Country Song about a Little Good News Today
Country Song about a Little Good News Today – by Anne Murray
You’ll be shocked (or not) that although this song was released 31 years ago in August of 1983, the lyrics about the pain, suffering, war and anguish in the daily News, still continues today.
Don’t get me wrong, I do believe there’s an enormous amount of unreported ‘good’ that goes on every single day in this world, unfortunately all that ‘good’ rarely gets the attention it deserves …guess the ‘powers that be’ have determined that ‘that stuff doesn’t sell’.
What’s quite incredible about the lyrics in ‘A Little Good News’ is how I remember listening to this song in the 1980’s and, today in 2014, the ‘bad news’ is still pretty much the same as it was then…just the names and places have changed…and not by very much!
You know what hasn’t changed…the reporting of all the bad news…that continues.
(Lyrics) ‘Bryant Gumbel was talking about the fighting in Lebanon, Some Senator was squawking about the bad economy, It’s gonna get worse you see, we need a change in policy’
What has changed in the past 31 years…for the worse…. is Greed. I’m speaking about the mass accumulation of wealth by handfuls of people. Argue for it, argue against it…let’s face it…the only thing that trickles down to the average person is …well you know…I’ll be polite (since I’m a mom) ..Pee.
Nonetheless, the plight of the average citizen around this globe continues, and there hasn’t been a major paradigm shift in these 31 years.
However, on a positive note, I have noticed my youngest son’s generation (he’s 14) to be bright, very aware, appreciative and more connected to others than I’ve seen in previous generations. Perhaps these children will be the ones who finally impact our tomorrows in a favorable way … and the News that gets reported. However, I should add that I live in Canada, so our main News is still in fact, ‘News’…not something bought and paid for to shape opinion in order to have people react in herds for the benefit of a few. I’ll leave it at that.
How ‘The News’ could take a lesson from the movie ‘Monsters Inc.’
Have you seen the original Monsters Inc movie?
When I first watched this fun kids movie ions ago, my immediate thought was how society could learn a little from this flick!
In the movie, the Monsters acquire the energy that fuels their ‘Monster World’ from the fear and screams of children. I know, sounds terrible, but it’s done in a very kid friendly way.
The Monsters do this by jumping out of children’s closets and from under their beds …you know, a play on ‘mommy there’s a monster under my bed’: The screams are then converted to energy to fuel their Monster world.
Hmmm…..does any of this sound familiar? We do the same thing in our world don’t we; we use fear, anger, and other bad things to fund, oops I mean ‘fuel’, what we believe makes this world tick.
What happens in the movie, is that one of the ‘trainee monsters’ played by the great Billy Crystal, can’t bring himself to scare the kids…so he makes them laugh instead. Well, you can probably guess what happens to this trainee monster … yep, he gets in a ton of ‘monster trouble’ for not meeting quotas!
But thanks to this little trainee monster who decided to buck the system, Monster world discovers that they get incredible amounts of energy from laughter ….much more than they ever could from screams and fear!
Mankind hasn’t tried the monster approach yet, not once.
Perhaps even more ‘fuel/funds’ could be generated from laughs, happiness and smiles than from the constant pounding of fear, greed and anger.
Utopian maybe? Oh well, I’m trying.
So Are We Ready for A Little Good News? Can ‘Good’ News Fuel/Fund our World? Can we create a Self Fulfilling Prophecy of a Better World by Adding A Little Good News to the Mix?
Of course there would have to be a balance of good news mixed with the bad that goes on in the world (something that currently doesn’t happen!) – to at least be aware and stay informed.
Since I’ve lived over 4 decades of ‘watching news’, I’ll go out on a limb and say that changing our News (opinion and otherwise) to something constructive and positive can change the world. Like breeds like. I have no doubt about it. We don’t have to constantly cater to the lowest common denominator in a society to fund…oops again..I mean, ‘fuel’ this world.
Have your say in the comments section below!
Anne Murray is a Canadian Country Music Legend from Nova Scotia
She’s acquired so many accolades in Country Music that I couldn’t possibly list them all here! You can read about her incredible achievements in the music industry on Wiki. Ms. Murray holds the distinguished title of being the first Canadian Female Solo Singer to reach number 1 in the US Charts. Some of her achievements include 4 Grammys, 24 Juno Awards, 3 American Music Awards, and 3 Canadian Country Music Association Music Awards. She’s also been inducted into the Canadian Country Music Hall of Fame, the Juno Hall of Fame as well as the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame.
You can find more about Anne Murray from her Website, Twitter, and Facebook.
The Best …So FarCheck PriceAnne Murray Duets: Friends & LegendsCheck Price
Note: Article originally posted on Squidoo in August 2014 archived here: https://web.archive.org/web/20140821231447/http://music.squidoo.com/country-song-about-a-little-good-news-today
This blog post has been Digiproved © 2014 Barbara (Tremblay) Cipak
Tags: Anne Murray, Hope Country Songs, Inspirational Country Songs
LOVE this post! I’d forgotten this song and her wonderful alto voice. Always been a sucker for a good alto voice, but yes, good news. I totally agree with you about this and am grateful to see you calling for it.
I’ve started asking my local news organizations to imagine what our world might be like if they gave up “If it bleeds and leads,” and led with stories about people being kind to one another, ordinary people working to grow a healthier, world, and stories about how we actually do have enough on this earth for everyone to live comfortably and well.
Of course, that means that every time they publish such a story, I have to make sure they know I appreciate it and ask for more, but that’s a pleasurable enough task, isn’t it?
I keep hoping one of those word-clever people will come up with something as shorty and compelling as “If it bleeds, it leads,” so the rest of us could ask for articles about people building a good world, not just a better world, but a good world for everyone.
Thanks for this. Needed it today.
Great comment Kathryn! and well said. As the generations go by and the same is repeated it gets quite disconcerting! Now you’ll have me thinking of tag lines for this, lol, which is a good thing of course! ‘Honey can make money’, ‘It doesn’t have to suck to make a buck’ oh my goodness I’ll be doing this all day now, thank you!
I’ve always been a fan on Anne Murray from back in the day. I need to listen to some of these songs to catch up!
She has such a unique voice doesn’t she, I enjoy her music as well – it’s stood the test of time 🙂