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You've Had To Struggle, You've Had To Fight To Keep Understanding And Compassion In Sight You Could Be Laughing At Me, You've Got The Right But You Go On Smiling So Clear And So Bright

-Jackson Browne

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You've Had To Struggle,

Jackson Browne

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You've Had To Struggle, You've Had To Fight To Keep Understanding And Compassion In Sight You Could Be Laughing At Me, You've Got The Right But You Go On Smiling So Clear And So Bright

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I Taught Myself To Play The Piano, Because I Wanted To Play It.

I’m Going To Be A Happy Idiot And Struggle For The Legal Tender.

You Can Take As Much As You Can From The Generation That Has Preceded You, But Then It's Up To You To Make Something New.

Like, What Is The Least Often Heard Sentence In The English Language? That Would Be: Say, Isn't That The Banjo Player's Porsche Parked Outside?

I Don't Know Where I'm Running Now, I'm Just Running On

And My Dad Wanted Me To Play The Trumpet Because That's What He Liked. His Idol Was Louis Armstrong. My Dad Thought My Teeth Came Together In A Way That Was Perfect For Playing The Trumpet.

People Look Around You, The Signs Are Everywhere. You've Left It For Somebody Other Than You To Be The One Who To Care.

I Wrote The Song For A Dancer For A Friend Of Mine Who Died In A Fire. He Was In The Sauna In A House That Burned Down, So He Had No Idea Anything Was Going On. It Was Very Sad.

I Look Around For The Friends I Used To Turn To Pull Me Through. Looking Into Their Eyes, I See Them Running, Too.

No Matter How Close To Yours Another's Steps Have Grown, In The End There Is One Dance You'll Do Alone.

We May Lose And We May Win, But We Will Never Be Here Again.

I Told My Father I Wanted To Play The Banjo, And So He Saved The Money And Got Ready To Give Me A Banjo For My Next Birthday, And Between That Time And My Birthday, I Lost Interest In The Banjo And Was Playing Guitar.

When I Really Started Liking Music Was When I Could Play Some Of It Myself, And After A Couple Of Years Of Playing Folk Music, I Kinda Rediscovered Those Hits That Were On The Radio All The Time When I Was A Kid.

Got Seven Women On My Mind. Four That Want To Own Me, Two That Want To Stone Me, And One Says She's A Friend Of Mine.

They Sell Us The President The Same Way They Sell Us Our Clothes And Cars.

So What I Do, More Than Play Any Instrument - I Mean, I Love To Play - But More Than That, I Write Songs. Songs That Are About Living, About What It's Like To Be Going Through All The Things That People Go Through In Life.

The Kid I Was When I First Left Home Was Looking For His Freedom And A Life Of His Own But The Freedom That He Found Wasn't Quite As Sweet When The Truth Was Known I Have Prayed For America I Was Made For America I Can't Let Go Till She Comes Around Until The Land Of The Free Is Awake And Can See And Until Her Conscience Has Been Found.

That Folk Music Led To Learning To Play, And Making Things Up Led To What Turns Out To Be The Most Lucrative Part Of The Music Business - Writing, Because You Get Paid Every Time That Song Gets Played.

I've Also Gotten To Play In Front Of A Million People In Central Park When There Was A Grass Roots Movement Calling For Nuclear Disarmament - It Was About 1982 - They Called It Peace Sunday.

Nuclear Disarmament

Right Around The End Of The Fifties, College Students And Young People In General, Began To Realize That This Music Was Almost Like A History Of Our Country - This Music Contained The Real History Of The People Of This Country.

How Long Will It Be 'till We've Turned To The Tasks And The Skills That We'll Have To Have Learned If We're Going To Find Our Place In The Future And Have Something To Offer Where This Planet's Concerned?

Now, Guitar Was Pretty Cool. Everybody Knew Something On The Guitar. So I Wanted To Play Guitar, But I Told My Dad If He Wanted Me To Keep Studying Something, Id Like To Study Piano.

I've Been Aware Of The Time Passing By They Say In The End It's The Wink Of An Eye And When The Morning Light Comes Streaming In You'll Get Up And Do It Again

Lighten Up While You Still Can, Don't Even Try To Understand. Just Find A Place To Make Your Stand, And Take It Easy.

When You Turn Out The Light, I've Got To Hand It To Me. Looks Like It's You And Me Again Tonight Rosie.

Into A Dancer You Have Grown From The Seeds Somebody Else Has Sown.

When You've Found Another Soul Who See's In To Your Own...take Good Care Of Each Other..and Remember To Be Kind.

I've Written Many Extra Verses To Songs That I Learned To Sing - An Extra Verse About A Friend, Or Just Add Some Verse - And That Led To Writing My Own Songs.

My Forays Into Trying To Date Girls My Own Age From The School I Went To Were All Pretty Tortured.

People Stand Themselves Next To The Righteous They Believe The Things They Say Are True They Speak In Terms Of What Divides Us To Justify The Violence They Do But It Is One, It Is One One World Spinning 'round The Sun Wherever It Is You Call Home Whatever Country You Come From It Is One

Somewhere Between The Time You Arrive And The Time You Go May Lie A Reason You Were Alive, But You'll Never Know.

As Far As Those Kinds Of Things, I Also Played At The Concert To Call For The Release Of Nelson Mandela When He Was A Political Prisoner In South Africa. We Were Celebrating His 70th Birthday And Calling For His Release.

But When You Know That You've Got A Real Friend Somewhere, Suddenly All The Others Are So Much Easier To Bear.

I'm Losing Touch With Reality And I'm Almost Out Of Blow. It's Such A Fine Line, I Hate To See It Go. Cocaine, Runnin' All 'round My Brain.

So It's Not Really Whether You Talk About Politics, But How Well Were You Able To Do It. Peter Gabriel And Sting Get Away With It...u2...the Examples Are There, Of People Being Able To Carry These Subjects In The Music, And The Audience Is Absolutely Able To Embrace Subjects That Aren't Just The Stuff They Already Know About. And They're Actually Able To Learn Stuff.

Let The Music Keep Our Spirits High, Let The Buildings Keep Our Children Dry, Let Creation Reveal Its Secrets By And Bye.

Make It On Your Own If You Think You Can.if You See Somewhere To Go, I Understand.

Say It Isn't True That There Always Has Been And Always Will Be War Say It Isn't True And Apart From All The Fine Things That Man Has Struggled For Say It Isn't True There Always Has Been And Always Will Be War

Forget What Life Used To Be, You Are What You Choose To Be. It's Whatever It Is You See That Life Will Become.

I'd Have To Say That My Favorite Thing Is Writing A Song That Really Says How I Feel, What I Believe - And It Even Explains The World To Myself Better Than I Knew It.

I Don't Know What Happens When People Die Can't Seem To Grasp It As Hard As I Try It's Like A Song I Can Hear Playing Right In My Ear That I Can't Sing I Can't Help Listening

Also, Right At That Particular Time In The Music Business, Because Of People Like The Beatles, People Began Owning Their Own Publishing. I'll Just Say This Really Quickly - They Used To Divide The Money For The Music That Was Written In Two, Just Equal Halves.

Mind Your Own Business

Music Itself Is A Great Source Of Relaxation. Parts Of It Anyway. Working In The Studio, That's Not Relaxing, But Playing An Instrument That I Don't Know How To Play Is Unbelievably Relaxing, Because I Don't Have Any Pressure On Me.

I Followed Those Highway Signs And I've Run Down Those Thin White Lines.

You Measure Peace With Guns, Progress In Megatons. Who's Left When The War Is Won?

Don't Confront Me With My Failures, I Had Not Forgotten Them.

I Love To Read. I Love To Stretch. In The Morning, I Get Up, And If I'm Not In A Hurry, I Will Lie On The Floor On A Rug, Look Through Some Books And Magazines, And Maybe Listen To Music And Try To Do Stretching Exercises To Tune Up.

I'm A Big Fan Of British Journalists Like 'the Independent”s Robert Fisk, But It's Hard To Find Voices Like His In The U.s.

Let The Disappointments Pass, Let The Laughter Fill Your Glass.

People Know More About Baseball Players Contracts Than They Do About The Policies That Govern The Fate Of Our Childrens Lives In Twenty Years. Think About It. People Used To Say, The Whole Time I Was Growing Up, Do You Want To Bring A Child Into This World? Thats Pretty Dire.

Well, I'm A Standing On A Cornerin Winslow, Arizonaand Such A Fine Sight To See,it's A Girl, My Lord, In A Flatbed Fordslowin' Down To Have A Look At Me.

I Grew Up Reading Shakespeare And Mark Twain.

I'm Sensitive, You Know, About Some Things, And As Some Of My Partners Could Attest To, Incredibly Insensitive.

The High Ideals And Promises You Once Dressed The Future In Are Dancing In The Embers With The Wind.

I Let Her Do Some Of My Laundry And She Slipped In A Few Meals In Between, And Next Thing I Remember, She Was All Moved In.

In The End, They Traded Their Tired Wings For The Resignation That Living Brings. And Exchanged Love's Bright And Fragile Glow For The Glitter And The Rouge, And In The Moment They Were Swept Before The Deluge.

Where The Search For The Truth Is Conducted With A Wink And A Nod And Where Power And Position Are Equated With The Grace Of God These Times Are Famine For The Soul While For The Senses It's A Feast From The Edge Of My Country, As Far As You See, Looking East

Talk About Celestial Bodies.

Celestial Bodies

Out Into The Cool Of The Evening Strolls The Pretender. He Knows That All His Hopes And Dreams Begin And End There.

Famine And Disaster, Right There In Front Of You, And The More You Watch, The Less You Do.

The Idea That I Wrote Something That Stood For The Way I Feel About Things, And That It Lasts, That's Probably My Favorite Thing That I've Done.

I Was Doing My Best Bogart, But I Was Having Trouble Getting Into Her Jeans.

More Than A Career, I Feel That I've Got A Function. I See Things In A Much More Holistic Way. Some People Bake The Bread, And Some People Write The Songs.

Rock Me On The Water Sister Will You Soothe My Fevered Brow Rock Me On The Water I'll Get Down To The Sea Somehow

No Matter How Fast I Run, I Can't Get Away From Me.

Low Self Esteem

I'm Glad That The Bush Years Are Behind Us

You've Had To Struggle, You've Had To Fight To Keep Understanding And Compassion In Sight You Could Be Laughing At Me, You've Got The Right But You Go On Smiling So Clear And So Bright

How Long Can You Hear Someone Crying - How Long Can You Hear Someone Dying - Before You Ask Yourself Why?

Looking Out At The Road Rushing Under My Wheels. Looking Back At The Years Gone By Like So Many Summer Fields.

Say A Prayer For The Pretender, Who Started Out So Young And Strong Only To Surrender.

It Was A Great Time To Be Born, Because I Got To Have My Own Publishing Company Right From The Beginning, So I Made More Money Than Somebody Would Have Doing What I Did Ten Or Fifteen Years Before.

Hunger In The Midnight, Hunger At The Stroke Of Noon Hunger In The Banquet, Hunger In The Bride And Groom Hunger On The Tv, Hunger On The Printed Page And There's A God-sized Hunger Underneath The Questions Of The Age

Self-discovery In Songwriting, Bringing Something Forth That's Instructive To Yourself - Some Of The Best Songs That You Will Ever Write Are The Ones Where You Didn't Have To Think About Any Of That Stuff, But Nonetheless That's What's Happening In The Song.

Musician Jokes Are A Kind Of Joke That Usually Have To Do With How Much Money Someone Makes. Musicians Are Always Starving, So They're Really Mean To Each Other About Who Makes What.

You Would Think With All The Genius And The Brilliance Of These Times, We Might Find A Higher Purpose And A Better Use Of Mind.

I Want To Know What Became Of The Changes We Waited For Love To Bring/were They Only The Fitful Dreams Of Some Greater Awakening?

I'm Gonna Be A Happy Idiot And Struggle For The Legal Tender. Where The Ads Take Aim And Lay Their Claim To The Heart And The Soul Of The Spender. And Believe In Whatever May Lie In Those Things That Money Can Buy, Though True Love Could Have Been A Contender.

Very Often It's Really Inconvenient - Who You Fall In Love With. You Can't Really Control It.

Falling In Love

I'm Not Sure What I'm Trying To Say, It Could Be That I've Lost My Way.

Take It Easy, Take It Easydon't Let The Sound Of Your Own Wheelsdrive You Crazy.

Caught Between The Longing For Love, And The Struggle For The Legal Tender, Where The Sirens Sing And The Church Bells Ring, And The Junk Man Pounds His Fender. Where The Veterans Dream Of The Fight, Fast Asleep At The Traffic Light, And The Children Solemnly Wait For The Ice Cream Vendor.

These Days I Seem To Think About The Things I Forgot To Do For You And All The Times I Had A Chance To.

Eleven On A Scale Of Ten, Honey, Let Me Introduce You To My Redneck Friend.

Now If I Seem To Be Afraidto Live The Life That I Have Made In Songwell It's Just That I've Been Losing So Long.

It's Not Like I'm Looking To Describe Something That's Only True Of My Own Circumstances. It's Beyond. It's Way Inside, You Know. It's Reaching Inside To Something That You Have In Common With Many.

Do The Steps That You've Been Shown, By Everyone You've Ever Known, Until The Dance Becomes Your Very Own.

And While The Future's There For Anyone To Change, Still You Know It's Seems, It Would Be Easier Sometimes To Change The Past.

I Started Playing The Trumpet When I Was About Eight.

The Biggest Influence? I've Had Several At Different Times - But The Biggest For Me Was Bob Dylan, Who Was A Guy That Came Along When I Was Twelve Or Thirteen And Just Changed All The Rules About What It Meant To Write Songs.

Coffee In The Morning, Cocaine Afternoons.

That's Maybe The Most Important Thing Each Generation Does, Is To Break A Lot Of Rules And Make Up Their Own Way Of Doing Things.

The First To Come And The Last To Go, Working For That Minimum Wage.

Oh Lord, Are There Really People Starving Still?

I Never Was A Very Good Singer.

I Want To Find Myself A Girl Who Can Show Me What Laughter Means, And We'll Fill In The Missing Numbers In Each Others Paint-by-numbers Dreams.

Let The Disappointments Pass Let The Laughter Fill Your Glass Let The Illusions Last Until They Shatter Whatever You Might Hope To Find Among The Thoughts That Crowd Your Mind There Won't Be Many That Ever Really Matter.

So I Had A Couple Of Years Of Playing Trumpet. I Really Enjoyed It, But It Was Not The Kind Of Instrument You Could Whip Out At A Party. Let's Face It.

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