Tracy Chapman was, in my estimation, writing about people she knew. I had a client once whose fiancee could have written that song. She was trying to hold a job and raise their three children. He was spending more money than they had on crack, and if that weren't bad enough his entire family was like an anchor trying to pull him down. I have a great deal of respect for people like Terry McMillan (including, of course, those who don't achieve fame) who get their own fast cars, escape their own deadweight families, and "break the cycle".

You know I never heard anyone analize "Us and Them" before, that's a great look at it. I always looked at in a general way but I'll have to give it another listen.

Floyd has a way with the horrible reality that no other band has ever touched.

When did you attend Wayne State? My father's an alumn, and Hon. Patrick Cherry of 54A District Court, you may know him.

Edited by author 12-05-2003 07:40 PM
My goodness -- of course I've heard of Patrick Cherry from my time in Lansing-area politics. He's probably heard of me, too.

I was at Wayne from 1979 to 1982.

As to "Us and Them", my analysis applies to that particular passage, btw, not the whole work, which deals in war and conflict of all sorts.

More floyd lyrics that I love from Free Four:

"Life is a short warm moment and death is a long cold rest /You get your chance to try in the twinkling of an eye/ Eighty years with luck or even less."

I am a long-time Prine fan. It was Kris Kristofferson who commented, on hearing Prine perform "Sam Stone" and "Hello In There", that Prine writes songs "as if he were 200 years old". Prine was something like 25 at the time.