Don Henley's "The End of the Innocence"

[PaDem]

Heard this excellent song today on the radio and was struck by the folling lyrics and their relevance today.

O' beautiful, for spacious skies
But now those skies are threatening
They're beating plowshares into swords
For this tired old man that we elected king
Armchair warriors often fail
And we've been poisoned by thse fairy tales
The lawyers clean up all the details
Since daddy had to lie

[Fredda Weinberg]

1. The video says it all ... Oliver North testifying n/t

[misternormal]

2. The song is timeless...

... seeing as how the song was written when Reagan was still in the WH...

[Maat]

3. This song IS timeless!

Sad - "The more things change, the more they stay the same."

[acmavm]

4. It is a great song. You need to check out Ian Hunter's Apathy 83

on All American Alien Boy:

No more gardens for the gardenless - no more -
havens for the havenless
No more helpers for the helplessness - no more -
somethings for a less
For the law is now the lawless
'N the flaw is now the flawless
'N the crime is now accepted
'N the criminal respected
'N now evil gets elected
'N now sinful get selected
Heed a president proven rotten
Now officially forgotten
Was it you General Sheridan that said that 'The only good, good man is
a dead good man'
It was not me babe
I just said keep your head and your bread well down under them
floorboards

'N you - you look like your gone with the wind
Running naked throught the night
Wired out - tired out - transcendental mental - only laughing in your
sleep
Nostalgia's starting to focus too late, imagination is starting to itch
Oh there ain't no rock and roll no more, just the music of the rich

'N it's apathy for the devil
'N it's apathy for the devil
'N it's apathy for the devil
Apathy's at a fever pitch

(The president mentioned in the song was Nixon. Leave it to the repubs to top even him. It fits blivet perfectly.)

[catbert836]

5. It has relevance to me in more ways than one.

Not only is the song about the Reagan Administration, it also tells the tale of a child whose parents are getting divorced. That's happening to me as well.

[dipsydoodle]

6. As far as I'm aware the song was about

the way in which Reagan's presidency affected farmers, I suppose as with a lot of songs you can read almost anything you like into the words. Henley's songs are often about the environment and what's happening to it.

[slaveplanet]

7. This Henley ditty is better

and comes right to the point

While you were sleeping
They came and took it all away
The lanes and the meadows
The places where you used to play
It was an inside job
By the well-connected
Your little protest
Summarily rejected

It was an inside job
Like it always is
Chalk it up to business as usual
While we are dreaming
This little island disappears
While you are looking the other way
They'll take your right to own your own ideas
And it's an inside job
Favors collected
Your trusted servants
Have left you unprotected

It was an inside job
Like it always is
Just chalk it up
To business as usual
You think that you're so smart
But you don't have a fucking clue
What those men up in the towers
Are doing to me and you
And they'll keep doin' it and doin' it
And doin' it and doin' it
And doin' it and doin' it
And doin' it and doin' it
Until we all wake up
Wake up, wake up, wake up, wake up

I know what I've done wrong
I am acquainted with the night
I know how hard it is
To always walk out in the light

And it's an inside job
To learn about forgiving
It's an inside job
To hang on to the joy of living
They know the road by which you came
They know your mother's maiden name
And what you had for breakfast
And what you've hidden in the mattress
Insect politics
Indifferent universe
Bang your head against the wall
But apathy is worse

It's an inside job
It's an inside job
It's an inside job
Yeh, yeah
It's an inside job
It's an inside job
It's an inside job
It's an inside job
It's an inside job
It's an inside job