Beautiful Melodies

Friday, May 20, 2011

Songs for an Apocalypse: A Hudson Hawk mix-tape

Beautiful Melodies telling you Terrible Things Vol. X
Will the world end on Saturday? I sorta doubt it, I don’t know much about this “preacher” who says it will, but I do know the book I read on the subject is a little less clear on the date of any impending apocalypse than he makes it out to be.
However, here’s a soundtrack for anybody’s trek through a post-apocalyptic Earth. Some people reading or writing for this site might not dig some of the songs because of their content, but the bottom line, for better or worse, the apocalypse is really about God, or the lack-there-of, "ain't no altars on this long and lonesome road" as Dylan writes in "Ain't Talkin'." I’m not a fan of talking too much about the end of the world, I get quite tired of certain friends and/or family that like to go on and on about the doom and gloom about it all. Me? I like to take the positives more from that book than the dark stuff, and I plan on living to be old and decrepit, a failure of my lives dreams and dying in my loves arms. However when it comes to my ears, the more terrible the tyranny in the lyrics, the better the song I say. Pain brings out the best in people, doesn’t it?
Only rule I had is an artist could only show up once on the list, and it all needed to fit nicely on one 80 minute CD. So here you go, download, buy or (in just a couple days) loot and plunder stores to find these tunes and enjoy your last minutes here with these positive tunes about death, destruction and world with beaches of ash and trees engulfed in flame….
  1. Earth Died Screaming – Tom Waits
(‘Bone Machine’ – 1992)
And the great day of wrath has come, And there’s mud in your big red eye,
The poker’s in the fire, And the locusts take the sky,
And the Earth died screaming, While I lay dreaming, Dreamin' of you…
  1. Gimme Shelter – The Rolling Stones
(‘Let it Bleed’ – 1969)
Oh a storm is threatening, My very life today,
If I don’t get some shelter, Oh yeah, I’m gonna fade away…
  1. The Big Guns – Jenny Lewis & the Watson Twins
(‘Rabbit Fur Coat’ – 2006)
Well you praise him, then you thank him, Til you reach the by-and-by
And I’ve won hundreds at the track, But I’m not betting on the afterlife
Sing mercy, sing mercy, sing mercy on me,
Let’s pretend that everybody here wants peace
  1. John the Revelator – Blind Willie Johnson
(1930)
Who’s that writin’? John the Revelator Tell me who’s that writin’? John the Revelator
Well who’s that writin’? John the Revelator, Wrote the book of the seven seals…
  1. The Future – Leonard Cohen
(‘The Future’ – 1992)
Give me back the Berlin Wall, Give me Stalin and St. Paul,
Give me Christ…or give me Hiroshima
Destroy another fetus now, We don’t like children anyhow,
I’ve seen the future, baby: It is Murder.
When they said "Repent! Repent!" I wonder what they meant...
  1. Sleep Now in the Fire – Rage Against the Machine
(‘Battle of Los Angeles’ – 1999)
Crawl with me into tomorrow, Or I’ll drag you to your grave
  1. Angel of Death – Hank Williams (SR)
(1954)
In the great book of John, You’re warned of the day,
When you’ll be laid beneath the cold clay,
The Angel of Death will come from the sky,
And claim your poor soul when the time comes to die
  1. The Man Comes Around – Johnny Cash
(‘American IV’ – 2002)
Voices callin’, voice cryin’ Some are born, some are dyin’
It’s Alpha and Omega’s Kingdom Come
  1. London Calling – The Clash
(‘London Calling’ – 1979)
A nuclear error, but I have no fear, London is drowning- and I live by the river
  1. How Will you Meet your End? – AA Bondy
(‘American Hearts’ – 2007)
Lighning hits the Church, the women cry, And hell upon the breeze, No God in sight,
Six riders stand upon the ridge tonight, Oh Lord they have found me, my time is nigh…
  1. Eve of Destruction – Barry McGuire
(1965)
You’re old enough to kill, but not for votin’, Even the Jordan River has bodies floatin’
  1. You’re Gonna Need Somebody When you Die – Charley Patton
(1929)
  1. You Never Know – Wilco
(Wilco the Album – 2009)
Come on Children, you’re acting like children,
Every Generation thinks it’s the end of the world…
  1. Barstow – Jay Farrar
(‘Sebastopol’ – 2001)
And the past tells the story quite well, By the time we make it to Barstow,
We’ll be more than halfway to hell
  1. 99 Luftballons – Nena
(’99 Luftballons – 1984) People think they’re UFO’s from space, so a General sent up A fighter squadron after them,
Sound the alarm if it’s so, But there on the horizon were only 99 balloons
  1. Champagne, Illinois – The Old 97’s
(‘Grand Theatre Vol 1’ – 2010)
After that comes the Judgement, Oh and the Judgement will be swift,
You will be eliminated but there’s a parting gift, Oh, if you die fearin’ God and painfully employed,
No, you will not go to Heaven, You’ll go to Champaign, Illinois
  1. Bad Moon Rising – Creedence Clearwater Revival
(‘Green River’ – 1969)
Hope you got your things together, Hope you are quite prepared to die,
Looks like we’re in for nasty weather, One eye is taken for an eye
  1. The House at Pooneil Corners – Jefferson Airplane
(‘Crown of Creation’ – 1968)
One tear I thought that should stop a war, But someone is killing me,
And that’s the last hour to think anymore…
  1. When that Helicopter Comes – The Handsome Family
(‘In the Air’ – 2000)
The sky will swim in lightning fire and the trees will shake and scream,
Rocks gonna run up hill and the sun will dive in the sea,
The dead gonna wake and sing and roll their bones in the grass,
There’ll be power in the blood, When that helicopter comes
  1. Ain’t Talkin’ – Bob Dylan
(‘Modern Times’ – 2006) They say prayer has the power to heal, So pray for me, Mother,
In the human heart an evil spirit can well
I am tryin’ love my neighbor and do good unto others,
But, oh Mother, things ain’t goin’ so well
Ain’t Talkin, just walkin’, Through the world mysterious and vague,
Heart Burnin’, Still Yearnin’, Walkin’ through the cities of the plague

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