Play This Loud. Your Feet will Move, Your day will Improve, You'll Pass it On.

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Around the time I decided that the President would definitely fire Robert Mueller before the ball drops on New Year’s Eve and that the only stocking stuffer worth buying was Timothy Snyder’s little book, I heard Brian Fallon’s new song, “Forget Me Not.”

And I had an epiphany. Resistance is futile when it’s primarily negative. The only resistance that matters — to me, anyway — is resistance that begins with an affirmation. Like: Yeah, what’s happening sucks, but over here…over here is fun and love and joy.

Exhibit A: Bruce Springsteen playing for 200,000 East Berliners in 1988. “It’s nice to be in East Berlin,” Springsteen began, reading from a card in halting German. “I want to tell you that I’m not here for or against any government, I have come to play rock ‘n ‘roll for the East Berliners… in the hope that one day all barriers will be torn down…” Then Springsteen began to sing Bob Dylan’s “Chimes of Freedom.” But the song didn’t matter. It was the feeling: hope long suppressed, hope finally rising. There are those who say that President Reagan took the Wall down and those who credit Gorbachev. Looking at those East Berlin kids, you could make a better case for blue jeans and rock music, and you might think that what happened in East Berlin that day was a promise 200,000 people made to one another: That Wall is coming down. [Watch the YouTube video.]

Exhibit B: Brian Fallon. He was 8 years old, living in New Jersey, when Springsteen sang in East Berlin — he grew up listening to Bruce. There are similarities in their writing and their singing: “And if they end it all by the end of tonight/ If the big bomb drops down over this quiet Edison sky/ We’ll blow one last kiss to all the beautiful nights like this/ Under the central Jersey sky.”) That’s praise…and a burden. It’s also a foundation for songs like “Forget Me Not.”

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The lyrics are serious. A kid imagines his death: ”What if my soul is still trembling?” And he wonders how his girlfriend would react: “Would you put your black dress on and visit my bones?/ And bring my football top and a scarf for the cold?” The music: “Melancholy songs that somehow made us/ Feel a whole lot better.” That’s an understatement.

The words are compelling. Forget them. Play it loud. Fling yourself about. Revisit the feeling that other guy described: “It ain’t no sin to be glad you’re alive.” [To download the loud, live version with the band, click here. For the acoustic version, click here. For Brian Fallon’s tour dates, click here.]

The acoustic version:

The lyrics:

Stacy, I’d like to take you to a movie
In a world without a death wish
On a night under the fireworks in heaven
Oh but Stacy
Baby, you can take me anywhere
Because I get a lot of low downs
So just put me in the cold ground and visit
Oh, but what if
What if my soul was still trembling?
Oh would you put your black dress on and visit my bones?
And bring my football top and a scarf for the cold
Playing melancholy songs that somehow made us
(Feel a whole lot better)

Well, I waited on the kingdom come and the trumpet blow
In the cold, hard ground there’s some letters you wrote
Would I get any rest from the wreck that I was with the living?
Or would you just go on?
Stacy, I never thought I’d miss the small talk
I never knew the gift the day was
I just used to hear the time clock
Whistle stop
Sleep and get back up again
Stacy, I never thought I’d miss the hard love
I wish I took the time to miss you
While we were sitting only right there under heaven
Oh, but what if
What if my soul was still trembling?
And would you put your black dress on and visit my bones?
And bring my football top and a scarf for the cold
Playing melancholy songs that somehow made us
(Feel a whole lot better)

Well, I waited on the kingdom come and the trumpet blow
In the cold, hard ground there’s some letters you wrote
Would I get any rest from the wreck that I was with the living?
Or would you just go on?
Could you promise me something if you find someone?
That you’ll forget me not
Never feel too much
Even if they do all the things that I couldn’t do for you
And I’ll promise you something if I find someone
That I’ll forget you not
Never feel too much
Even if they do all the things that I couldn’t do for you
Oh, but what if
What if your soul was still trembling?

And I would put my black suit on and visit your bones
And bring a football top and a play that you wrote
And an English song by a band that you love
Here comes the sun, little darling
And the kingdom come and the trumpet blow
In the cold, hard ground there’s some letters you wrote
Would you get any rest from the wreck that I was with the living?
Or would you just go on?

Would you put your black dress on and visit my bones?
And bring my football top and a scarf for the cold (please forget me not)
Playing melancholy songs that somehow made us
Feel a whole lot better (would you just go on?)
Well, I waited on the kingdom come and the trumpet blow
In the cold, hard ground there’s some letters you wrote (oh please forget me not)
Would I get any rest from the wreck that I was with the living?

BONUS VIDEO

Most of this life’s been a drag of a high
And lows like a blow in a paid thrown title fight
Most of my sins were born in a kiss on a night like this
Calling all lonely hearts
Don’t you want a life like we saw on the picture show?
So come on, give me something, come on, keep me up all night
You say, my baby, all this time in between drives me crazy
I want a life on fire, going mad with desire
I don’t wanna survive, I want a wonderful life
My love seems that it goes from a dream
To a crash and a roll, just shaking up everyone
Maybe there’s more than the treasures we secure
That become heavy chains, to sink us in tidal waves
And all I could do is take you from the circus show
So come on give me something, come on keep me up all night
You say, my baby, all this time in between drives me crazy
I want a life on fire, going mad with desire
I don’t wanna survive, I want a wonderful life
And all my nights they always end the same (with the blacktop, blacktop)
Coming from behind
It’s just the age-old game from the living dead buzzing in my head
They keep me up all night
You say, my baby, all this time in between drives me crazy
I want a life on fire, going mad with desire
I don’t wanna survive, I want a wonderful life
(All my sins were born in a kiss on a night like this calling all lonely hearts)
I want a wonderful life