New Joan Baez song mentions Rockford
1 comment November 17th, 2008
Joan Baez’s CD released in September, “Day After Tomorrow,” mentions Rockford in the anti-war title track.
The song was written by Tom Waits and his wife, Kathleen Brennan. It is a letter from a soldier to his wife in Rockford on his 21st birthday.
I tried to get in touch with Waits to ask him about writing the song. But his publicist, Tresa Redburn, told me on the phone last week that he wouldn’t be getting in touch with me. “He rarely does interviews,” she said. So I asked her if the Waits interviewed a real soldier or had a real letter from a soldier on which they based the song. She said they didn’t.
But I read a story on the Internet that said Waits had read an article about a soldier who died, and the soldier was from Rockford.
Here are the lyrics for the song sung by Baez, a 67-year-old folk singer/songwriter known for her social activism:
“Day After Tomorrow”
I got your letter today
And I miss you all so much, here
I can’t wait to see you all
And I’m counting the days, dear
I still believe that there’s gold
At the end of the world
And I’ll come home
To Illinois
On the day after tomorrow
It is so hard
And it’s cold here
And I’m tired of taking orders
And I miss old Rockford town
Up by the Wisconsin border
But I miss you won’t believe
Shoveling snow and raking leaves
And my plane will touch tomorrow
On the day after tomorrow
I close my eyes
Every night
And I dream that I can hold you
They fill us full of lies
Everyone buys
About what it means to be a soldier
I still don’t know how I’m supposed to feel
About all the blood that’s been spilled
Look out on the street
Get me back home
On the day after tomorrow
You can’t deny
The other side
Don’t want to die
Any more than we do
What I’m trying to say,
Is don’t they pray
To the same God that we do?
Tell me, how does God choose?
Whose prayers does he refuse?
Who turns the wheel?
And who throws the dice
On the day after tomorrow?
Mmmmmmm…
I’m not fighting
For justice
I am not fighting
For freedom
I am fighting
For my life
And another day
In the world here
I just do what I’ve been told
You’re just the gravel on the road
And the one’s that are lucky
One’s come home
On the day after tomorrow
And the summer
It too will fade
And with it comes the winter’s frost, dear
And I know we too are made
Of all the things that we have lost here
I’ll be twenty-one today
I’ve been saving all my pay
And my plane will touch down
On the day after tomorrow
And my plane it will touch down
On the day after tomorrow
