Greg Brown and Jimmy Lafave: I Want My Country Back

SONGS Homeland (I Want My Country Back)/This Land

WRITTEN BY Greg Brown/Jimmy Lafave

PERFORMED BY Greg Brown/Jimmy Lafave

APPEAR ON In The Hills of California (2004)/Cimarron Manifesto (2007)

Conservative writers took advantage of the invasion of Iraq to attack liberals with such thoughtful tomes as Treason: Liberal Treachery from the Cold War to the War on Terror and Deliver Us From Evil: Defeating Terrorism, Despotism, and Liberalism. Liberal songwriters responded with expressions of simple patriotism that will appear on their set lists long after the work Ann Coulter and Sean Hannity has been consigned to the remainders bin. Indeed, Greg Brown's "Homeland (I Want My Country Back)" and Jimmy Lafave's "This Land" evoke the spirit of Woody Guthrie, tearing out after the fascists with their words and guitars.

When I saw Greg Brown in 2004, he came on stage quietly, began strumming his guitar, and sang these declarative words -- "I want my country back" -- in the sensitive, gruff bass that has become his signature. Brown declared both his allegiance and isolation:

Got my hand over my heart,

but I don't feel at home here any more

He then went on the slyly reclaim the Silent Majority as "Many quiet words of wisdom drowned out by TV" and called for a return to the true American values of Sojourner Truth and Chief Joseph. His cut at President Bush -- "Blind engineer, war train on the track" -- now seems more prescient than sarcastic.

Brown reserved his finest sally for the sunshine patriots:

Big, big flag above the big, big mall,

and the shake, rattle and roll to the core.

Things sprawl after they fall,

and I don't feel at home here any more

I have long resented the implicit message of the flag waving "Support the Troops" bumper stickers. They imply that, since my car doesn't have said bumper sticker, I don't support the troops and am somehow a lesser person for it. I'm grateful to Brown for taking on this mentality with thoughtfulness -- there's nothing snarky or snide about the way he warns that "Things sprawl after they fall" like a punch-drunk fighter lying unconscious in the ring.

Austin singer-songwriter Jimmy Lafave -- a longtime favorite of mine -- want his country back, too. The country he has lost was a community; the one he has now measures its success by the wealth of the few, sends the poor off to die in war, and strips those at home of their civil liberties. The symbols of it all are

...people

Just stranded by the road

They're hopeless and forgotten

Where all the milk and honey flows

Until we care for the "hopeless and forgotten", Lafave will respond in the best way he can: By bearing witness.

Traveling through this land

It's the only thing I know

To say my friends

I simply want my country back again

The Bush years are over but they are not gone. Their legacy lingers with the families who lost sons and daughters in Iraq, with the innocents tortured and jailed at Gitmo, with the millions of lives blasted by an unmanaged and unregulated economy. We don't have our country back yet, which is why these songs remain relevant. In fact, they'll always be relevant; to forget their message would be to risk losing our way again.

LYRICS: Homeland (I Want My Country Back)

I want my country back

and a good dream to stand up for.

Got my hand over my heart

but I don't feel at home here anymore

Big, big flag above the big, big mall

and shake rattle and roll to the core.

Things sprawl after they fall

and I don't feel at home here anymore

Home of Sojourner Truth

and Chief Joseph before,

Many quiet words of wisdom drowned out by TV

and I don't feel at home here anymore.

Blind engineer, war train on the track

many many a heart is sore.

We want our country back;

we want to feel at home here once more.

I want my country back.

LYRICS: This Land
Life is hard
Times are tough
And the ones who have too much
Seem to never get enough
Traveling through this land

Children dying
On some foreign soil
For God's sake won’t you tell me
What is all this fighting for

Traveling through this land
It’s the only thing I know
To say my friends
I simply want my country back again

Cause I went driving
Through the American night
And I slowly watched my freedoms
Disappear right out of sight

Traveling through this land
It’s the only thing I know
To say my friend
I simply want my country back again

Cause I see people
Just stranded by the road
They’re hopeless and forgotten
Where all the milk and honey flows

Traveling through this land