A FolkWax Review
John Flynn
Dragon
FolkWax
Rating: 9 out of 10
This review
originally ran in FolkWax #121 on July 23, 2003
John Flynn is not happy with what's happening to his
homeland, America. John Flynn's not happy with what's happening to his planet
and to mankind. The mature late teen that studied Political Science at degree
level [a few years ago now], has the intelligence to understand the game that's
being played with lives on this ever spinning "blue sphere." Mankind,
planet-wide, has been hijacked by fat cats in suits and John is truly pissed. As
a result, on much of Dragon, Flynn calls it the way he currently sees
it, and in the process employs poetically veiled venom where
necessary, while humour is his chosen weapon when highlighting arrant
stupidity.
Corporate greed and the resulting environmental degradation
are the focus of the opening, album title cut. Employing the image of a
"leather winged dragon," Flynn describes how the beast "lives beneath the
mountain where the hallowed one still lies" and how, as its "bloated
carcass" rises from its lair, "it belches stench and flame."
Throughout history the dragon has been in partnership with the devil, and Flynn
further diagnoses this disease with no borders in the second verse - "It
walks with priceless treasure out democracy's front door, It buys and sells the
very ones that you and I vote for" and later "It prays upon defenceless
ones, the poor, the sick and the old." In subsequent verses Flynn alludes to
how, over centuries, the dragon learned that confrontation was costly and so it
resorted to, "the art of stealth," manipulating laws and governments, and
perpetrated the confusion and division of mankind through the dissemination of a
web of lies and half truths. As you can tell from this opening cut, currently,
John is not a happy camper. As for mankind, listen, listen well, the message is
It's time to wake up. Beware. Be very a aware."
It's fitting that "Minnie Lou" and "AmBush [The Death of
The Myth]" follow one another on this collection, since their source of
inspiration is one and the same, the government of George W. Bush. The former
humour filled cut - a cup that truly flows over - alludes to the two Grecian art
deco statues, one male and one female, that are located in the vestibule of the
Hall of Justice. For the past seven decades they have acted as the backdrop for
public pronouncements by America's Attorney General. The current incumbent, far
from happy with the fact that the female of this statuesque pair - "Minnie Lou"-
happened to be displaying one of her own, complete, it seems, with a rather
perky nipple. By way of covering up her embarrassment, Ashcroft expended $8000
of public funds on the provision of a full-frontal drape. As Flynn points out in
the closing line, if the embarrassment caused was that significant, why not
simply re-site the podium. Some solutions are just too simple...some officials
don't even possess half the necessary brain! "AmBush," is set in those less than
law abiding, good old days in the Wild West, or is it? In the dead of night a
cowboy intent upon murder, and bearing "two oiled Colts cocked and loaded,"
sneaks up on an encampment where "Next to a Yellowboy rifle, Sleeps the one
he came to kill." Hardly requiring further explanation, Flynn reflects in
the closing lines, "The trembling now is much worse, He wonders how he will
get used to, Being the one who shoots first."
Elsewhere on this totally in focus collection of Flynn
originals, "Big Boat Comin'" - the closest Flynn comes on this collection to a
sing-a-long children's song - recalls the floods that devastated Central Europe
in the late summer of 2002. Set in Prague, the lyric recalls the recovery of the
Indian elephant, Kadir, who was trapped in the inundated city zoo. The baseball
themed, "Hey Vicente," is based upon a 2002 game where the Phillies had just
lost the game. The St. Louis Cardinals scored a game winning, grand slam home
run, due to the Phillies pitcher, Vicente Padilla, having "left one over the
plate." There to perform "Take Me Out To The Ball Game," Flynn's rendition
later that evening was booed by the unhappy Phillies fans. On another level, the
song urges us, the listener, to never give in just because we're temporarily
down. "Angel Dawson," is based on a real-life event that occurred in Baltimore,
Maryland, in late October 2002. The lyric recalls how Angel, having protested at
the activities of local drug dealers, later lost her home, her children and her
life when it was firebombed.
It is only six decades since a certain group within one
nation perpetrated the human horror and insanity that Flynn alludes to in the
optimistically titled "Hope Sleeps." The unnamed madman was Hitler, while his
policy involved the cleansing the Jewish nation. Mass murder. Intentional
extermination. Call it what you will. In subsequent verses, Flynn references the
hope that is ever present in the gift of Anne Frank's diary. "Full Circle"
questions the validity of the death penalty, in the words of a man waiting on
death row. History informs that justification has consistently been sought in
the name of religion, and it is a sad truth that the same history, rather than
furnishing proof of evolution and lessons learned, evidences repetition of
similar mistakes. "Not With My Jesus" explores the thesis "we're always
right, and you're always wrong" in relation to a number of the world's
religions, highlighting in the process that there are always voices in every
religion that call for co-existence, but who are, all too often, never heard.
Each and every human being deserves to exercise the freedom to believe.
Unfortunately confrontation and religion are ageless bed partners. Who was it
that said, "When will we ever learn?"
"Benediction" expresses the hope that the listener will
have a long, peaceful and fruitful journey [through life]. It's amazing how
simple an arithmetic equation is expressed in the closing cut, "Only One." The
ethos being, those who can assist those that require assistance. And so, if the
one who can help provides for the one who is helpless, many of the planet'sa
problems could be wiped out. Oh, that it were that simple...
Meantime, this album is available from John's web site at
http://johnflynn.net.
Arthur Wood is a founding editor at FolkWax
This material is copyright Visionation 2003, 2004. All
rights reserved. Limited reproduction rights are offered for promotion of the
artist or album by authorized agents only with specific citation to
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