DESCRIPTION:
This is my song "1989" from "Renaissance Man," the album I made for my final music project during the Spring of 2011. The song started off as a reflective piece during the summer of 2009 when I turned 20, but then evolved into a political, socially-conscious song when I went to finish it in 2010. It's metaphorical I guess, using a modern folk idiom to express feelings about how the country and world changed since the Berlin Wall fell and the Cold War ended (coincidentally the same time I was born) and to comment on current events without really mentioning anything or anyone too specific. This is truly where the personal and political come together. I'm not trying to speak for my entire generation, but this is how I see things today...

Michael Joseph--acoustic guitar, piano, vocals, harmonica
Produced & Mixed by Alec Gause and Michael Joseph

Lyrics:

This old world's getting older, I'm stayin' young as long as I can
Life and love grow colder, and I find it harder to be a man
Carrying it's weight upon my shoulders, waiting for the day to take my stand

Lives are on the line in a world out of control; this is the battle for the heart and the soul...

Chorus:
Lookin' back now, 20 years, hope's been displaced by fear in
A generation lost in time
Cold wars we're born out of, defined by 2001
May innocence be our only crime

Our small town gets smaller, I don't feel as big as I did back then
Pile of debts get taller, still liberty to defend
Thinkin' maybe I should call her, she might be my only friend

Walls are coming down, it ain't too hard to see; tonight we have a rendezvous with destiny...

Chorus

Guards are changing in society and time; in all that's gone down since 1989...

Lookin' back now 20 years, hope's been displace by fears in
A generation lost in time...
A new world we're thrown into, redefined by towers two
May innocence be our only crime
May innocence be our only crime

(c) 2010, 2011 Michael Joseph Barrasso