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Sense of History

from Shaker Chair by Rob Siegel

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about

Recorded by Erik Kilburn at Wellspring Sound, just vocal and guitar tracked live with a little shaker egg thrown in. One of two tracks that received airplay on WUMB (the other was Elemental). This was the third attempt at recording Sense of History. It's also on my very first home-recorded album, and on the unreleased album my band did.

lyrics

my earliest memory
was when they shot John Kennedy
the year was 1963
I was five
I know that I was much too young
to realize what had been done
but I remember ‘cause I saw my old man cry

it was a multimedia tragedy
it was blood and guts on live tv
it was death in living color
what a scream
now I see his face everywhere I look
on the postage stamps and matchbooks
and I think that he could explain to me
why we need a sense of history

the next ten years jumped and twitched
like somebody hit the fast forward switch
it was hard to be a hippy
at thirteen
but I tried and I tried
I was no one’s fool
I drew peace signs on the walls at school
while I watched them count up bodies on tv
it was an Indochinese tragedy
it was Chet Huntley on NBC
it was death in living color
what a scream
all our heroes went the way
of MLK and RFK
and I think that they could explain to me
why we need a sense of history

you know the media loves
a political assassination
and I wonder who the next one’s gonna be

I’m as young as I can be
and still remember John Kennedy
but history repeats itself
I’m afraid
that somebody must’ve seen me cry
the day I learned that John Lennon died
I got mushroom clouds and needles in my dreams

it was a multimedia tragedy
it was blood and guts on MTV
it was death in living color
what a scream
now I’m scared of guns
and I’m afraid of the dark
and I see his face in Central Park
and I think that he could explain to me
something about a sense of history

credits

from Shaker Chair, released June 1, 1999

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all rights reserved

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about

Rob Siegel Boston, Massachusetts

Rob Siegel is well-known in Boston folk music circles as an innovative songwriter who draws from his idyllic yet stressed- out middle-class suburban existence and produces memorable, intelligent, well-crafted songs.

His first new CD in 14 years, "A Landscape of Ghosts," will be out in April, with a CD release show at Club Passim on Monday April 30th.
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