Thursday Lyric: Brown Shirts

Had a John Gorka album on tonight and the last song, after a pretty boppy and sly set, is this underorchestrated, raw, metronomic, quiet ... rant, I guess you could call it.

Subtle? No. But remember, it was written in 1992....

I got the lyrics here (though I've altered the punctuation to clarify) and found a very nice interview here (the Brown Shirts bit is at the end):

It seems like the world has gotten so complicated that people want to be told something to make them feel better because facing the truth is so overwhelming that they don't want to deal with it. So they'll accept something that's an oversimplification or a complete lie just because they can pay attention to their own lives. It's great to see all of the reaction to the JFK movie. I think it's great. I've read a lot of those books and it kind of fits in with some of the things that are going on now with Bush and the CIA. Just that, what kind of people can these men be and call themselves patriots and then lie to the people they are supposed to be representing? I don't understand that. I would like to believe in the President—that if he has to lie he was doing it for national security or for a good reason that's too complicated to go into. But that's not what's happening, they're lying to protect themselves, and to protect their position, and to protect their power. Not for anyone else's good but their own. And that's really frightening. I'd like to have leaders we can believe in. But maybe that's naive.

Remember: 1992.

Brown Shirts
by John Gorka

Brown shirts, here in the white house
Brown shirts, up on top of the hill
Brown shirts, can you hear them marching?
I swear they are marching still

(Brown shirts) for the good of the country
Brown shirts' pride all over the land
Brown shirts, give us law and orders
You’ll know when you raise your hands

Brown shirts. Is this how it all started?
(Brown shirts) oh, no worse than their kids
Brown shirts? sure they’re tough on the bad guy
Though they made him what he is

Brown shirts!

Brown shirts! They’re a little more subtle now
(Brown shirts) than the “house painter” man.
Brown shirts speak of God as their witness,
But they would kill Jesus again

Brown shirts, here in the white house
(Brown shirts) in their black limousines
Brown shirts, over here in the new world
With fresh, red unspeakable schemes



You can find other Thursday Poems here