Citizen Cope
"Between a bullet and a target"
Mr.Dali Lamas
Another sister's shootin' heroin tomorrow
Amputees in Freetown
Sierra Leone's
The church wasn't honest
The state put the youth in a harness
Creatin' hostility among us
Teacher said no college
Still the kid's gotta get a check with a couple commas
People wanna bomb us
More people gotta scatter and run from us
You can blame it on Zeus and Apollo and Adonis
But what you've done here
Is put yourself between a bullet and a target
And it won't be long before
You're pulling yourself away

But what you've done here
Is put yourself between a bullet and a target
And it won't be long before
You're pulling yourself away

I've been knowing her for years
I've been seeing her for years
She got dark, dark wavy hair
With a voice like she just don't care
She got a skirt with a halter top
She's got a dad who never gave a fuck
She drinks a beer with her mom 'til dawn
She got knocked up in a pickup truck
But she got engaged when she was nineteen
To this dude who was acting insane
Had a .45 that he always cleaned
Said one day one day one too many days
Now she ducked and she ran away
Never to be heard from, never to be seen
I check the cover of a magazine
I'm just wondering how, just wondering how

But what you've done here
Is put yourself between a bullet and a target
And it won't be long before
You're pulling yourself away


This is an awesome song by Citizen Cope which i chose because it perfectly represents the blues in modern day setting. Citizen Cope is one man on an acoustic guitar. His songs are short but express a lot of emotion, one can feel the expression just from hearing the song and the small amount of lyrics that it has.
In my opinion this song is about the modern world and how twisted it has become. the first verse appears to be a more general overview of American society and the second verse is a more specific occurrence. The chorus means that the "you" in the chorus means american society and what weve done is put ourselves in a situation in which we either need to pull ourselves away and make things better or do nothing and allow things to get worse. Eventually we might reach a point when it will be too late to do anything.
I believe that this is a song that has been written to affect people and make them feel more compassion. My opinions are strictly opinions and if others take that song differently then thats fine too because i have no idea what this really could be about but i like to think i guessed right. Its a pretty optimistic jam for me.

Emily Dickinson

Emily Dickinson was a pretty interesting lady. I have trouble understanding her life because she spent most of it in her house writing. When she died she said she wanted all of her works burned and a lot of it was, but her poetry remained. while she did some good writing in her time she must have had a boring life. I like her poem "Those-dying, then" its saying that back in the day because peoples faith was so strong god was a prominent figure and it was certain that you would go to heaven, but now god has gone missing and she says that she would rather believe in something good that does not exist then nothing at all. shes pretty tough to understand.

"The Blues is where we came from and what we experience. The blues came from nothingness, from want, from desire."
W.C. Handy
After reading the selected readings i don't feel i learned too many new things about the blues or their roots but i did learn a lot about the people who helped contribute to making the blues. this quote embodies the blues because it has a very literal meaning. those who began the blues movement would make these songs as a positive way to express themselves. these people had very little material possession and their music would give them a way to release these feelings of anger or guilt or whatever emotion which drove the song. i feel as though the blues was the first genre to really unite emotion and music. the lyrics would tell a story of hardship and such that one can relate to. the song folsom prison blues from the reading is one of my favorite blues songs by johnny cash. another song thats really good by him is the boy named sue. i didnt really know any of these other songs or artists except for langston hughes but i only knew his for his short stories and poems.

"New Slang"
By The Shins

While this song appears to be a cheerful jam composed of meaningless phrases I believe that it has a greater meaning. In my opinion this song is about a man who is tired of being alone. Throughout the song this man questions whether he is to blame for his being single or if there is another reason for it. "Am I too dumb to reply" I feel that in the context of this sentence this line expresses self doubt and low self esteem. The song starts off "Gold teeth and a curse for this town, they were all in my mouth." This is another example of his low self esteem because he is stating in the first line that he has bad teeth and does not like where he lives. the songwriter is also bitter towards others who have love when he mentions the bakers cutting their thumbs and bleeding into their buns. The main resolution to this song is the chorus where it says that if this girl liked him then he would" dance like the king of the eyesores" meaning he would feel superior and happy. while it is a strange simile the literal meaning i believe is the queen of all unfortunate people. which would be a good feeling due to the fact that a king is well off and "eyesores" are not so there is a stark difference.

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