timely to the point of eeriness

say what you will about billy bragg and his not so great voice or guitar playing -- both of which i happen to think are great just because of the fact that they're not and are perfect for what he does -- he knows how to write a protest anthem.

i first heard 'help save the youth of america' when i was in high school years ago, and have thought of it from time to time since. it's got the vitriol, it's got the earnestness, and it's got a steady critique of the way things are in the world that fits 2004 just a bit too well.

after hearing that steve earle had a new record coming out, i was in the shower one morning and found myself humming the opening bars to bragg's song. i do not sing in the shower. period. then i realized i had remembered about 3/4 of it word for word. then i looked up the rest and got chills like i did the first time i heard it. this should get played loud and often.

go to single electric guitar and angry questioning voice:

Help save the youth of America
Help save them from themselves
Help save the sun-tanned surfer boys
And the Californian girls
When the lights go out in the rest of the World
What do our cousins say
They're playing in the sun and having fun, fun, fun
Till Daddy takes the gun away

From the Big Church to the Big River
And out to the Shining Sea
This is the Land of Opportunity
And there's a Monkey Trial on TV

A nation with their freezers full
Are dancing in their seats
While outside another nation
Is sleeping in the streets

Don't tell me the old, old story
Tell me the truth this time
Is the Manuel Noriega
An enemy or a friend of mine

Help save the youth of America
Help save the youth of the world
Help save the boys in uniform
Their mothers and their faithful girls

Listen to the voice of the soldier
Down in the killing zone
Talking about the cost of living
And the price of bringing him home

They're already shipping the body bags
Down by the Rio Grande
But you can fight for democracy at home
And not in some foreign land

And the fate of the great United States
Is entwined in the fate of us all
And the incident at Tschernobyl proves
The world we live in is very small

And the cities of Europe have burned before
And they may yet burn again
And if they do I hope you understand
That Washington will burn with them
Omaha will burn with them
Los Alamos will burn with them

indeed.