I hear Jackson Browne sing, “The road is filled with homeless souls.”
How breathtakingly horrific it must be to grab your kids and just start walking. I think how their feet must hurt.
The choice is death or blisters on your feet.
The stunning loss of human dignity in the hopes of survival. I hear the Jackson Browne song as I’m getting ready to go do Saturday errands, “Now everyone must have some thought, that’s gonna pull them through somehow.” And that’s true. But they also need shoes. And food. These homeless souls on a trail of tears with blisters on their feet.
And I wonder if I’ve “left in for others, to be the one who cares?”
Chicago Guy 14 
2018-11-03 at 4:30 pm |
Indeed Roger. Indeed.
Best from Florida.
https://toritto.wordpress.com/2018/11/02/caravan/
2018-11-05 at 1:13 pm |
TC–If there is a list of songs that have gotten me through hard times, this one is in the top 5. Thanks for posting this!
2018-11-05 at 1:31 pm
I can still remember a great version of “Rock Me On the Water” at Ravinia in late August of 1996 before I began my final semester at Beloit College. If my memory serves correctly, Bonnie Raitt joined Jackson and his band for a few songs.
2018-11-05 at 2:13 pm
Bonnie and Jackson –quite a combo!
2018-11-05 at 6:11 pm
It was the great one-two punch of “For a Dancer” and “For Everyman” that closed the first set performed by Jackson and his band at Ravinia in late June. As I said after he played those songs, it is because of death(my mother) that I am able to gain the motherland(England), but I am still thinking about everyman for tomorrow’s midterm election in the USA on November 6, 2018.
2018-11-05 at 9:09 am |
I’m a back fan of Jackson Browne; he is more poet than lyricist, but I certainly wouldn’t count that as a fault. I make a poor attempt to perform a couple of his songs, though the majority are beyond my ability to do them justice. Like this one, for instance:
For A Dancer
Keep a fire burning in your eye
Pay attention to the open sky
You never know what will be coming down
I don’t remember losing track of you
You were always dancing in and out of view
I must’ve always thought you’d be around
Always keeping things real by playing the clown
Now you’re nowhere to be found
I don’t know what happens when people die
Can’t seem to grasp it as hard as I try
It’s like a song playing right in my ear
That I can’t sing
I can’t help listening
I can’t help feeling stupid standing ’round
Crying as they ease you down
Cause I know that you’d rather we were dancing
Dancing our sorrow away
(Right on dancing)
No matter what fate chooses to play
(There’s nothing you can do about it anyway)
Just do the steps that you’ve been shown
By everyone you’ve ever known
Until the dance becomes your very own
No matter how close to yours another’s steps have grown
In the end there is one dance you’ll do alone
Keep a fire for the human race
And let your prayers go drifting into space
You never know will be coming down
Perhaps a better world is drawing near
And just as easily, it could all disappear
Along with whatever meaning you might have found
Don’t let the uncertainty turn you around
(The world keeps turning around and around)
Go on and make a joyful sound
Into a dancer you have grown
From a seed somebody else has thrown
Go on ahead and throw some seeds of your own
And somewhere between the time you arrive and the time you go
May lie a reason you were alive but you’ll never know
2018-11-05 at 9:47 am |
Roger, rock me on the water in honour of the homeless souls from Central America! We heard Jackson play his new song(“The Immigrant”) at Ravinia, and we got a nice version of “For a Dancer.” Yet, I can’t recall if we were treated to “Rock Me On the Water” also. Regardless, the migrant caravan is on its way and welcome in my version of the USA. It is high time to keep the Mexicans and deport the Repugnantcans instead.
2018-11-05 at 1:07 pm |
He might not have played it, but we heard it!
2020-10-24 at 12:36 pm |
Yes! I can’t wait for my favourite writer in Chicago to write again. 👍