Land of the Living

In the last few months I've heard several September 11 songs, and by far my favorite is Lucy Kaplansky's. You can hear a sizeable clip - about the first 75% of the song - here. It's too bad that the clip cuts off when it does because the last verse may be my favorite, in that it acknowledges the internal divisions and resentments that have cropped up in the aftermath of the attack.

When I saw Dave Wilcox at the Birchmere he did a September 11 song that kept reiterating a line about 'we stand united,' and every time it came around I had the same convulsive feeling of total contradiction, the urge to shout "yeah, beating up Sikh and Muslim Americans is a major uniting gesture! We can all feel warm and fuzzy about that!"

Lucy doesn't say anything that makes me want to shout "NO!" like that. Her song just feels... true. Sad and hopeful and true.

( Lyrics )