Title: Steppenwolf's great American anthem - Monster Source:
www.youtube.com URL Source:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fpuyXdKx9Ws Published:Jan 13, 2008 Author:John Kay Post Date:2008-01-13 23:32:48 by Ferret Mike Keywords:None Views:350 Comments:16
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Poster Comment:
This song never got the play and popularity it deserved. It is long, and full of lyrics that make people highly uncomfortable. It is a young old song, more relevant today then when it was first written and preformed. It's actual title in the Unabridged version is "Monster Suicide America"
Nice. It is a song I like to introduce or re-introduce to people. It is one of my favorites. It is the only one I've posted where I sat and watched/listened to this vid three times in a row enjoying an old tune I've loved for decades.
It is long, and full of lyrics that make people highly uncomfortable.
Musically it is mediocre at best. Nobody cares about a long boring song or hang around to listen to the lyrics. Besides, the lyrics at that time were nothing new so the song flopped as it should have. Maybe I should say it BOMBED!
MONSTER BY STEPPENWOLF / Song and Video of the last 40 years in my opinion. We are financing this vile monster everytime we send a penny to the fedgov murderers. Couldn't we just quit feeding the beast ?
How dare we call ourselves free when we can't even free our minds sufficient to say "no way am I paying for bullets or bombs ... go fuck yourself Uncle Sambo" ... how dare we consider ourselves the benevolent power when we raise our children only to allow the Frankenstein Monster called the U.S. Armed Forces the unfettered ability to take them and change them into murdering butchers of innocent children, DU cancer victims and casket residents.
The hypocrisy is overwhelming. I know many here are waging the war against this putrid government ... but it's time to step up the game, raise the ante, call their bluff and kick their sick asses out of our lives.
Only then will be able to sing again.
"Give us liberty and give them death" ... noone222 1-10-08
Words and music by John Kay, Jerry Edmonton, Nick St. Nicholas and Larry Byrom
(Monster) Once the religious, the hunted and weary Chasing the promise of freedom and hope Came to this country to build a new vision Far from the reaches of kingdom and pope Like good Christians, some would burn the witches Later some got slaves to gather riches
But still from near and far to seek America They came by thousands to court the wild And she just patiently smiled and bore a child To be their spirit and guiding light
And once the ties with the crown had been broken Westward in saddle and wagon it went And 'til the railroad linked ocean to ocean Many the lives which had come to an end While we bullied, stole and bought our a homeland We began the slaughter of the red man
But still from near and far to seek America They came by thousands to court the wild And she just patiently smiled and bore a child To be their spirit and guiding light
The blue and grey they stomped it They kicked it just like a dog And when the war over They stuffed it just like a hog
And though the past has it's share of injustice Kind was the spirit in many a way But it's protectors and friends have been sleeping Now it's a monster and will not obey
(Suicide) The spirit was freedom and justice And it's keepers seem generous and kind It's leaders were supposed to serve the country But now they won't pay it no mind 'Cause the people grew fat and got lazy And now their vote is a meaningless joke They babble about law and order But it's all just an echo of what they've been told Yeah, there's a monster on the loose It's got our heads into a noose And it just sits there watchin'
Our cities have turned into jungles And corruption is stranglin' the land The police force is watching the people And the people just can't understand We don't know how to mind our own business 'Cause the whole worlds got to be just like us Now we are fighting a war over there No matter who's the winner We can't pay the cost 'Cause there's a monster on the loose It's got our heads into a noose And it just sits there watching
(America) America where are you now? Don't you care about your sons and daughters? Don't you know we need you now We can't fight alone against the monster
Great Lyrics !
"Give us liberty and give them death" ... noone222 1-10-08
"Musically it is mediocre at best. Nobody cares about a long boring song or hang around to listen to the lyrics."
Ah yes, the four minute song, the favorite of most people. They are wonderful. But I am someone who likes 8-10 minute songs such as Gordon Lightfoot's Canadian Railroad Trilogy, When the Music's Over by the Doors, and I have the patience to break the paradigm of the music industry set to sell the most music and make entities like radio stations that play music viable.
It wasn't a flop, by the way. It was a labor of love made in spite of knowing full well it lacked elements of the formula set in stone for making hits and commercial music.
Thanks for sharing your take on Monster, but I am in pain because of what we have become as a country, and I am not in the mood for status quo formulas and well engineered and very commercial music catering to shallow excapism knowing money and success is usually there if you are good at it. I am more resonant these days with Monster, with all it's graces, poetry and yes, even it's blemishes.
Call me silly, but I would rather hear Jerry Garcia spend 10 minutes interpreting an Elizabeth Cotton song then spend four minute listening to a song from a group or singer who has a merchandising plan with Wal-Mart and plastic toys being given away of them at McDonalds.
One of the things we have done in the music industry is to make commercial success the kiss of death for the human soul, and a real horror story of empty calorie sounds.
"He said he wanted Heaven, but praying was to slow."
I like that song too, more so then better then 'The Pusher' made popular by the Movie 'Easy Rider.'. Too many of my friends are human wreckage or dead from crank and other monster drugs not to feel the same way about Snowblind Friend.
Thanks, I enjoyed that. I know this song by James McMurtry has been linked many times in here already, but I understand where you come from. This song lives in that place too.
My pleasure, glad to re-introduce a great old song. When I was mining youtube.com, I discovered this gem of a singer who died tragically of cancer far too young. In fact, this was the song I was looking for, and got her in a search for Louis Armstrong.
She became famous posthumously with only her recordings she and friends had made. If you have a mind to, she is worth listening to. Even though there is sadness knowing what might of been which is deepened profoundly when one realizes the depth of her talent she had been blessed with.