September 22, 2006

HOLD IT: unrest declares indefinite hiatus

it's a good thing that baby boomers either don't listen to pop music or are starting to go deaf.

denise treated me to a concert not too long ago: sheryl crow and john mayer. had ms. crow taken the stage first, we'd already made a pact to leave before mr. mayer's act. as it turned out, tho, their order was switched and we had to stay.

after mayer lulled us to the brink of hibernation, crow took the stage to conduct her own personal version of an anti-war demonstration, which didn't seem to mesh with denise's headache. war is not the answer, ya know. then we got lost on the back roads of manassas for a half hour, but still managed to beat her sister and brother-in-law in the race back home.

anyway! john mayer made the teenagers swoon and the adults yawn. as aaron pointed out before we even left, "isn't he the guy whose songs all sound the same?" turns out he is. "1....2....3....4....1....2....3....4....1....2....3....4....," he sang. then came "it's time to rock this place!" girls screamed and we got, "1....2....3....4....1....2....3....4...."

on the journey up, i remember telling denise that i really wasn't much john mayer fan ... i'd only ever heard the songs that are played on the radio over and over and over again, and i thought i liked his newest release. it wasn't until i heard it in concert that i realized my true feelings about his newest song.

if i like a song the first time i hear it, it's because of the actual music part ... melodies, harmonies, beats, etc. once i decided those are fun, i start paying attention to the words.

my original intention was to share with you only a few of the most unbelievable lines. honestly, i found it difficult to delete anything. enjoy.

me and all my friends
we're all misunderstood
they say we stand for nothing and
there's no way we ever could

now we see everything that's going wrong
with the world and those who lead it
we just feel like we don't have the means
to rise above and beat it

so we keep waiting
waiting on the world to change
we keep on waiting
waiting on the world to change

it's hard to beat the system
when we're standing at a distance
so we keep waiting
waiting on the world to change

now if we had the power
to bring our neighbors home from war
they would have never missed a Christmas
no more ribbons on their door
and when you trust your television
what you get is what you got
cause when they own the information, oh
they can bend it all they want

so we keep waiting
waiting on the world to change
we keep on waiting
waiting on the world to change

it's not that we don't care,
we just know that the fight ain't fair
so we keep on waiting
waiting on the world to change

one day our generation
is gonna rule the population
so we keep on waiting
waiting on the world to change

we keep on waiting
waiting on the world to change


what the hell? i certainly hope young people aren't hearing this. i hope his mumbled, droning words aren't getting through. maybe no one's listening and dj's will immediately stop playing it. maybe he wrote it in great haste, meant to change the lyrics before recording it but forgot.

or maybe not. maybe the teeny boppers are listening. maybe they're deciding that it's more comfortable to listen to an iPod than it is to sing out loud. maybe the limbs of disinterest are stretching. maybe we should be listening to the curious george soundtrack instead:

Who's to say
I can't do everything
Well I can try
And as I roll along I begin to find
Things aren't always just what they seem


I wanna turn the whole thing upside down
I'll find the things they say just can't be found
I'll share this love I find with everyone
We'll sing and dance to Mother Nature's songs

This world keeps spinning and there's no time to waste
Will it all keep spinning spinning round and round


so ... you say you want a revolution? well, ya know, we all want to change the world.


er, wait ...