ACL Spamborskee
Opiates and Oil
From "See You in the Next Cartoon?"
2007
Protest singers used to commonplace but not recently. Everybody is so busy figuring out how to make the next mortgage payment these days that they simply don't have the time or the wherewithal to look at the big picture. We have all become pawns in a game played by people who don't really care who gets hurt as long as they win. A bit dramatic perhaps, but a valid comment nonetheless and we are indeed fortunate to have musicians like ACL Spamborskee to show us the light.
"Opiates and Oil" is an effective resume of the current problems in the Middle East where the supposedly super powers found themselves powerless in a fight that could not be won even though "… they sorted out old Saddam". As Spamborskee (or Sparrahawk as he is also known) points out, it is all about the money whether it is in an oil field or in the poppy fields. So finding themselves in a no win situation the powers that be just start another war to distract our attention. The end result is heroin on our streets and many dead sons and daughters.
Ending on an eastern style hippie chant, this is one song that is worth hearing over and over again. Maybe the time of the protest singer has come again.