The Tom Cook Book
I started to write a book yesterday and it's moving right along, one of those it almost writes itself experiences thankfully. It is a commentary on the songbook of Tom Cook a man I met once but never spoke to because he was incapacitated by Huntington's at the time. It will be an intro and then deal with each song and my impressions as they have occurred to me. I have the intro and commentary for one song with about forty-nine to go. For this diary I will reduce the introduction and include the commentary in full. Yes, this is the first draft and you might as well know that I have a very weak grasp of punctuation which I will have to have corrected for me. No corrections of any kind, work with me.
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How I met Tom Cook an appreciation.This should be a good story if only I can tell it right, it has the potential as they say to brighten lives and make them fuller in the sense that when we meet certain people they rub off on us and make us better human beings. This has been the case as my relationship with Tom has matured over time as I read and reread the songbook that landed so neatly in my lap like a red hot meteorite from another space.
So Dixie tells me that her brother Tom who had been a social worker by day was also a songwriter and troubadour after hours. Then she says that maybe I would like to see his songbook with the possibility of putting some of his work to music, she leaned over to Tom and asks him if that would be all right and he nodded an affirmation. That's how I came to meet a rare individual, a man who would capture my heart and soul by letting me into his world of wondrous poetry. And I do mean wondrous and more, this was a man after my own heart he was witty and kind and loving and tragic all at the same time, an uncommon humor invaded his words and washed over the tragedy making something real and valuable out of it. When I say knocked me out I'm not exaggerating the songs were extraordinary, expressing in so many words so many feelings that unite all people everywhere. Like Woody Guthrie before him Tom was a solid man of the people, a voice sticking up for the little guy bruised and beaten down by life and love, kicked to the side of the road by fat cats and preyed on by the human vultures of this world. Ok that is five pages reduced to four paragraphs, now on with the show. |
Earthman
Earthman by Tom Cook
Running from machine gun Bodies rot in the blazing sun Both sides fighting for so long Newsreels of dirty deals One side buys what the other steals So you ask me whose side am I on? So you ask me whose side am I on? I'm an earthman to my bone I call the earth my home I'm an earthman let me be Hang no other sign on me Work hard today for your pay And take care of your own they say Starvation in the midst of wealth Fear and fright on the left and right Blaming each other for our plight So you ask me what I call myself? So you ask me what I call myself? Chorus Mystic lights in our sights Some believe them and some hold tight Star travelers from a distant shore Drop the line let them shine And they'll take us one more step in time We will be earthmen and nothing more We will be earthmen and nothing more We are earthmen to the bone We call the earth our home We are earthmen have no fear You are welcome here |
Commentary on Earthman by Tom Pumroy
So here we have a political song with three verses and a different topic in each verse, different but definitely related. Over all it represents Tom's take on political affiliation and he has a wonderfully unique and thoughtful answer for those who might ask him where his loyalties lay.
The first verse brings up our countries now ever present war stance but I imagine it was initially about Vietnam as that was the war we grew up on. The fact that we are still fighting leads me to bring up the ability Tom has to see into the future which I might attribute to his understanding that without fundamental changes in our basic consciousness we are doomed to repeat our disastrous actions time and time again, different situations maybe but the same old response. The first two lines are amazingly lean and mean they say what needs to be said with economy and striking force. The scene is set so well with "running from machine gun" four words that describe the action and flow off the tongue really well, they capture the panic of war while the next line tells of the consequences. A more horrific image than "bodies rot in the blazing sun" would be hard to conjure. Then we flip to images that could be about the war or they could be about the general corruption that has overcome good sense and human decency the endless struggle between factions and how they play off of each other to the detriment of all concerned. Ending with the question we all must face whose side are we on, which side can we whole heartedly back with a clear conscience? Tom opts out from taking a side; he is not comfortable with either choice so he breaks from the pack and with admirable positiveity asserts his allegiance to his home planet, his Mother Earth. He is simply an earthman first and foremost, the petty divisions humans find themselves in are not going to set well with him and he wants his independence from the artificial tags that we assign each other. The second verse starts off with a reference to the American Dream that we were all sold growing up in the fifties and sixties that if you work hard there is nothing you can't accomplish. But it quickly veers towards a self centeredness that is inherent in the notion that taking care of ones self and ones family is the prime directive of life everyone one else be damned. Then we have Tom's tidy verse "starvation in the midst of wealth" that speaks to his horror at how a supposedly prosperous and noble nation can tolerate the injustices and inequality, things that betray the principles we were raised to believe about our country. Again we have to applaud his prescience as this situation has grown and grown with the gap ever widening between the haves and the have nots. |
The next two verses deal unequivocally with our two political parties the left and the right and their teeter-totter stances each absolutely sure that it is the others fault but without having the slightest inclination to meet in the middle to actually solve problems. And the motivation that keeps this unholy ball rolling nowhere is fear and fright, both side with their heads stuck in the sand, fingers in their ears terrified to change to grow, stagnant, frozen in place.
I have found that Tom Cook is not a man to lead us into desperation without holding out the possibility of hope, at least a candle at the end of the dark tunnel and the last verse provides this alternative. There are "mystic lights in our sights" and this is the potential remedy to our darkening world, as I've said Tom is open minded when it comes to the spiritual or the transcendental and they can all be grouped under the heading "mystic lights." That these mystic lights are within our sights must indicate that they are a known quality, available for those so inclined to make use of. But "some believe them and some hold tight" some of us are willing to embrace the mystical realms and move our perspective from a small, concentric, hemmed in fear based mode of looking at things to a wider more inclusive spiritual attitude. To illustrate the larger perspective Tom alludes to the universe with "star travelers from a distant shore" which can be seen a number of ways and is one of those things that I think don't need further explanation in that it plants a seed for future growth. Perhaps some of us are consciously aware of past lives and purposes on other planets in the universe; there is also the notion that we are actually made of matter, space dust that was once a distant star. "Drop the line let them shine And they'll take us one more step in time." Apparently holding the line whatever it might be interferes with the ability of these mystic lights to shine as they should; maybe in order to grow we must let go of our old and outmoded paradigms, the old and stunted world view that keeps us from attaining both inner and outer peace. If we want to evolve beyond our current miasma of war and greedy self centered behavior we need to drop our old baggage over the side and let the mystic lights show the way toward a brighter future. And then concluding with an altered chorus, moving from I'm an earthman to we are earthmen (women are earthmen too). We are all included every one of us, no divisions here and our task is to live without the fear that has so decimated our poor planet and caused so much misery. Why because you and I do mean you are welcome here and isn't that a beautiful way to conclude this song? |
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