John Elliott – “I Still Like Obama”
Americana Highways is hosting this premiere of John Elliott’s song “I Still Like Obama,” from his forthcoming album due to be available later this year. The songs were written and recorded by John Elliott, and mastered by Jonathan Kirchner.
“I Still Like Obama” is John Elliott on guitar, bass, keyboards, drum programming and vocals. This song is a political coming of age story, in a sense, covering the complexity of our society and what’s possible to implement by one person, even when that person is President of the USA, and still, there’s that feeling Obama gave. A timely gesture in an election year, and put together in a very dreamscape, reflective way.
When Obama won in 2008, I felt a genuine burst of the hope about the change that his candidacy promised. How young and naive that seems in light of all that followed. We were fools! Were we fools? I recently listened to his audiobook and became so frustrated by his endless pontifications and equivocations. Just give it to us straight, Barack! It’s possible that “A Promised Land” has more semicolons than any other publication in the English language. There is one enlightening passage when he talks about the “Beer Summit” (remember that?) and after an avalanche of verbosity, he says “now what I wanted to say…” and finally there’s a glimpse of clarity. Call it hope? And yet, as the lyrics say: “despite all that has happened since, and all that has not happened yet, and everything I’ve grown to understand about politics and humanity…I still like Obama.” This song is a stream of consciousness monologue thinking through our relationship with this often contradictory American political figure in the midst of a turbulent and tumultuous moment in the country. – John Elliott
Find the music here: https://distrokid.com/hyperfollow/johnelliott/the-last-black-lives-matter-sign-in-the-neighborhood
And find more information on his website here: https://www.thehereafterishere.com/
