We are counting down the top finishers in the Power Line Prize contest, and I will be linking to other sites where finishers 7, 6 and 5 will be posted. In the meantime, here is one of my favorite entries in the contest. It didn’t make the Top Ten, but I think it is one of the best songs we received. It is by Fabian Chavez. I don’t know anything about Mr. Chavez, but I think the lyrics are great, and the sound has a nice, haunting quality:
American Dream
The man on TV said my hope should lie in him
No need for faith above we are the ones we need
The blame lies solely on the rich and all their greed
I must admit
That for a moment I believed
My father told me once nothing in life is free
The begging hand leads to a life of slavery
You work your ass off boy and there’s no limit to your reach
I sure wish
I sure wish he was here with me
Well they tell me I’m oppressed
That I’m not smart enough to know what’s best
That I’m so naïve to think that there is still an American Dream
Well you may take away my rights but I will fight you every time
These hands of mine were made to work and to provide
You clear a path for me and I’ll find the way to thrive
And I am privileged to have been born an American
And I know
I know that still means something to me
Well they tell me I’m oppressed
That I’m not smart enough to know what’s best
That I’m so naïve to think that there is still an American Dream
Well you may take away my rights but I will fight you every time
I never needed you to tell me what I need
All I want is a chance to feed my family
As with all of our prize entries, if you like American Dream as well as I do, take it. Put it on your ipod, embed it on your web site, email it to your friends. You can download the mp3 file here.
Notice: All comments are subject to moderation. Our comments are intended to be a forum for civil discourse bearing on the subject under discussion. Commenters who stray beyond the bounds of civility or employ what we deem gratuitous vulgarity in a comment — including, but not limited to, “s***,” “f***,” “a*******,” or one of their many variants — will be banned without further notice in the sole discretion of the site moderator.