"American Dreams" genre: Adult Contemporary
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	CD: American Dreams   Label: Joe Bergevin Productions
	Story Behind the Song The message of the words promotes the idea that we should take a closer look at how we are spending our time and energies in this life. We’re focusing on ourselves more than we are focusing on the children and the future. We start out by having this childlike dream of America with all its opportunity and hope, then slowly we are corrupted by selfishness and greed until—in the end and at the expense of community, the environment, the future, and our country as a whole—it all comes crashing down around us because we focused on the wrong thing . Back when Bill Clinton was running for President in the 1992 election, his slogan regarding Bush Sr.’s negligence, “...it’s the economy, stupid!”, was only partially correct, maybe even barely correct. We do need to pay attention to what is happening here at home, however, it is much more than just money (economy) that we need to apply our attentions toward. We need to address our parenting, our workaholic mentality, our schools, our spirituality, our emotions, our environment, our poverty, our attention to all the peoples of all races in our country, and so much more. But it all starts by paying attention to the world we create for our children. The old saying, “It takes a village,” to raise children is an understatement. Our village is crumbling to a point where we are all isolating ourselves within our houses, our private automobiles, and our internal loneliness. Even with the advances of email, chat, voicemail, and multiple other communication devices, we are making it more difficult to talk to one another because we are sending our kids off to daycare and school while two parents go in opposite directions (sometimes permanently), only to come home at night, tired, to the slowly developing loneliness of being TV watchers inside apartments and tract houses that lack the sense of village and togetherness necessary to foster the family and community feeling in our DREAM. I hope you have your own American Dream, and do your part to affect your community and future, for the benefit of your family and neighbors to come. Lyrics This street wasn’t here twenty-five years ago There was a dirt road leading to the woods where we rode. And our horses would always know the way. To the pond in the meadow behind that old stack of hay. We’d lay ourselves down there each summer day. That house over there was only thirty-five grand. And a car didn’t have to have a phone or a smart lease. I could take my dog anywhere and he didn’t need a leash. Even though that son-of-a-bitch would bit at a stranger’s heals, I learned to patch up problems without some lawyer making deals. I hope we know what we’re doing. When it’s all in the name of progress. It shouldn’t take an act of congress. To give us all some common sense. A college kid shouldn’t have to pay eighteen percent. A parent on the run should ask “Where have I spent the time”. Usually it wasn’t with my kid enough it seems. Looky here at American Dreams. At forty-five you can blame it on midlife. Instead of being strong you can try to get a new life. Then the blue-green grass suffers a drought on the first, Indian summer. And the fat old cow will see the pretty one skinny and dummer. While the college kid’s earning airline miles buying beer and a hummer. I hope we learn collective conscience. To keep the wrongs from helping pay for all our rights. It shouldn’t have to take a father working nights. To come home tired and turn a dream into a fight. A little child shouldn’t hear the parents playing sex for a game. But television has somehow made it not the same. The teacher wonders why his moods are always so extreme. So looky here at American Dreams. At sixty-five years of age, you might retire wealthy. Expecting all your dreams have arrived. Then your wife and friend will be suddenly not so healthy. Put the trip around the world on hold while the vision’s melting down. Collapse in a pile, clutching your heart while your life’s flashing round and round. Head in the sand, everything’s gonna be just fine. A parent on the run should ask where have I spent the time? Usually it wasn’t with my kids enough it seems. Looky here at American, looky here at American, looky here at American dreams!

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