Lyr Add: Lives in the Balance (Jackson Browne)

Subject: Lyr Add: LIVES IN THE BALANCE (Jackson Browne)
From: Genie
Date: 27 Aug 06 - 01:18 PM

I've recently been hearing a portion of this song -- the last verse and chorus -- played on Thom Hartmann's talk radio program, and I thought it was contemporary, since it seems to fit our current (US and Britain) state of affairs so well.   But it seems things haven't changed all that much in recent decades, and the song is from a 1986 album with the same title.

I think this one's worth resurrecting.

Genie

LIVES IN THE BALANCE
(Jackson Browne, 1986)

I've been waiting for something to happen
For a week or a month or a year,
With the blood in the ink of the headlines
And the sound of the crowd in my ear.
You might ask what it takes to remember
When you know that you've seen it before,
Where a government lies to a people
And a country is drifting to war.

And there's a shadow on the faces
Of the men who send the guns
To the wars that are fought in places
Where their business interest runs.

On the radio talk shows and the TV
You hear one thing again and again,
How the USA stands for freedom
And we come to the aid of a friend,
But who are the ones that we call our friends--
These governments killing their own
Or the people who finally can't take any more
And they pick up a gun or a brick or a stone?

There are lives in the balance,
There are people under fire,
There are children at the cannons
And there is blood on the wire.

There's a shadow on the faces
Of the men who fan the flames
Of the wars that are fought in places
Where we can't even say the names.

They sell us the President the same way
They sell us our clothes and our cars.
They sell us everything from youth to religion
The same time they sell us our wars.
I want to know who the men in the shadows are.
I want to hear somebody asking them why
They can be counted on to tell us who our enemies are
But they're never the ones to fight or to die.

And there are lives in the balance,
There are people under fire,
There are children at the cannons
And there is blood on the wire.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Lives In The Balance / Jackson Browne
From: Little Hawk
Date: 27 Aug 06 - 01:34 PM

Another brilliant song from Jackson Browne. He wrote some of the finest protest songs ever heard in the 1980's, but it went right by most people I guess. That song is even more relevant now than it was then.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Lives In The Balance / Jackson Browne
From: Genie
Date: 27 Aug 06 - 02:37 PM

So right, Hawk.

You can download a video of Jackson Browne singing Lives In The Balance here:
http://video.jacksonbrowne.com/lives/mov .

You can also hear clips of it at Jackson Browne's website and at www.itunes.com

It is on his album "The Next Voice You Hear - The Best Of Jackson Browne" - a really good buy (15 of his best-loved songs) in addition to the "Lives In the Balance" CD.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Lives In The Balance / Jackson Browne
From: ranger1
Date: 28 Aug 06 - 09:31 AM

I have this album, the whole album doesn't have a bad song on it. Unfortunately, I no longer have a turntable so I haven't been able to listen to it for a very long time.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Lives In The Balance / Jackson Browne
From: Genie
Date: 28 Aug 06 - 11:38 AM

I PM'd you about the album, ranger.

Meanwhile, check out the video on Jackson Browne's website.

Also, people can buy the songs individually at www.itunes.com for 99 cents each.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Lives in the Balance (Jackson Browne)
From: Genie
Date: 25 Mar 08 - 10:16 AM

The older link to Jackson Browne's website doesn't work now, but I found a very powerful video montage set to his ""Lives In The Balance" at YouTube.
The montage uses images from a number of wars and conflict areas, including Viet Nam, Iraq, and, I think, Darfur, but a lot of the focus is on the current US occupation of Iraq.