The Song of Power

A song that I wrote, I sang,
Sorry, I’ve got something in my throat.
A song that I recorded, written during a power outage on August 5, 2008.
I was at home, on vacation, the season was over.
I sat at the computer, and then there was a massive shock.
And I noticed that the electricity left the apartment, went back into the grid, and couldn’t be coaxed back
into the wires, the house, the socket, into the device.

When the supplier cuts your power line, and you’re once again stumbling around in the dark at home.
Then you realize just how dependent we are on electricity.
What all works with electricity, and what all doesn’t work without it.
For example, if you had an electric guitar, you could play, but no one would hear it.

Chorus
Power, power, power, you’re a good guy.
Power, power, only through your absence do we become aware of you.
Unless, of course, you’ve ever touched electricity,
Then you get clearly reminded of your presence—this is the power.

Even the TV set doesn’t do anything without power.
The talk show you watched every day is practically lost without electricity.
An electric bread slicer in the kitchen showed no reaction when you pressed the button.
Bread knife, oh, bread knife, you beautiful, non-electric offline device.

I’ll slice my bread with the bread knife fine.
No one really needs to be connected to the power grid.
Bread knife, bread knife, you’re good.
Because you do your job even without power.

Power, without you, what are we? Nothing. Ha.
Power, power, power slow, power current, into my house’s water source.

Bridge
If you call the supplier and complain that you have no power,
They’ll tell you it’s a widespread phenomenon and all the workers are already on it.
And outside, with big insulators, trying to bring the power back into the house.

Power, power, power, what an important instrument you are.
Power, power, without you, all the transformer stations would be pointless.
So, they would just be hubs of idleness.

I’m alone, I have no power.
But my acoustic guitar doesn’t care at all anymore.

Power, power, because we have Bodum coffee makers,
We also have coffee without power.

Thank you.