All American ritual

Speeding along a road with rock music full blast is my all American ritual.
It's an all American ritual, heavy with British music, and with Cuban memories....
So there I was, blasting Ozzy Osbourne, belting out duets with the Prince of Darkness as a madman, and he ripped through "In my life" a Beatles anthem that touches both me and KillCastro very deeply. Song follows....
He also sang Sympathy for the Devil, our all times favorites by the Rolling Stones.... Both songs are very emblematic of our feelings for Cuba, Cubans, and the people who are back in the ground fighting over for survival and freedom.
That's actually part of the soundtrack of the music of my rebellion.
Salsa or son were not part of it.
That were the music forced fed to us by te regime, so rock was the rebellious thing, that was what got us into problems....
I never saw a salsero thrown into jail, dragged, punched, beaten, poked, marked with cigarrette butts or irons. I never heard of a salsero self inoculating AIDS to be left alone and die alone in a sanitary jail.
Many of my friends were sent to Angola. Never came back.
From the rest of us, some were lucky and could escape.
The rest are in Cuba, and they are either as rebellious as they were the first day, or they are spent individuals, some lost forever to the fogs of alcohol and depression.
We were the Caribbean equivalent of the British "angry young men".
It's ok to be angry.
I prefer anger to self complacency, self contemplation, and egotistic behaviour.
Give me the company of angry people any day, rather than the company of people who think they have a God-given right to judge all of us.
I prefer to be the aging angry street fighter than the political Monday morning quarterback.
I don't plan to do much armchair time during my life.
I wasn't born for that.
I did my street time.... and surprise, everyday that passes I grow more convinced that I have to support the people who are doing the street fighting.
I am listening to "In my life" again...
Put yourself in my shoes (my Havana boots) and walk with me. I will walk barefoot with you, and I will take you to all my places, which are so special in my memory, to meet my dead friends, to meet my dead heros.
C'mon, get ready, come with me....

There are places I remember
All my life, though some have changed
Some forever not for better
Some have gone and some remain
All these places had their moments
With lovers and friends
I still can recall
Some are dead and some are living
In my life I've loved them all

But of all these friends and lovers
there is no one compares with you
And these memories lose their meaning
When I think of love as something new
Though I know I'll never lose affection
For people and things that went before
I know I'll often stop and think about them
In my life I love you more

Though I know I'll never lose affection
For people and things that went before
I know I'll often stop and think about them
In my life I love you more
In my life I love you more