todd-snider

If you’ve been reading me, you’ve seen me acting pretty down low lately.

I just wanted to pop in here and say that today, so far (needs a disclaimer), is pretty darn good.

I ran this morning, three miles - didn’t break any speed records, but didn’t feel hurt. I have a new pair of shoes, again, and they seem to be working OK. It was cool, freaky cool for almost May here, and only one car tried to run me off the road. Mental jukebox: CCRWRSWAM.*

I seem to have a spring in my step, I’ve managed to semi-placate thirty people this morning, so I’ll be allowed to stick around another day or two.

Maybe it’s the free donuts somebody brought to work. Maybe it’s because I got lucky last night. I’m banking on the lucky.

*CCRWRSWAM is catchy:

Well I ran again this morning, and no Carpenters! Yay! I’m thinking it’s because it wasn’t a rainy day, or a Monday.

no

baby, baby
Feels like maybe things will be all right
Baby, baby
Your loves made me
Free as a song singin forever

only yesterday when I was sad
And I was lonely
You showed me the way to leave
The past and all its tears behind me
Tomorrow may be even brighter than today
Since I threw my sadness away
Only yesterday

Really. None of that.

Instead, I was treated mentally to the musical genius of Todd Snider (for some reason I was dreaming about blogging about one of his songs just as I woke up at 4:31). So, here ya go:

(chorus)
hey, hey, my, my
rock and roll will never die
hang your hair down in your eye
you’ll make a million dollars
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This is just an excerpt from a much longer article. But I like what he says and how he says it (love his music, too, if you’ve read here very long you probably know that)

One of the brightest and best voices of the Americana music scene is Todd Snider, a sharp-witted singer-songwriter who wears quite a few of his core beliefs on his sleeve: a commitment to progressive causes, a deep mistrust of materialism and greed, a sympathy for the downtrodden and a relentless Christian faith that leaves him bewildered at the way people of his own faith are acting in America.

Snider told Chris Willman in Willman’s excellent book Rednecks & Bluenecks:

I’m a Christian, but I must’ve got a defective Bible or something. Mine didn’t tell me to change anybody, or tell me to hunt and destroy all sin. Mine said forgiveness was the most important thing there was and pride was the worst. Mine said if someone takes your shirt, give them your coat. Mine said it was easier for a rich man to pass through the eye of a needle on a camel’s back that it is for him to enter the gates of heaven. Passing through the eye of a needle on a camel’s back is the American dream.

As his career progresses, Snider has mined this concept for some great music. His best songs confront the confusion of being a progressive Christian in America, where your president says Jesus is his favorite philosopher as he favors the wealthiest in his economic policies and embraces a doctrine of pre-emptive war.

Found here.

The full article is below the fold, or click here.

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