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What I do is I collect stories
What I do is I collect stories
Stories, songs, poems
What I do is I collect stories
I seek out the elders
I seek out the elders
And garner stories, songs, poems
Stories, songs, poems
Characterized critically
Characterized critically as
"Oh, that's that 60s stuff"
Like somebody doing old rock and roll would be doing that 50s stuff
Well, or, this is 90s, you know
I have a good friend in the East
A good singer, and a good folk singer, a good song collector
Who comes and listens to my shows and says, uh
"You sing a lot about the past
You always sing about the past
You can't live in the past, you know"
And, um, I say to him, I can go outside and pick up a rock
That's older than the oldest song you know
And bring it back in here and drop it on your foot
Now the past didn't go anywhere, did it?
It's right here, right now
I always thought that anybody who told me I couldn't live in the past
Was trying to get me to forget something
That if I remembered it would get him in serious trouble
No, it's not that 50s, 60s, 70s, 90s
That whole idea of decade packages
Things don't happen that way
The Vietnam War heated up in 1965 and ended in 1975
Well, you know, what's that got to do with decades?
No, that packaging of time is a journalistic convenience
That they use to trivialize and to dismiss
Important events and important ideas
I defy that
I defy that
I defy that
Time is an enormous long river
Important events and important ideas
Time is an enormous long river
Time is an enormous long river
Important events and important ideas
Time is an enormous long river
And I'm standing in it, just as you're standing in it
My elders were the tributaries
And everything they thought
And every struggle they went through
And everything they gave their lives to
And every song they created
And every poem they laid down
Flows down to me
And if I take the time to ask
And if I take the time to seek
If I take the time to reach out
I can build that bridge between my world and theirs
I can reach down into that river and take out what I need
To get through this world
Bridges
From my time to your time
As my elders from their time to my time
And we all put into the river
And we let it go, and it flows away from us
And away from us, until it no longer has our name
Our identity
It has its own utility, its own use
And people will take what they need
And make it part of their lives
Bridges
Bridges
Bridges
Bridges
Bridges
Bridges
Bridges
And sometimes, well, at length
And sometimes, well, at length
The past didn't go anywhere
The past didn't go anywhere
The past didn't go anywhere, did it?
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