There’s a playlist on my ipod of everything i’ve acquired that Conor Oberst has recorded. I spent half the day listening to new music but as my girlfriend wouldn’t be back until quite late tonight I felt a bit, what I might coin as “Obersty”. While listening to one of the slower songs I don’t usually pay much attention to, I marvelled in its underappreciated majesty and remembered back in the day when I used to post about Bright Eyes loads and thought it might be nice to do so this evening. Anyway she called and said she was coming right back after the first song so I guess that’s that :p
Napoleon’s Hat
This is the song that stirred this passion within me. It was released in 2005 for benefit of the victims of Hurricane Katrina. The song itself is a masterpiece, couplets of statements and thoughts at the start and end of each verse make this insanely powerful-
The barons of industry put inspiration on Hitler’s tongue
The next century crashed hard with a loud sound like a starting gun
So I act like I am rich, try and make it my whole look
Cause poor people don’t exist when times are good
Mozart’s foster parents put cigarettes out in his ears
When he got old enough to stutter he said I don’t listen but I-I-I can hear
It’s like wading through a wasteland where a town you love once stood
You just cry each time you think of when times were good
Napoleon’s tailor dressed him in a giant hat and funny platform shoes
Saying anyone can be a hero you just got to force people to look up to you
And strive for understanding over being understood
Just don’t let yourself forget when the times get good
And inbetween those lines like “When you’re talking on a hotline to a suicidal soul, don’t let your voice sound like hot coffee; more like a scented pillow“. This guy blows my mind every time.
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