Digital Analogue

Power from above

Hoo, it's been awhile since I wrote anything, but I'm totally fired up about this new CD I just discovered. Dan Berggren's song "Power from above" was linked to by the Step It Up folks, and it is, as they say, anthemic; the verses have a renewable-energy message:

Sinners are you ready for a little redemption
To receive forgiveness for what we’ve done?
The time has come to break bad habits.
It’s time to turn to the wind and sun.

The chorus takes that rather religious language and draws the analogy more clearly:

Just a little more power from above,
Just a little more faith, respect and love
For this old earth our only home.
It may take strength to say no to that power from below
But there’s salvation in the power from above.

Absolutely brilliant. Note that throughout the song, it uses "we" language: the singer is certainly not exempt from his own message. We all need to work at being better—and to draw in more of the Christian context he's accessing very effectively here, we're all human and will never be perfect, but that only means we can all always work on improving.

But that'd be all for nought if not for the song. It's a folky tune that is just unbelievably catchy. A low-fi MP3 is available from Dan Berggren's website (along with the full lyrics), but you know what? Just go buy the whole CD (entitled "Fresh territory" and available on iTunes). It's all good, some is environmentalist, some is just good folk music. His "From every mountain side" is not to be missed; four new verses to "My country 'tis of thee" that are just as good if not better than the original:

Seeds of democracy,
Nurtured with honesty,
Become our liberty
When we share the load.

So, yeah, go buy it.

"It's also a lot easier to slap a health claim on a box of sugary cereal than on a potato or carrot, with the perverse result that the most healthful foods in the supermarket sit there quietly in the produce section, silent as stroke victims, while a few aisles over, the Cocoa Puffs and Lucky Charms are screaming about their newfound whole-grain goodness." --Michael Pollan

Posted by blahedo at 11:28am on 14 Feb 2007