My first interview, “Huey & the Banjo”

Last week I took part in a project that led me to help interview a large group of great co-workers and friends at CIM. To get some practice, I stopped by Suburban Station to interview one of the musicians who play there and was in luck when I found Huey & the Banjo. Here is the interview, plus some performances:

YouTube: “Huey & the Banjo 7.27.2010”

For more information on Huey & the Banjo, you can contact him at hustonwest at live dot com

I hate a song that…

“I hate a song that makes you think that you are not any good. I hate a song that makes you think that you are just born to lose. Bound to lose. No good to nobody. No good for nothing. Because you are too old or too young or too fat or too slim too ugly or too this or too that. Songs that run you down or poke fun at you on account of your bad luck or hard traveling.

I am out to fight those songs to my very last breath of air and my last drop of blood. I am out to sing songs that will prove to you that this is your world and that if it has hit you pretty hard and knocked you for a dozen loops, no matter what color, what size you are, how you are built.

I am out to sing the songs that make you take pride in yourself and in your work.”

That’s Woody Guthrie on songwriting. You can hear Will Greer reading those words, plus a great set of original recordings from Guthrie and Lead Belly, on the Smithsonian Folkways collection, “Folkways: The Original Vision”.

A metal band that bridges cultures

Al Jazeera: “The Maiden frontier”:

As many metal fans from the region have pointed out to me, Maiden’s songs remind them that they should not trust the hype and slogans promising a better tomorrow, that progress demands putting aside easy prejudices in favour of a much harder but more honest discussion about the future and that they should remember the past but not be afraid of the future.

…Of course, building a successful career as a rock band, however difficult, is nothing compared to building an alternative economic and cultural system in a region plagued by war, occupation, authoritarianism and poverty. But the point of music and the artists who produce the culture the rest of us consume is rarely to provide a direct blueprint for action.

Instead, it is to inspire, to give a vision of a different future and the courage to get up in the morning and figure out how to survive and even thrive in a system that is very much not set up for your benefit.

More than one member of Iron Maiden has told me that perhaps the greatest gift they can give fans is joy. And whether in Dubai or Madison Square Garden, the concerts were filled with joy, from musicians and fans alike.

Metal is often accused of being music about death, and certainly Iron Maiden’s songs can often seem, on the surface, violent and blood-soaked. But as one Iranian metal musician said about the genre, and Maiden in particular, “what’s amazing is how a music about death in fact affirms life”.

Making a difference – Jeff Campbell and Hungry for Music

NPR.org: “Instruments Of Good: The Healing Power Of Music”:

Another fan of Campbell’s work is singer/songwriter Peter Case. “When I was a kid,” Case says, “my guitar was like a piece of wood off a burning ship: I clung to it with all my strength and it saved me during rough times. Hungry for Music is doing important work, steering kids to instruments, and providing them to those who otherwise couldn’t get them. I think lives are being turned around by this, just like mine was.”

Related:

Hungry For Music

Pepsi Refresh Project: Get 10,000 free musical instruments to 10,000 underprivileged kids