Best Songs of 2009 – #6
I could have picked just about any song on Monster of Folk’s self-titled album for this year-end list… this album is solid from start to finish across a variety of styles and deliveries.
I’ve gone with ‘Baby Boomer’ because it makes excellent use of all three singers’ voices (those singers being Conor Oberst of Bright Eyes, Jim James of My Morning Jacket and M. Ward) and really plays up how well these individual artists have come together as a band.
The song seems to be about how our government rewrites history to gloss over the ugly things, but that’s just a guess. It clearly contains references to Columbus and the mistreatment of native Americans, but also Vietnam and (I presume) September 11. The truth is it doesn’t really matter what it’s about because I love this song for its sound, not its lyrics.
To what it is we’re leanin’ on
Who was it that first said it?
Could it be he could be wrong
About the pilgrims and the natives
Having dinner on the lawn?
I think if I was ever king
I would buy a censorship
Where the only books upon the shelves
Were the ones that I had written
Oh, and put them up in borders, set my photo down the spine
To tell the story of the livin’ without forgettin’ those who’d died
And I would die a happy man
‘Cause I did the best that I could do
To find a better way of living,
Should we leave that up to you?
Who was it that first said it, the one who said it best?
You got to L-O-V-E your neighbors, at least the ones who are still left
And we gotta stand a little closer
To the lessons that we’ve learned
Is it just a premonition?
Could we really get ourselves both burned?
I’ve been sent here on a mission to find what we agree upon
We don’t agree about September,
Could we agree on Vietnam?
I think if I was ever publisher I’d buy a pirate ship
Where the mission at each position is to shoot and to click
Clean the photos up a little, censor the ship out of it
So when we put it up in borders, turn a profit on the trip
Charge the public for the overhead of 1492
And if they need a better reason tell them we got livin’ proof
And I would die a happy man
‘Cause I did the best that I could do
To find a better way of leaving,
Should we leave that up to you
Who was it that first said it?
Yeah that’s what I’m trying to say
You got to L-O-V-E your neighbors, at least the ones that live today
Hey, hey
Meet Me In Montauk 
Cool song. This seems like an album I would like.
I believe your wife purchased it.
🙂 yup – she has. I like the album very much after a couple of listens. This song is definitely a stand out, not that I’m able to pick out each individual vocalist (or at least I’m not able to identify each one). Still, it has a great sound. I’ll let that Dana character borrow it one day.