New Orleans 2005

On this 2nd anniversary of hurricane Katrina, I thought I'd post this song, which I wrote and recorded in the days following the disaster. In 2005, when I first posted it to my own web site, I received some comments from folks who were pretty incensed by it. I'd never had such visceral negative reactions to a song. Should you be interested, you can read some of those comments and my replies here. I also just posted a live version (from a gig earlier this month) to YouTube. [lyrics inside]

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posted by flapjax at midnite (5 comments total)

NEW ORLEANS 2005

see the black man down in New Orleans
waist deep in the flood waters wading
gunfire crackles in the distance
the last glimmer of daylight is fading
he didn't have much to begin with
now his world has come all unglued
he's on his way to bust into a grocery store
to get his family water and food

new orleans new orleans 2005

now see the president way up in his airplane
he says zero tolerance for looters
one thing this president really knows how to do
is to send in the guns and the shooters
but less bullets more boats beds and blankets
and a few hundred lives he might save
ah but blaming the victim is what we do best
here in the home of the brave

new orleans new orleans 2005

they say the president loves all americans
no matter the color or creed
but you decide for yourself where the real truth resides
is it found in the word or the deed
if you say you don't think that it's racist
maybe this'll cut through your dense mental haze
just try and imagine a whole stadium full of white people
left to fend for themselves for six days
well i don't think it would've happened quite that way

new orleans new orleans 2005

now if there's good that can come from this tragedy
it's that maybe things'll get rearranged
lord knows over in washington d.c.
we're long overdue for regime change
one hundred eighty six million dollars they spend
on the war in iraq every day
with just a fraction of that
they could've shored up those levees
and kept the floodwaters at bay

new orleans new orleans 2005

Copyright ©2005 Samm Bennett / Directional Music
posted by flapjax at midnite at 6:01 PM on August 28, 2007

Fantastic.
posted by ColdChef at 6:58 AM on August 29, 2007

Amen.
posted by tizzie at 6:15 PM on August 29, 2007

If anyone checks in here, be sure to check the gig-vid @ youtube. The song is great and definitely speaks for me.

Thanks for posting that vid, flapjax, what you did in your live performance really added a lot to the song. I love it, want more.
posted by snsranch at 6:58 PM on August 29, 2007

Thanks for your comments, folks, and for listening.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 6:08 PM on August 30, 2007