Songs to show we care (“Chocolate Rain” and “When the President Talks To God”)

I recently sat through presentations by my peers. In my War and Society class we had everything from the effect of war on Fashion (would DuPont be the giant it is today without the need to fink silk substitutes for stockings when silk was required for the war effort in WWII?) to Bob Dylan’s relationship with the Viet Name war. Ending his presentation on Bobby, my friend said something to the extent–where’s the outrage? Why aren’t our recording artists so enraged, so creative as those in the 1960s? Well, these two songs are my answer: they are, but in different mediums.

The first is “Chocolate Rain”, a sophisticated take on the many ways most people avoid processing racism in our society by Tay Zonday (a silly remake of this was done as a music video promoting Cherry Chocolate Diet Dr Pepper).

Here are the lyrics:

“Chocolate Rain”

Chocolate Rain
Some stay dry and others feel the pain
Chocolate Rain
A baby born will die before the sin

Chocolate Rain
The school books say it can’t be here again
Chocolate Rain
The prisons make you wonder where it went

Chocolate Rain
Build a tent and say the world is dry
Chocolate Rain
Zoom the camera out and see the lie

Chocolate Rain
Forecast to be falling yesterday
Chocolate Rain
Only in the past is what they say

Chocolate Rain
Raised your neighborhood insurance rates
Chocolate Rain
Makes us happy ‘livin in a gate

Chocolate Rain
Made me cross the street the other day
Chocolate Rain
Made you turn your head the other way

(Chorus)
Chocolate Rain
History quickly crashing through your veins
Chocolate Rain
Using you to fall back down again
[Repeat]

Chocolate Rain
Seldom mentioned on the radio
Chocolate Rain
Its the fear your leaders call control

Chocolate Rain
Worse than swearing worse than calling names
Chocolate Rain
Say it publicly and you’re insane

Chocolate Rain
No one wants to hear about it now
Chocolate Rain
Wish real hard it goes away somehow

Chocolate Rain
Makes the best of friends begin to fight
Chocolate Rain
But did they know each other in the light?

Chocolate Rain
Every February washed away
Chocolate Rain
Stays behind as colors celebrate

Chocolate Rain
The same crime has a higher price to pay
chocolate Rain
The judge and jury swear it’s not the face

(Chorus)

Chocolate Rain
Dirty secrets of economy
Chocolate Rain
Turns that body into GDP

Chocolate Rain
The bell curve blames the baby’s DNA
Chocolate Rain
But test scores are how much the parents make

Chocolate Rain
‘Flippin cars in France the other night
Chocolate Rain
Cleans the sewers out beneath Mumbai

Chocolate Rain
‘Cross the world and back its all the same
Chocolate Rain
Angels cry and shake their heads in shame

Chocolate Rain
Lifts the ark of paradise in sin
Chocolate Rain
Which part do you think you’re ‘livin in?

Chocolate Rain
More than ‘marchin more than passing law
Chocolate Rain
Remake how we got to where we are.

The second is a new song by Bright Eyes as a Free (for limited time) download from iTunes, called “When the President Talks to God”. As I don’t know about the licensing of this song (Chocolate Rain is under a Creative Commons license allowing non-commercial and attributed distribution) I will not include the lyrics here. However here is a link to them.

Both songs are passionate and insightful. And, speaking to the forums of our times, are most powerful because they are being distributed virally: both have free downloads, both are distributed through popular mediums which are very user accesible and at least YouTube is open to user contribution.

See, we are paying attention.

Inspirational Quote:

I shall never be ashamed of citing a bad author if the line is good.  – Seneca