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No One Sings For The Four Of Clubs

by Danny Schmidt

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No One Sings For The Four Of Clubs is about GRIEVANCE. It’s not about legitimizing the grievance, and it’s certainly not about tolerating inappropriate and destructive actions as acceptable responses to grievance, legitimate or otherwise. But it’s about listening and validating that the grievance is being felt, on empathetic grounds, but also on pragmatic grounds . . .

We all feel run over at times by the spinning of the world. And when people look around and feel that society is advocating for everyone but them, they begin to feel like the social contract has been breached, and so they tear what’s left of it to shreds. There’s a sad litany of examples: Nazism for the post-war Germans, Trumpism for the rural white Americans left behind by globalization and the information economy, terrorist assaults from Palestinians held under a brutal regime.

None of their responses were tolerable or defensible, to me. But all of their responses were predictable.

And since we can only control our own behavior, what we can do is listen to the grievances of our fellow humans, whether they are minority grievances or majority grievances, whether we agree with them or not. If grievances are being felt, then they are real, by definition. And people who feel heard don’t scream so much, or so loudly, so desperately or so violently or so recklessly.

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lyrics

NO ONE SINGS FOR THE FOUR OF CLUBS (lyrics):

No one sings for the four of clubs
No one knows the beasts he’s slayed
Who’ll lift up the hero’s cup
When his only call to conquest is the constant day-to-day

No one sings for the four clubs
They barely even know his name
They only know there’s some poor soul
Who has to hold his job just so there’s someone there to blame

He sees the hearts just cry
Protest and testify
Until the woken cavalry rides to fights her windmills
And every spade’s a former slave in golden chains
The four of clubs just shrugs and throws the game

No one sings for the four of clubs
He takes a three to be his queen
From the pile of discarded love
Where happily ever after’s just a matter of degree

No one sings for the four of clubs
Humbled in his humble house
And hungry for a higher floor
And the food to feed his passions cause his dreams live hand to mouth

He sees the heart’s in tears
Rubbed wrong for all these years
Now all the jacks must sleep in fear with one eye open
But diamonds still can make a life as small-blind trophy wives
The four of clubs just shrugs and pays the price

No one sings for the four of clubs
No one seems to know the chords
No one tries to harmonize
So he takes a blank refrain and then just makes up all the words

No one sings for the four of clubs
He’s felt forlorn for far too long
If no one takes the time or grace
To see you or believe you then you sing your own damn song

The four of clubs just hums
An angry sort of soothing song
About a joker that comes along and says fours are wild
Now close your eyes and just pretend
Then shuffle up and deal again
The four of clubs just shrugs and trumps the hand

credits

released February 22, 2024

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Danny Schmidt Austin, Texas

Named to the Chicago Tribune's "50 Most Significant Songwriters in the Last 50 Years," Austin, TX-based singer/songwriter Danny Schmidt is considered a preeminent writer, an artist whose earthy poetry manages to somehow conjure magic from the mundane, with lyrical depth drawing comparisons to Leonard Cohen and Townes Van Zandt. ... more

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