Down by the River

Read the lyrics. Then go on.

Neil Young - Down by The River Lyrics
Be on my side,
I'll be on your side, baby
There is no reason for you to hide
It's so hard for me staying here all alone
When you could be taking me for a ride.
Yeah, she could drag me over the rainbow, send me away
Down by the river I shot my baby
Down by the river,Dead, oh, shot her dead.
You take my hand, I'll take your hand
Together we may get away
This much madness is too much sorrow
It's impossible to make it today.
Yeah, she could drag me over the rainbow, send me away
Down by the river I shot my baby
Down by the river,Dead, oh, shot her dead.
Be on my side, I'll be on your side, baby
There is no reason for you to hide
It's so hard for me staying here all alone
When you could be taking me for a ride.
Yeah, she could drag me over the rainbow, send me away
Down by the river I shot my baby
Down by the river,Dead, oh, shot her dead.

Now, this was playing in Starbucks. I have heard the song lots of times, but I've never listened to it closely -- I just knew something agonizing happened by a river. My best friend loves Neil Young. I heard the song a lot in my early 20's. I knew -- Neil Young, sincere, ex-addict (Needle and damage done...) Later, Reaganite, god knows why. Didn't know exactly where he stood now. Son has autism.

I SHOT MY BABY?

Over and over again over my Vanilla Soy Latte. Now, I have written elsewhere about the collisions of the homeless people and the lattes and how the sensibility is more than steel-toe ironic.

Maybe it's heroine.

Maybe it's the voice of a young criminal he's imagining.

HOW THE FRIG DO WE KEEP TALKING ABOUT ANYTHING WHEN THERE'S JUST BEEN A SONG WITH SO MUCH BLOOD IN IT, EITHER WAY. Even if the next song is HAPPY TALK! You know? From "South Pacific"? Sounds like Dr. Norman Vincent Peale on Heroine:

Happy talk, keep talking happy talk
Talk about things you like to do
You got to have a dream, if you don't have a dream
How you gonna have a dream come true?
Talk about the moon floating in the sky
Looking at a lily on the lake
Talk about a bird learning how to fly
Making all the music he can make!
etc......

I WANT TO GET ON THE TABLE. "People, the gentleman on the SOUND SYSTEM has declared that either he has killed a lover, his innocence or that he used to use heroine and is in such a dynamic state of fear that HE IS RIGHT IN THAT MOMENT AGAIN. I THINK WE SHOULD JUST STOP. I REALLY THINK WE SHOULD:
Cut the b.s.
Put the coffee down.
Stop talking about jobs and parents.
And just look at each other.
And then someone should go get some washcloths and we should just.
Wash our faces.
And start talking about
Do we have what we NEED?
Do our friends?
Does everyone we talk to -- everyone -- the neighbor, the guy at the next carrell at work, the people in our family. What could we do so that they had what they NEED.
What about other people we know of -- the people we read about -- google Naomi Klein and Jeffrey Sachs when we get home and send them ten dollars toward what they do, if we can REALLY afford that. Some can, some can't. Don't do more than that. Pick a number you can do often. Without thinking. So that it's like breathing or washing your face.

I'm sorry, you can't play "Down by the River" in a Starbucks and not declare an emergency. Maybe you should. And the day that about 150 people hear "I shot my baby" and just sip their coffee is a day that we are
1) just a few months from voting for two candidates for president, neither of whom should be trusted with a litterbox
2) we are walking into an election year with no plan to save the planet or the world
3) we have grown to hate our children so much that all we think about in terms of education is cutting spending and designing tests

oops.

I shall be taking my latte in the park.