FAWM: "Elephant in the room"

Elephant in the room

2 days ago by @mikeskliar

Elephant in the room

mikeskliar

00:00

Liner Notes

#folk #political #protest #quick

I read earlier today that there's more evidence that widespread lead poisoning was a big contributing factor in the decline of the ancient Roman empire. Thinking about that, and thinking about our present day situation, this seems to have wrote itself, just about the time I was about to go to sleep. This song seemed to want to emerge right away, and I did a very quick iPhone one take one mic guitar-and-vocal thing- imported into garage band on my phone to give it a little eq (cutting the low frequencies) and adding a little reverb- then did a little more trimming and stuff in audacity on my pc, and here ya go.

enjoy, if that's the right word for a song like this.

Lyrics

The elephant’s here in this room
How can you not mention this fact?
The elephant’s in the White House
And everything’s under attack

It’ll pass, it’ll pass, but how? That’s a mystery
This ain’t gonna end so well, just ask any student of history

Its been just about one month
Feels like a decade or longer
Injustice insanity increasing
This fascist parade’s getting stronger

What undid the Roman empire, was lead in the water systems
The present day lead in our minds, our social media algorithms

We’re heading for deadly and dark
We’re heading for one big disaster
There’s no one to put on the brakes
This journey to hell’s getting faster

It seems there’s little doubt, we’re screwed for a long time to come
Won’t matter if you shout, or just let your body go numb

The elephant’s here in this room
How can you not mention this fact?
The elephant’s in the white house
And everything’s under attack

Comments

@ampersandman 1d

The words perfectly describe the situation, especially verse 2 puts it all perfectly. Terrible times in politics are good times for art, it seems. I like the descent on "everything’s under attack" btw.

@billwhite51 1d

a delightful waltz brings to mind the dancers of poe's masque of the red death, happily dancing as death puts his hand on their shoulders. one thing i would add in terms of historical precedent. it took many emperors to facilitate the decline and fall of the roman empire.

@jonmeta 2d

Nice chords choices, and as usual, incisive and eloquent social commentary.

On the Roman Empire: if you listen to the Caligula episode from 'The Rest is History' podcast, the parallels with this elephant are uncanny. I always said he was Hugo Chavez for right wing America, but now I'm leaning towards Caligula.

Now can you write a song about DOGE called 'The Department of Gutting Everything" ?

@coolparadisoMod 2d

we get the message loud and clear! this elephant however is talked about but it don't change things.

@danielkelly 2d

Rather than acknowledge the elephant, I suggest we put it in prison for its crimes. Fabulous song Mike.

@dr_griff 2d

As a student of history, I approve of the song and weep for our nation in about equal measure. I like the chord progression between the verse and the bridges. Good work here, my friend!