Independence Day Lyrics
Forefathers where are you now ?
Your dust is settling on my furniture
I stepped out of a cloud and the ditch is close
I mean the ditch is closing in.
Hemingway did your fat little self justice
so here's to you you articulate dead fisherman
What if I said I love you and need your guidance to help me through the obstacles ?
Would you say I am too wordy and then would you laugh ?
What if I said I'm under the glass untouchable as the document itself ?
Would you say OK and that you never even considered me ?
Independence day, I never knew it would be so symbolic.
I can't believe I'm the first person to comment on Vic Chesnutt, who's got to be one of the top five American lyricists alive today.
Anyway, what I love about this one, among other things, is the self-reflexive last line, where Vic acknowledges that the analogy of national to personal independence is pretty cheesy -- it's that kind of self-consciousness that endears him to me. And it runs through the whole song -- the whole legend of Hemingway as the macho, self-absorbed, isolated, doomed literary hero is kind of ridiculous and Vic knows it, but it's still a big deal to him. And ultimately the emotional stance he's interested in here -- the rugged emotional individualist -- is bound up in America's history of itself, political and otherwise. Vic Chesnutt for President!
I can't believe you are/were either. I've read these lyrics and your post multiple times. I signed in today for the first time in over two years to tell you this... and to grieve with you. Vic Chesnutt will be missed. I can't believe he's gone. This has been the most tragic Christmas moment I've ever encountered and have been listening to his music non-stop ever since, in memoriam. listen with me and never, ever, forget how important his music was.
I can't believe you are/were either. I've read these lyrics and your post multiple times. I signed in today for the first time in over two years to tell you this... and to grieve with you. Vic Chesnutt will be missed. I can't believe he's gone. This has been the most tragic Christmas moment I've ever encountered and have been listening to his music non-stop ever since, in memoriam. listen with me and never, ever, forget how important his music was.