THEO HAKOLA - "OH (Twenty Twenty F***ing-Four)"

other voice: Brisa Roché
drums: Tatiana Mladenovitch
words & music, vocals, guitar, bass, piano: T. Hakola
film excerpts: "The Portuguese Man O'War" (Lauren Makael), "Un Jour parfait pour le poisson banane" (Virgile Bansard), photo: Nicolas Comment

OH… (TWENTY TWENTY F***ING-FOUR)
Oh… November was the cruelest month
but now every month is crueler than the one before
and still easier to swallow than the month to follow
roaring in like a lion to hollow out our hearts even more

Oh… There once was a budding nation spouting hopes and dreams
that despite her growing pains and dark refrains still had the means
to align her real design with the myths written in her blood
and finally be “the land of the free,” truly worthy of love

Moving forward were we in the long march to equality
between the races, between the sexes, and the rich and the poor
Two steps to a better day for every step back to yesterday –
that used to be the American way, used to be what we were living for

And then along came Twenty Twenty-F***ing-Four
and an election revelation like none before
excreting an orange Second Reich to once again us benight
a second wave of MAGA blight, a triumph of spite evermore

Oh… There’s no winter here where there’s no more snow
where we’re walking on egg shells as the silver bells toll
Mad parallels atinkling that won’t let me sleep –
the cold knell of Orwell’s inkling, history stuck on repeat

Crashing back to before Roe v. Wade, they got us on the run
What’s next for their old handmaid brigade, supressing sex for fun?
Advocating for theocracy, for a God that trumps democracy,
they’re pining for the good old days, that misty antebellum haze
of white birthright plutocracy

Yes, along came Twenty Twenty-F***ing-Four
and an election revelation unlike any before
excreting an orange Second Reich to once again us benight
reseating Putin’s whore to give the pimp a hand with his goddamn war

Oh… There’s thunder o’er the wasteland aflame in the rain
a burning rumble yearning hard to take us all down the drain
We’re not as good as we thought we were, not what we hoped to be
Our half-wit half fell for the golden calf, bought the plot of a bad movie

When they say make us great again, what do they envision?
Going back to Plessy v. Ferguson and the Dred Scott decision?
Back to school segregation before Brown v Board of Education?
Or female franchise deprivation before the 19th’s certification?
...