Stop and Think with Brett Dennen Before You Shop for Spring

Brett Dennen is my favorite artist of 2009 (so far); his lyrics speak to me about many things, including the beauty of life, appreciating each day, and retaining perspective on love. I’ve been listening to his three albums, “So Much More”, “Hope for the Hopeless” and his first, which is self-titled, on repeat for a month.

I really think he is the voice of this generation, of change, of everything I care about. Please listen. Brett is proof that art still matters (and maybe is one of the few things that does, or ever did).

I’ve been putting together some Spring fashion stories, and Brett’s songs, about consumerism, and how we connect to the rest of the world, are not only humorous, sad and point-making, but they’re damn catchy too. I hope you enjoy as much as I did! (The first video is funny, and Mandy Moore is in it. The second video made me cry though, so be forewarned!)

(This is why I prefer to buy from independent designers, who know the people who make their clothes, and know they don’t pollute the Earth in their production).

Read the lyrics for both songs After the Jump!

Make You Crazy Lyrics

You know, it’s hard to be yourself,
Free yourself, to see yourself,
When all around you there are lies just to get you,
Spies just to get you, to buy so they can get you

There are cameras in the sky, lasers in our living rooms,
There are wolves watching wearing sheep’s costumes

It’s enough to make you go crazy (woah)
It’s enough to make you mad
It’s enough to make you go crazy (woah)
And, I’m amazed I haven’t yet

Isn’t it, a shame the way we cheat each other,
Treat each other, beat each other?
It’s, a shame the way we use one other, abuse one another
And, screw one another, it’s true.

They will lock you up in prison, but they won’t call it slavery, There are stolen children raised and trained in armies

It’s enough to make you go crazy (woah)
It’s enough to make you mad
It’s enough to make you go crazy (woah)
And, I’m amazed I haven’t yet

Don’t hesitate to speak your mind (speak your mind)
Never hesitate to speak your heart (speak your heart)
They’ll call you crazy, when wou speak your mind (when you speak your mind)
So never, never hesitate (never hesitate)

Cause it’s enough to make you go crazy (woah)
It’s enough to make you mad
It’s enough to make you go crazy (woah)
And, I’m amazed I haven’t yet

Na sol them go lock you for prison
Na sol them go beat you for prison
Them no call it slavery
It’s him that make me vex

Na sol them go lock you for prison
Na sol them go beat you for prison
It’s him that make me vex
It’s him that make me craze

It’s enough to make you go crazy (woah)
It’s enough to make you mad
It’s enough to make you go crazy (woah)
And, I’d be crazy not to care

Ain’t No Reason Lyrics

There ain’t no reasons things are this way
It’s how they’ve always been and they intend to stay
I can’t explain why we live this way
We do it everyday

Preachers on the podium speaking of saints
Prophets on the sidewalks begging for change
Old ladies laughing from the fire escape, cursing my name

I got a basket full of lemons and they all taste the same
A window and a pigeon with a broken wing
You can spend your whole life working for something
Just to have it taken away

People walk around pushing back their desk
Wearing pay checks like necklaces and bracelets
Talking ’bout nothing, not thinking about death
Every little heart beat, every little breath

People walk a tight rope on a razor’s edge
Carrying their hurt and hatred and weapons
It could be a bomb or a bullet or a pin
Or a thought or a word or a sentence

There ain’t no reasons things are this way
It’s how they’ve always been and they intend to stay
I don’t know why I say the things I say,
But I say them anyway

But love will come set me free
Love will come set me free
I do believe
Love will come set me free
I know it will
Love will come set me free
Yes

Prison walls still standing tall
Some things never change at all
Keep on building prisons,
Gonna fill them all
Keep on building bombs
Gonna drop them all

Working your fingers bare to the bone
Breaking your back, make you sell your soul
Like a lung is filled with coal,
Suffocating slow

The wind blows wild and I may move
But politicians lie and I am not fooled
You don’t need no reason or a 3 piece suit
To argue the truth

The air on my skin and the world under my toes
Slavery is stitched to the fabric of my clothes
Chaos and commotion wherever I go
Love, I try to follow

But love will come set me free
Love will come set me free
I do believe
Love will come set me free
I know it will
Love will come set me free
Yes

There ain’t no reasons things are this way
It’s how they’ve always been and they intend to stay
I can’t explain why we live this way
We do it everyday

consumerism, Music, singer

Starre Vartan is the founder and editor-in-chief of Eco-Chick and author of The Eco-Chick Guide to Life (St. Martin's Press). A problogger and oft-quoted green living expert who has been featured in the NYTimes, Elle, Glamour and Whole Living, she is a contributor to The Huffington Post, Inhabitat, and Hearst's The Daily Green, and is currently editor-at-large for Coco Eco Magazine. An active ecofashionista, she has style edited for Plenty magazine and coordinated runway shows. She splits her time between Connecticut and NYC and calls Sydney, Australia her second home, even though it was her first (as that's where she was born and most of her family resides). When not writing, blogging, or researching her next book, she is trailrunning, trying to cook, or snowboarding.

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