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Useless

from C​.​A​.​F. by Exebelle

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about

When I was studying law and urban planning in graduate school, I wrote a research paper on a phenomenon of human sociology called "the bystander effect," which you can read about if you're interested at en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bystander_effect. Anyway, I started thinking about how the bystander effect often provides us, as individuals, with an excuse for not taking action to correct problems that we face together as part of our community, world, universe, etc.

I had been thinking about this for awhile and then I happened to overhear a conversation between a couple of people who had just recently moved to the Richmond area. One of these folks had recently moved from the Atlanta area, and another one had come from Northern Virginia. They both commented about how much they loved the slow pace of life in Richmond, and they especially loved the absence of some of the typical evils of suburban life such as traffic jams. As I continued to eavesdrop on their conversation, I wondered where these people lived since they seemed so thankful to be leaving the strip malls and traffic jams of Atlanta and NoVA behind them. Then, to my surprise, I overheard them say, "So, I moved to Short Pump and I work downtown. It's amazing, I can drive from my home to work in only 20 minutes. My commute in Atlanta/NoVA was an hour!"

So, this got me thinking about how everyone complains about the traffic and pollution that results from suburban living but very few people seem to be willing to make individual sacrifices (e.g., a larger house, a better school) for the benefit of society. I started feeling pretty helpless because despite all of my efforts to live my life in an environmentally-conscious way, it was hard for me to see how my actions alone could really have any impact on the wave of constant consumption and ever-expanding development that is driven by the pursuit of the American Dream. This brought me back to the bystander effect and the thought that we have to deny our individual desires, fears, and insecurities if we want to solve the problems that face our communities.

In response to all of that, this song is somewhat of a battle cry, a mantra, and a piece of personal therapy.

The music of this song was very much influenced by the Band, and the vocals in particular were influenced by Richard Manuel (on the choruses) and Levon Helm (on the verses). It's sort of an epic, and it's one of our favorites to play live. ~ Kerry

credits

from C​.​A​.​F., track released July 19, 2009

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Exebelle Richmond, Virginia

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