truth
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Hans 2021 Song Draft: Round Five-Pick 12-Minutes To Memories-John Mellencamp (1985)
Hanspostcard has a song draft challenge. This is my Round Five pick.
Pulling myself out of 1978, I am moving into the 1980s. ~Vic
John Mellencamp‘s Scarecrow album was released on August 5, 1985, 25 days prior to my 19th birthday and six weeks before I started my sophomore year of college. God, what an album. This was Mellencamp’s version of Born In The USA (I own both albums). Roots rock/Heartland rock was the music in the background of my graduation from high school and subsequent foray into college. Minutes To Memories was not an official release from the album but, it managed to make it to #14 on the Top Rock Tracks for one week as a non-single album track. It spoke volumes to me…
“You are young and you are the future
So, suck it up, tough it out
Be the best you can.”
Written by Mellencamp and his childhoon friend George M. Green, it is the #4 track on the album and Mimi Mapes sang backing vocals. Scarecrow made it to #2 on the Billboard 200 chart the week of November 16, 1985 (coming underneath Born In The USA, twice) and stayed for a couple of weeks, stuck behind the Miami Vice Soundtrack.
“I wrote a song called [You’ve Got To] Stand For Something,” [Mellencamp] explains, “but, I never did say what you should stand for…except your own truth. That song was supposed to be funny, too and, I hope people got that. But, I think that’s the key to the whole LP…suggesting that each person come to grips with their own individual truth […] and try to like themselves a little bit more. Find out what you as a person are […] and don’t let the world drag you down. People should have respect for and believe in themselves.”
John Cougar Mellencamp: Working Class Hero In The Rumbleseat
Bill Holdship
Creem
February 1986
Mellencamp Forum
A deeply felt sense of responsibility and an equally motivating need to atone for past missteps seem to define Scarecrow. On the midtempo Minutes to Memories, Mellencamp tells the story of a young boy riding home to Indiana after a trip to the South. In the next seat on the bus is a seventy-seven-year-old retired steelworker lecturing the child on how to live, backing his advice with experience. “My family and friends are the best things I’ve known,” he instructs, and the child, a budding rebel, chuckles to himself at how out of touch the old dog is.
Easing into the final verse, Mellencamp hushes his band. In a voice just above a whisper, he suddenly shifts the tale from third to first person. He’s the kid on the Greyhound and, his inability to comprehend, let alone act on, the wisdom he was given then, still haunts him… “Now that I’m older I can see he was right.” [T]hen Mellencamp reveals that he’s telling this story to his own son. He knows he’s being silently scoffed at as surely as his travel companion was two decades earlier. Still, he accepts it and the band rocks out.
Album Reviews: Scarecrow
Jimmy Guter
Rolling Stone
September 26, 1985
There is no official video of this song but, the below is one guy’s idea.
Chris Thomas: Truth Is The Greatest Healer
A Magazine Article From: The Chris Thomas Files
Most of us are beginning to realise that the commodity least available to us is the truth. Politicised news now has so much spin attached to it, that it is impossible to unravel the knots. Scientific news is proven to be wrong so many times that most have stopped listening. Flu pandemics turn out not to happen and the pharmaceutical responses turn out to have more severe side effects than if we had just put up with a few days of unpleasant symptoms. The sovereignty of every European country has been swept away in Lisbon and, the Copenhagen Conference finished in shambles because the global climate has not changed for the last ten years. With all of these lies and half-truths in the “official” world, is it any wonder that so many are turning to “channelled” sources for information? [T]hen, we find that the likes of “Lord Sananda” and “Lord Metatron” are, at the least, very unreliable, with the best interests of the Earth, and humanity, not being served. Question…why would beings who claim to be at the pinnacle of soul development still have an ego that requires the title “Lord”?
Then, we are urged to take part in mass-meditation exercises which are supposed to help the planet. The first example of this was in 2007 with the cry we must “fire up the grid.” This turned out to be an exercise by those who carry out psychic attacks to see if the population was gullible enough to fall for the ploy. The “grid” in question that everyone was so keen to “fire up” was, in fact, the grid on the United Nations’ flag. Many are drawn to the story of the Annunaki and see them as humanity’s hope but, then, we discover that Lords Sananda and Metatron are Annunaki. These are not our “Gods” but, beings who claim to have built humans as a slave race to serve them. And, on top of all this, 2012 is approaching very rapidly. Is it any wonder that we are concerned and confused? So, where do we go from here? How do we obtain the answers we so desperately need? Believe it or not, the answer is very simple. We have become so used to being told what to do by others that we have forgotten our own inner voice.
Raising Our Energies
Since 1996, we have been changing our energy patterns, raising our personal energies to the point where we connect directly to our Higher Self. As we raise our energies and connect with the greater part of the soul, we begin to realise that we are not as small as we thought we were. With this knowledge also arrives the ability to recognise truth. This is how we can recognise the lies for what they are. A few years ago, we would have accepted what “authority” figures told us without question but, as we begin to fully connect to our own inner reality, our own inner “higher” voice also begins to speak. [We] have begun to recognise that there is an agenda at work which does not seem to serve our best interests.
No, this is not “another conspiracy theory.” All you have to do is to carry out some research for yourselves. What you will find is that you only need to scratch the surface. [You] do not need to dig very deeply and all sorts of half-truths come to light. If you do dig deeper, you will find all sorts of agendas at work, all designed to remove freedom of choice and to exert control over the population. All of this we can counter, if it is what we choose to do. By “we” I mean each and every individual making their own choices and acting on them. It is no good taking to the streets to demonstrate, as all that will do is increase the amount of legislation designed to curtail our freedom to demonstrate.
An Inner Revolution
What we need is a quiet revolution that takes place on an inner level. And, this is what all of these agendas are designed to disrupt…our process of reintegration. We are not “ascending” anywhere. [E]ven the term ascending was coined to deliberately mislead. [W]hat we are doing is bringing the whole of the soul back into the body. Take a deep breath and do it. Start by making a positive affirmation quietly to yourself. This needs to be a clear statement of intent to your higher self saying “I wish to reintegrate my soul without interference.” With that intent sincerely made, the next stage is to make room for the higher self to enter the body. This can only be achieved by clearing space, cleaning out all of the emotional debris we all carry around. The best, and simplest, way of doing this is to use the giveaway (see below).
We all carry emotions from our past and these need to be cleared. You will need to use the giveaway many times, not just once. [Y]ou will know you have cleared a situation when you can think back on an event, think about a relative, a sibling, a parent, ex-partner, employer, etc…and all we see is the event without any emotions attached. If you still feel angry or upset, you will need to do more giveaways. The more of these emotions you clear, the lighter and freer you will feel and, the more you progress. The more you progress, the more you will “know” and the less you will be taken in by misleading information from whatever source.
The Giveaway
Take an old newspaper and a pencil. On the newspaper, write letters to those who have caused you upsets in the past. Once you have finished writing a piece, rip it up and get rid of it, preferably by burning. And, then, start again with a new sheet of newspaper. Do not read it back, otherwise, you will take the emotions back in and have to start again.
[Addendum: Chris has also added that writing on newspaper makes it hard to read back. He suggested low light while writing and…some wine, as well. ~Vic]
© Chris Thomas 2010
Cygnus Review Magazine (Issue 2, Page 7, 2010/Issuu Website)
The Blog Post (Cygnus Review Blog…with the wrong author credited)
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