Fifteen years ago, when I was a young and foolish singer-songwriter (LOL), I wrote a lot of personal songs that made sense only to myself (I was very influenced at the time by Van Morrison's Astral Weeks). However, at the same time, I managed to write something that seemed to be sorely missing from the Music business at the time (1988, the last year of the Reagan presidency) ... a heartfelt, intimate, personal and yet universal protest song. And believe me, then as now, there is much to protest about. Like Stevie Wonder said at the Bob Dylan tribute concert a few years back, as he was preparing to cover “Blowing In the Wind”, it is unfortunate that songs like this still need to be sung, and that they still have the same level of truth. That indicates our society “ain't going nowhere” or is basically glorifying the wrong things.
ANYWAY ... I wrote this song, and of all the things I've done, it always makes crystal clear sense to me, and I'm proud for having been interested in enough in the future of America to have written it.
There are three recorded versions of the song, one recorded as a duet with Aaron Flinn in a 3 a.m. session in the Berklee studios (yet to be digitally available) and two available here in Real Audio for your listening pleasure:
Hello Mister America - live acoustic version - 1999 remix version
Enjoy.
