On the 5th, am I still FREE? Let's hear from Tommy, Joe, Richie, Jimi & Jerry, Bobby & Co. ...Red, White & U. S. Blues...
- Thomas Tittmann
- Jul 5
- 5 min read
Updated: Jul 8
Here's my 4rd attempt at this post and crafting an opening statement...
From an historical lens, the Fourth of July is a celebration of one people's success in winning their freedom from the control of another people. For much of my life, this is how I saw it.
BUT...As I was introduced to some people with enlarged ways of seeing, I began to appreciate FREEDOM - mine and others - in newer ways...This expanding vision extended beyond politics to the spiritual plains of existence...
"G-d" was no longer "confined" to the church of my youth...AND no longer only a "he"...AND was either "everywhere" or "nowhere"...AND was either "in" every thing...or in "no thing"...
In the words of the 4 blokes from the country we freed ourselves from, this Higher Power is...
"Here, There and Everywhere"...
As is my current custom, I'm using music to try to convey how I'm experiencing my life's adventures filled with twists, turns and learning curves. First up on the ol' Victrola:
TOMMY...
"I'm free, I'm free
And freedom tastes of reality
I'm free, I'm free
And I'm waiting for you to follow me
If I told you what it takes
To reach the highest high
You'd laugh and say nothing's that simple
But you've been told many times before
Messiahs pointed to the door...
"And no one had the guts to leave the temple!"
"and I'm waiting for you to follow me..."
JOE...
"Come on Wall Street, don't be $low,
Why man, this is war au-go-go
There'$ plenty good money to be made
By $upplying the Army with the tool$ of it$ trade,
But just hope and pray that if they drop the bomb,
They drop it on the Viet Cong.
Well, come on generals, let's move fast;
Your big chance has come at last.
Now you can go out and get those reds
'Cause the only good commie is the one that's dead
And you know that peace can only be won
When we've blown 'em all to kingdom come."
RICHIE...
"Sometimes I feel
Like a motherless child
Sometimes I feel
Like a motherless child
Sometimes I feel
Like a motherless child
A long
Way
From my home
Yeah, yeah
Singing
Freedom
Freedom
Freedom
Freedom
Freedom
Freedom
Freedom
Freedom
Freedom
Freedom"
JIMI...
You got my pride
Hangin' out of my bed
You messing with my life
So I bought my lead
You even messin' with my children
And you're screaming at my wife, baby
Get off of my back
If you wanna get outta here alive
(Freedom) Freedom!
(Give it to me) That's what I want now
(Freedom) Freedom!
(Give it to me) That's what I need now
(Freedom) Freedom!
(Give it to me) To live
(Freedom) Freedom!
(Give it to me) So I can give
INTERMISSION...into Mirror...
BEFORE we place all the blame on the people in power and the politicians they control, let's examine our own hearts as we look at Michael Jackson's "Man in the Mirror"...
RED, WHITE & U. S. BLUES...
...with a Touch of Grey...
EARLIER TAKE: A few weeks ago, I imagined this tale to involve some reworded adaptation of the Grateful Dead's "U. S. Blues" song and then using the song's images to explore some of the roots of injustices here in the United States and elsewhere around our globe.
"Just what the truth is, I can't say anymore"
--Moody Blues "Nights in White Satin"
As an American child and young adult, I was given a limited version of the events that took place...Limited, in that I was presented with the history of what had happened and was currently happening through the lenses of people who only saw things through their own limited and often biased vision.
These limitations applied especially in fields like politics and spirituality - where people were trying to influence and control other people.
"back to back...chicken shack..."
"SOMETIMES WE GET SHOWN THE LIGHT IN THE STRANGEST OF PLACES IF WE LOOK AT IT RIGHT"
[video description] You're watching the Empire State Building light up on July 4, 2015 when it was synchronized with the 'U.S. Blues' encore at the 2nd 'Fare Thee Well' 50th Anniversary show at Soldier Field. ESB lighting designer Marc Brickman teamed up with the band to create the vision and technical design of the music-to-light show, which featured an assortment of Grateful Dead imagery in the mast of the building on Independence Day. The feat was then repeated for New Yorkers featuring a “U.S. Blues” soundtrack the next night.
UNPACKING THE VINYL...
[from David Dodd - my GD SME] "The figure of Uncle Sam has always been a fairly dire one in my experience, looking out from lowered eyebrows, telling us that he wants us for the army. Yikes. This Uncle Sam is more charming, but not altogether benign, being ready to run our lives and steal our wives, despite the fact that he has learned to duck and seems to be hiding out in a rock and roll band.
For me, (and as always, I must stress how reluctant I am to even say what a song means to me, for fear that anyone might think it has any authority beyond my own brain…), the song speaks to waning empire."
David's wisdom reminds me of this Anias Nin quote that Richard Rohr first brought to my attention:
U S Blues
"Commissars and pinstripe bosses roll the dice
Anyway they fall, guess who gets to pay the price? (note 3)
Money green, or proletarian gray (note 4)
Selling guns instead of food today (note 5)"
"So the kids they dance and shake their bones
And the politicians throwing stones
Singing ashes, ashes, all fall down
Ashes, ashes, all fall down"
"Shipping powders back and forth
Singing black goes south and white comes north (note 6)***
And the whole world full of petty wars
Singing I got mine and you got yours"
"**"Singing black goes south and white comes north"
My notes:
black=guns and gun powder for governments and revolutionaries friendly to the U.S. economic interests
white=cocaine
Let's teach our young what's really going on...
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