Muse – The Burning Platform

TIME IS RUNNING OUT

I finished my latest article at about 4:30 pm on Monday afternoon. I was mentally drained and kind of depressed by my conclusions. But, no time for that. I was taking the family to the Muse/Cage the Elephant concert at the Wells Fargo Center in Philly. I was going to see two of my favorite bands for the price of one. We had good seats on the lower level. I love powerful rock and roll with powerful lyrics. These two bands fit the bill. Cage the Elephant went on at 7:00 and gave a fantastic high octane performance. Their front man – Matt Shultz is a young Mick Jagger on stage. He dances aroung like a freaking maniac, crowd surfs, and gives every song the max. Their fantastic songs Ain’t No Rest For the Wicked (basis for one of my previous articles), Back Against the Wall, and Shake me Down set the tone for the evening.

Then Muse came on around 8:30 and gave one of the most powerful performances I’ve ever witnessed. Matthew Bellamy might be the most talented all-around musician on earth. He is a fantastic guitarist and piano player. His version of the Star Spangled Banner last night was approaching Hendrix’ version. His lyrics are politically, socially and economically critical of the establishment. His singing voice is awesome. They did a 19 song set that built to a tremendous cescendo. The combination of powerful music, powerful lyrics, lasers, and visual effects was food for my soul. Great music inspires me. By the end of this concert I was fired up and inspired to add some fighting words in the last paragraph of my article.

In prior Fourth Turnings, the mood of the country was reflected mostly in literature like the Grapes of Wrath, Brave New World, Lord of the Rings, and 1984. Today, I believe the mood is reflected in music, since no one reads anymore. Muse’s songs are a reflection of the anger rising among the population against the lords of finance and our government keepers. I had never heard their song Animals before. The special effects and depiction of a Wall Street banker were mind blowing. There were green stock symbols crossing the stage and the video of a happy Wall Street banker urging his minions to lure more dupes into the market. As the song builds toward a crescendo, the ticker symbols turn red and move faster and faster. The banker gets angrier and angrier and is killed at the end of the song. The crowd of mostly Millenials cheered wildly.

I declare Muse the official band of the Fourth Turning. Below are some videos from last night and some lyrics to give you a hint of the revolutionary spirit that is in the air.

Time is Running Out

And our time is running out,
And our time is running out,
You can’t push it underground,
You can’t stop it screaming out.

I wanted freedom;
Bound and restricted,
I tried to give you up
But I’m addicted.
Now that you know I’m trapped;
Sense of elation,
You’d never dream of
Breaking this fixation.

Uprising

The paranoia is in bloom, the PR
The transmissions will resume
They’ll try to push drugs
Keep us all dumbed down and hope that
We will never see the truth around
(So come on!)

Another promise, another scene, another
A package not to keep us trapped in greed
With all the green belts wrapped around our minds
And endless red tape to keep the truth confined
(So come on!)

They will not force us
They will stop degrading us
They will not control us
We will be victorious

Interchanging mind control
Come let the revolution take its toll if you could
Flick the switch and open your third eye, you’d see that
We should never be afraid to die
(So come on!)

Rise up and take the power back, it’s time that
The fat cats had a heart attack, you know that
Their time is coming to an end
We have to unify and watch our flag ascend

They will not force us
They will stop degrading us
They will not control us
We will be victorious