ARTIST INFO
Mike Bressler is a College Instructor, environmentalist, and longtime songwriter. He is an enjoyer of the outdoors, partisan of the planet, and crafter of songs for an at-risk nation and planet.
Song Info and Lyrics
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Say A Prayer for the Mountains
As Western wildfires burn ever more profoundly with horrific effects for the lives of so many people, they also have catastrophic impacts on mountain wildlife and ecology. I started this song back in the late 1970's while living in Colorado in the midst of the push to mine shale oil in the Rocky Mountains. Since then the challenges have grown ever more complex as climate change leads to much longer wildfire seasons, more intense burns and the deaths of millions of trees in mountain areas, including those in Yosemite, due to invasive species. This song is my "Prayer For The Mountains" in the face of our headlong rush to destroy what is left of the remaining natural areas of our nation and our planet.
Lyrics/Music by Mike Bressler
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Long time ago, when the west was young and free,
Buffalo herds roamed the plains as far as the eye could see.
Then progress came to stay and by the millions put ‘em down,
Hides were packed for sale and skulls were piled upon the ground.
And mighty herds soon vanished from the land.
Chorus:
Say a prayer for the mountains, so tall,
As the long western winds come to blow.
For tomorrow, will they stand so proud at all
Or follow the way of the old buffalo.
Now many years have gone, times have come to change,
Automobiles roam the lands the buffalo herds did range.
And the chips all 'round are different now, they speed our lives along (revised version)
And we scour the earth for ways and means and keep things rolling on.
With scarce a thought to where it all will end.
Repeat Chorus:
And many clever companies, and bales of dollar bills,
Are racing to the mountains with dynamite and drills.
And they say it’s for our country and claim it’s what we need,
And they always call it progress though many blame man’s greed,
As they work their ways across the mountain lands.
Repeat Chorus:
And when tomorrow’s winds have blown and days to come have gone,
Will monuments mark the trails the pronghorn had run upon?
Will evergreens have given way to prime suburban lands?
Will wild flames and climate change have left unhealing brands?
As they work their ways across the mountain lands.
Repeat Chorus:
© M. Bressler
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The GOP Solution
This song started life as a bumper sticker I thought of making - “Greed, Oilbucks, and Pollution, That's the GOP Solution”. Sing it twice and that's the chorus! Unfortunately, it seems to only get more true with time.
Lyrics / Music by Mike Bressler
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Times are tough in this town
Prices up and pay is down
Works are jammed, nothing goes
Just brown-nose crooked CEOs
What’s the Grand Old Party doing?
Chorus
Greed, Oilbucks and Pollution,
That’s the GOP solution
Greed, Oilbucks and Pollution,
That’s the GOP solution
Mass deception, no relief!
Vanity beyond belief!
Bless the rich and bash the poor,
Trash the planet to its core,
What’s the Grand Old Party brewing?
Repeat Chorus:
Smearing sprees and homilies,
Gaslighting for tyranny,
Cover up each new disgrace,
Shove it up the human race.
What’s the Grand Old Party proven?
Repeat Chorus:
© Michael Bressler
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Song of the Resistance
The tune has long been used in struggles for justice, whether in John Brown's Body, Battle Hymn of the Republic, or Ralph Parson's Solidarity Forever. Song of the Resistance is a prayer as well as a song of opposition to the direction our political system has been taking.
Lyrics by Mike Bressler/Music - Traditional
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Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord,
He’d loosed the fateful lightning of his terrible swift sword.
He was filled with mighty fury at deeds done in his name,
As these words he proclaimed:
Chorus:
Glory, Glory Hallelujah,
Don’t let the Trump party fool ya.
Oh, they know their lines so good
But they don’t mean quite what they should
Half-truths go marching on.
He’d seen through all the pretense when they shouted out for war.
The host of shady campaigns where they showed their moral core.
The mighty zeal for power, and the massive mess they made,
And these words he hath said
Repeat Chorus:
Well media hordes were marching forth to orders from their kings,
Talk show hosts ranted like some parrots on a fling.
But the Lord almighty roared in wrath, then laughed at what he’d seen,
As these words he did say.
Repeat Chorus:
So, we’ll stand up for our country, and freedoms that we prize,
In the face of all the fear-mongers’ richly worded lies.
Keep watchfires blazing ‘til the dawn of brighter days
And these words we shall say:
Repeat Chorus:
Glory, Glory Hallelujah,
Don’t let the Trump party fool ya.
Oh, their tweets are mighty good
But they don’t mean quite what they should
Half-truths go marching on.
© Mike Bressler
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LEGACY
Our big question regarding what we are doing to the world we inherited, and our legacy to those whose times are to come.
Lyrics and Music by Michael Bressler
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A bright shining tropic sea gleaming wide and blue,
Kaleidoscopic artistry and life in every hue.
Eyes delight in disbelief in wondrous realms of coral reef,
Schools of stunning neon fish fooling 'way the time.
Further ‘long the picture’s wrong,
Reefs are bleached and fish are gone,
Water's grown way too warm with the planet’s changing clime.
Chorus
What will be our legacy, set to dawn down the bend?
The vision really brought to be, or a gift we pawned brought to end
Where prisons, fakes and fools unfold an earth ablaze for oil and gold?
Blinding lies and dying tides, right before our eyes,
What will be our reply?
A mighty flow of ice and snow tumbles to the sea,
A monument of cold and white and bracing majesty.
A glacier reaching past the shore to greet the ocean with a roar,
And leave a trail of ice caps, the restless waves to ply.
But swiftly now the ice goes down
An ancient glacier turning around,
A world grown way too warm with the planet’s changing clime.
Chorus
What will be our legacy, set to dawn down the bend?
The vision really brought to be, or a gift we pawned brought to end
Where tyrants reign and dark clouds roll an earth in chain for oil and gold?
Ice sheets slide and oceans rise, right before our eyes,
What will be our reply?
‘Neath northern lights and midnight sun the Inuit make their home
On wild and windswept tundra where caribou herds still roam.
They span timeless arctic land, pry some food from nature’s hand,
Share in what the earth provides each soul passing by.
But troubled times are setting in,
Ice and game are getting thin,
A land grown way too warm with the planet’s changing clime.
Chorus
What will be our legacy, set to dawn down the bend?
The vision really brought to be, or a gift we pawned brought to end
Where sirens wail and storm winds blow, an earth betrayed for oil and gold?
Dice roll live through northern skies, right before our eyes,
What will be our reply?
© Michael Bressler
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Can You Say That's OK?
So many mind blowing and almost unimaginable things going down nowadays, it has to make you wonder - Can You Say That's Ok? And the answer better be NO WAY! Or we're screwed.
Lyrics/Music by Mike Bressler
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Tides turning, fires burning, all across the land
Hustlers grinnin', hucksters spin and never understand.
All across the whole creation fools fuel devastation,
Taking in their payoffs from a world they set aflame
Chorus
Can you say that’s ok?
No Way!
Junk spam and Trump scamming, every single day.
Gears jammed and doors slammed to block most every way.
Paradise burned to the ground, polar ice melting down
A world of heave and hurry with heads buried in the sand.
Can you say that’s ok?
No Way!
Time’s flying, cons lying, right over the top.
Dripping spite and bigot blight that never seems to stop!
Snagging people from their folks, pass the buck, smirk and boast
Serving sharks and oligarchs who've sold their souls away
Can you say that’s ok?
No Way!
Denials ruling, fakes and fools and charlatans with gold
Hail the lout who’s freaking out his story might get told.
Bag the money, hide the bucks, drag the country through the muck
Bringing home the bacon to some bellyaching billionaires
Can you say that’s ok?
No Way!
Tacky cheats and fat cat thiefs bringing this world down
Take a stand, give a hand, to get it turned around
Demagogues running loose, dinosaurs rule the roost,
And leave this world so much the worse with every dawning day.
Can you say that’s ok?
No Way!
© Mike Bressler
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TRUMP IS JUST ANOTHER WORD (FOR NOTHING LEFT BUT LIES)
A takeoff on the great classic song of the '60s "Me and Bobbi McGee," written by Kris Kristofferson, the indomitable Rhodes Scholar poet and country songwriter.
Lyrics revised by Mike Bressler / Music by Kris Kristofferson
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Busted flat in Baton Rouge, waiting out the rains.
I was feeling nearly faded as my jeans.
When I heard Trump was sayin’ something, made me feel so fine,
Seemed that sun was ‘bout to shine again.
He said he’d be so dutiful and make our lives so beautiful,
He’s got such great big hands and bucks and brains!
He’s done wonders for the planet, grabbed the women in his cabinet, and he'll build a huge casino in Bahrain,
To Make America Great Again
.
Chorus:
Trump is just another word for nothing left but lies,
Words that ain’t worth nothing but they’re free.
And if you’re feeling you believe him Lord, well don’t be too surprised,
When you finally find you wind up getting played, while someone goes Trumping on their way.
From the coal mines of Kentucky to the California sun, Ol’ Trump he often finished number two.
But when he wound up second place the bastard claimed he won the race, and said he should be President any who.
So now he’s busy looting since he owes so much to Putin, for the many fine favors he obtained.
And I know that there just ain’t a doubt that everything will be worked out
With these two buddies walking hand in hand,
To Make America Great Again
Chorus:
Song by Mike Bressler, based on Lyrics and Words by Kris Kristofferson in “Me and Bobby McGee
© Mike Bressler