SONG #177: The President

Robyn Hitchcock, Element Of Light, 1986

Watching the inauguration yesterday and the inspirational marches across America today, I’m drawn back to this song from 1986.  It’s written by a surrealist Brit, but it’s always been my favorite song about the relationship between the careless use of power and symbol and its effect on an audience.  It was inspired by Reagan’s trip to Bitburg, a Nazi cemetery, where he stated, “They were victims, just as surely as the victims in the Concentration camps:” perhaps Reagan’s most tone-deaf moment as President.  Not only does it match my own sense of overwhelmed bewilderment today, but it has one of my all-time favorite bass tracks by the under-celebrated Matthew Seligman; he steals the show.

Here's to collective participation in the days ahead.

Lyrics below—>

The President is talking to us through a microphone

Like he's trying to pack his mother off

To an old people's home

I know you're out there

I know you're out there somewhere

I know you're out there

When I hear the word "Democracy"

I reach for my headphones

He's the president of Europe and he's talking to the dead

They're the only ones who'll listen or believe a word he said

You know I'm out here

But you can't see me, darlin'

You know I'm out here 

When I hear the word "Security"

I reach for my shotgun

He's standing in a cemetery inside the western zone

I listen on the radio, I'm glad I'm not alone

I know you're out there 

I know you're out there somewhere

God knows you're out there

I can almost hear it raining

I can almost hear it raining

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qC4HNMLEUWY