Tuesday, April 22, 2014

"Don't Look Now (It Ain't You or Me)" (Creedence Clearwater Revival)

The album Willy and the Poorboys (1969) is 30-something minutes of pure, perfect roots rock.  The songs are mostly lean and mean, and even the (slightly) longer, jammier ones never overstay their welcome.  
The album also happens to contain one of John Fogerty's best, lesser known compositions, "Don't Look Now (It Ain't You or Me)."
The brief song rides along on a swinging rockabilly groove that's heavily indebted to Johnny Cash.  While the tune itself is massively catchy, it's Fogerty's lyrics—which, thematically, also owe a lot to Cash—that grab me every time I hear the song.  Through a series of rhetorical questions, Fogerty reminds the listener not to forget about the humble laborer (the miner, farmer, and factory worker), the underprivileged, and the Almighty.  
In fact, his lyrics will say more than my analysis can:

Who’ll take the coal from the mine?
Who’ll take the salt from the earth?
Who'll take a leaf and grow it to a tree?
Don't look now, it ain't you or me.

Who’ll work the fields with his hands?
Who’ll put his back to the plough?
Who'll take the mountain and give it to the sea?
Don't look now, it ain't you or me.

Don’t look now, someone's done your starvin';
Don't look now, someone's done your prayin' too.

Who’ll make the shoes for your feet?
Who’ll make the clothes that you wear?
Who'll take the promise that you don't have to keep?
Don’t look now, it ain't you or me.

Well, don’t look now, someone's done your starvin';
Don't look now, someone's done your prayin' too.

Who'll take the coal from the mine?
Who'll take the salt from the earth?
Who'll take the promise that you don't have to keep?

Don't look now, it ain't you or me.
- J.C. Fogerty




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