Time In Babylon
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RELEASED ON: Sessions, The Hum Of The Diesels
There is only one version of this song, which was written by Emmy Lou Harris. It is a full studio recording.
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LYRICS:
Five lane highway danger zone SUV and a speaker phone You need that chrome to get you home Doin’ time in Babylon Cluster mansion on the hill Another day in Pleasantville If you don’t like it, take a pill Doin’ time in Babylon In the land of the proud and free You can sell your soul and your dignity For fifteen minutes on TV Doin’ time in Babylon So suck the fat, cut the bone Fill it up with silicone Everybody must get cloned Doin’ time in Babylon Little boy blue come blow your horn The crows are in the corn The morning sky is red and falling down The piper’s at the till He’s comin’ for the kill Luring all our children underground In Babylon We came from apple pie and mom Through civil rights and ban the bomb To Watergate and Vietnam Hard times in Babylon Rallied round the megaphone Gave it up, just got stoned Now it’s Prada, Gucci and Perron Doin’ time in Babylon Little boy blue come blow your horn The crows are in the corn The morning sky is red and falling down Your song of healing spark A way out of this dark Lead us to a higher holy ground Get results, get ‘em fast We’re ready if you’ve got the cash Someone else will be laughing last Doin’ time in Babylon So put that conscience on the shelf Keep the best stuff for yourself Let the rest fight over what is left Doin’ time in Babylon Little boy blue come blow your horn The crows are in the corn The morning sky is red and falling down Let your song of healing spark A way out of this dark Lead us to a higher holy ground Oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh Oh oh oh ho ho huh Huh huh |
"Time In Babylon" is a song I heard Emmy Lou Harris sing. It speaks of a modern world, slick and coldhearted. My father was a school teacher. He loved knowledge. He had two majors and three minors before he decided he'd better stop learning and start teaching. He studied greek and latin and drilled us at the dinner table over prefixes and suffixes. He compared languages, pointing out the cognates which they shared so that we would understand that language is flexible, that it's always changing, and that it is beautiful in itself. He gave us a lifelong appreciation of the written word, for careful research and somehow inspired passion for writing. He was a good teacher.
One thing that we children share is the need to live outside of Babylon. We do not have normal jobs. We do not have commercially instilled tastes. We do not have a lot in common with the world around us. We are in the world, but not of the world. We like to dress in costumes, behave as iconoclasts by creating funny images. We mix satire in with serious observation. I've run for President during every election, just for the pleasure of discussing issues that have been swept under the rug. Though this kind of humor is more the prankful excesses of an eccentric gadfly than a spiritual novitiate.
As for being in the world, but not of the world, it's possibly the way that many of us from my generation have managed to walk down a narrow road, through the gate that is straight, and not be driven mad by the inconsistency and injustice of modern society; not be consumed by what is around us.
It's not unusual ability. God wants us all to live this way. But it is perhaps an uncommon lifestyle because of the forceful marketing of the American dream, the persistence of name brand iconography and the easy process of assimilating an outward appearance, implying an inward social or spiritual awareness, without experiencing any of the sacrifice and loss which always accompanies integrity and develops moral character.
If you have the credit card you can purchase the image. You can buy clothes which access the world of the urban thug, or the up and coming starlet. Or the hip, cool, smooth rock and roller. You can dress the part without having the heart.
In many ways our modern Western world is in free-fall. We are crumbling morally, stumbling spiritually. We are disassociated from true reality, entranced by the gleaming images coming through the cinema, the widescreen television, the airbrushed gossip magazines printed on glossy paper. The actress on the cover can remove ten or fifteen years through digital photo manipulation, or facelifts and botox injections. The image becomes more important than the essence. People barely read any more. They watch. They posture. They perform their life instead of live it.
One thing that we children share is the need to live outside of Babylon. We do not have normal jobs. We do not have commercially instilled tastes. We do not have a lot in common with the world around us. We are in the world, but not of the world. We like to dress in costumes, behave as iconoclasts by creating funny images. We mix satire in with serious observation. I've run for President during every election, just for the pleasure of discussing issues that have been swept under the rug. Though this kind of humor is more the prankful excesses of an eccentric gadfly than a spiritual novitiate.
As for being in the world, but not of the world, it's possibly the way that many of us from my generation have managed to walk down a narrow road, through the gate that is straight, and not be driven mad by the inconsistency and injustice of modern society; not be consumed by what is around us.
It's not unusual ability. God wants us all to live this way. But it is perhaps an uncommon lifestyle because of the forceful marketing of the American dream, the persistence of name brand iconography and the easy process of assimilating an outward appearance, implying an inward social or spiritual awareness, without experiencing any of the sacrifice and loss which always accompanies integrity and develops moral character.
If you have the credit card you can purchase the image. You can buy clothes which access the world of the urban thug, or the up and coming starlet. Or the hip, cool, smooth rock and roller. You can dress the part without having the heart.
In many ways our modern Western world is in free-fall. We are crumbling morally, stumbling spiritually. We are disassociated from true reality, entranced by the gleaming images coming through the cinema, the widescreen television, the airbrushed gossip magazines printed on glossy paper. The actress on the cover can remove ten or fifteen years through digital photo manipulation, or facelifts and botox injections. The image becomes more important than the essence. People barely read any more. They watch. They posture. They perform their life instead of live it.