Musical Monday: Never Tire of the Road (Andy Irvine)

 

I love this song. It's folksy and political (yeah, I'm going there. And if you haven't voted, yet--go and do it!) It's anti-fascist and pro-union and it's got Irish roots. Its central message is about keeping on keeping on. Or, as Robert Crumb would have put it, "Keep on Trucking." Fifty years ago I had a T-shirt with that cartoon image emblazoned on the front. That and a bucket hat and low-rise jeans was pretty much my out-of-school uniform. 

But I digress...

This is one of those songs that I listened to obsessively during a difficult period of my life. Now, whenever I'm feeling discouraged, I know I can put it on and I'll immediately start feeling better again. 

There was a time in my life when this song and a big ol' Cafe au Lait from Cafe Fanny in Berkeley could make everything okay--at least for a little while.

I miss those days. I miss faith and courage and Quakerism and fog. I miss my pretty green house, my big backyard, my chickens and my cats. 

Most of all, I think I miss my belief in these words by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr:  "We shall overcome because the arc of the moral universe is long but it bends toward justice."

I'm actually feeling optimistic about that today. But we'll see what tomorrow holds. And, either way, we will keep on trucking.