Four Years Free (featuring Prince)
Today, 7 June 2008, is the four-year anniversary of my release from prison. To celebrate, I've uploaded one of my favorite freedom songs for your listening pleasure. Just click the little triangle thingy in the black box to hear the podcast (or if you received this blog via e-mail, you can click the Media link in your message).
["Free" (words and music by Prince) from the CD 1999
. Copyright 1982 by Controversy Music (ASCAP).]
JC and Geri outside the Bob Evans restaurant in Bucyrus, 7 June 2004 [photo by JC's mom]
I copied the lyrics from: http://lyrics.astraweb.com/displayp.cgi?f=prince..1999..free
Here are some favorite Prince works, available through my Amazon music store:
Played: 292 | Download | Duration: 00:05:08
["Free" (words and music by Prince) from the CD 1999
. Copyright 1982 by Controversy Music (ASCAP).]
JC and Geri outside the Bob Evans restaurant in Bucyrus, 7 June 2004 [photo by JC's mom]
JC in his mom's basement, 7 June 2004 [photo by either Geri or JC's mom]
Lyrics by Prince:
Don't sleep 'til the sunrise, listen 2 the falling rain
Don't worry 'bout tomorrow, don't worry 'bout your pain
Don't cry unless you're happy, don't smile unless you're blue
Never let that lonely monster take control of u
Be glad that u r free
Free 2 change your mind
Free 2 go most anywhere, anytime
Be glad that u r free
There's many a man who's not
Be glad 4 what u had baby, what you've got
Be glad 4 what you've got
I know my heart is beating, my drummer tells me so
If u take your life 4 granted, your beating heart will go
So don't sleep until you're guilty, 'cuz sinners all r we
There's others doing far worse than us, so be glad that u r free
Be glad that u r free
Free 2 change your mind
Free 2 go most anywhere, anytime
Be glad that u r free
There's many a man who's not
Be glad 4 what u had baby, what you've got
Be glad 4 what you've got
Soldiers are a marching, they're writing brand new laws
Will we all fight together 4 the most important cause?
Will we all fight 4 the right 2 be free?
Free (be glad that u r free)
Free 2 change my mind (free 2 change your mind)
Free 2 go most anywhere, anytime (free 2 go most anywhere,anytime)
I'm just glad, i'm just glad i'm free, yeah (be glad that u r free)
There's many a man who's not (there's many a man who's not)
Glad 4 what i had baby, (be glad 4 what u had and)
Glad 4 what i got, oh yeah (for what you've got)....
I copied the lyrics from: http://lyrics.astraweb.com/displayp.cgi?f=prince..1999..free
Here are some favorite Prince works, available through my Amazon music store:
i love prince - especially swamp sex songs like CREAM.
he's disappointed me the past 10 years but he's still more interesting than most.
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"Cream" is a goodie. My favorite "swamp sex" songs by him are probably "Gett Off," "Temptation," "Erotic City," and "Darling Nikki" - although there are so many good ones. I missed 6 of the last 10 years of his music, but I did like a lot of his 2004 Musicology disc (especially the songs "Call My Name" and "Illusion, Coma, Pimp & Circumstance").
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The Minister celebrates your four years of freedom with you, my lord... thank you for sharing the Prince song; very appropriate! The world is a better place because you are out and writing....
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Thank you, Sir Minister! The world is a better place because you are out and writing as well.
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Happy Anniversary.
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Thanks, Mom!
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"Freedom, freedom
Give to me
That's what I need
Freedom, freedom
To live
Freedom, freedom
So I can give"
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Amen!
Thank you, mb.
The day I was released, I had mom and Geri bring a Who CD, and the first song I listened to was "I'm Free" from Tommy.
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The life of every man is a diary in which he means to write one story, and writes another; and his humblest hour is when he compares the volume as it is with what he vowed to make it.
James M. Barrie
You have turned something negative into
a positive...and for that you must be celebrated! Today we celebrate you!
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Thank you, Susan!
I've never heard that quotation before. It's perfect.
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Prince is perfect time capsule music.
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Thanks, Lady!
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HIPPY ANNIVERSARY. With four years of freedom I think now you should call yourself Jesus Prince, son of the rock god.
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Thank you, Elena!
Perhaps this could be my new avatar:
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well, the resemblance IS uncanny...
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"True tale and muddled myth on an identical trajectory"
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that line seems strangely familiar...
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Yes.. Happy Anniversary JC...
A well earned celebration I hope you have...
4 yrs.. eh... Was going to ask how you feel being four years out...
But not sure you want to share something that personal.. but I can imagine your view of the world is a bit changed from 4 years ago.
More jaded or less so I wonder? Since things may have developed differently than maybe you had hoped at the time... or maybe expected. I'm thinking how job efforts and such have not been easy to solve, etc... that sort of thing. Things you might not have expected to still be dealing with now, etc...
Anyway.. still good reason to celebrate...
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Thanks, Chris!
I could write a whole blog (or even book) on these questions.
I was going to say not "jaded" but "realistic." Then as I think about it, perhaps "jaded" is to a certain degree correct. When I got out, the world was my oyster - everything was possible. Now it seems very little is actually possible - though some great possibilities I hadn't considered in 2004 now seem to be opening up (for example, in the poetry realm) and some inspiration is returning.
Five months after I got out, George Bush won re-election over John Kerry - and this cast a surprising amount of gloom over my optimism and hope that "It's all up from here." Within 15 months after my release, my hopes were dashed on several fronts. The police made me move twice. My brother had a heart attack at age 32. Two promising jobs (as a writer for a local magazine and a tutor for a local college) fell through... the first because my boss (an old friend) was disappointed that I didn't move in with him and become his lover in return, and the second because a boss of the boss was fearful of having a "registered sex offender" play an official role on campus. Other disappointments followed. I lost the confidence I'd always had that I could do anything if I only applied myself.
But there have been good changes too. Four years ago, I had never been on the Internet, knew nothing about blogging, and thought I would never write a poem (let alone a good poem) again. My brother - and several other cherished family members - have survived near-death scares. Fears that no decent new people would ever want to be friends with me because of my "record" now seem largely unfounded. I succesfully made it off a restrictive two-year parole (with rules like no Internet, no digital camera, no travel out of state). My wife and I had two fantastic vacations, stretching from Maine to Florida. I've gotten to spend time with members of my biological father's family, none of whom I knew before I went to prison. And I have some of the best grandkids a man could ask for....
Anyway, the jury's still out in a lot of ways. Though I try to focus on the positive, there are still a lot of difficulties. But I guess everybody has difficulties. And as the Chinese character for "crisis" suggests, each difficulty is also an opportunity. So I press on.
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You got me thinking about what these kinds of anniversaries mean. We tend to think about an anniversary as a happy event until we inherit one that encompasses such a complex and arguably unbearable circumstance. I'm sure that every year that goes by adds another dimenision to this anniversary. Every year that passes is an accomplishment, a dissapointment, a triumph, a struggle and hopefully a resolution. If I were you, I would feel so angry and cheated. The fact that you have persevered and accomplished so much is a testament to your character. Your determination and grace inspire me.
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Thank you, Tara! I guess it's like a yin and yang of alternating hopefulness and hopelessness, sunshine and rain, dear inspiration and near desperation.... But it's on an upward spiral. As the Beatles sang, "It's getting better all the time." I just try to keep going forward.
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Wow Susan--that soooo encompasses my current mid-life crisis
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Mine too....
Thanks, Lady Liberty!
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Ya.. for some reason was thinking about this this morning and couldn't remember how long you had been out.... so came back to find this blog for a quick re-read.
I think things actually look more positive for you now than they did even in June of this year when you wrote this and your responses... that is very encouraging.
I hope some of the irons you have in the fire currently pan out... vidication that you can do this on your own after all and make a life for yourself. A testament to all the nay sayers...
Anyway... just noting the positive changes....... and feeling pleased for you.
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Thank you, Chris!
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