David is still, in my opinion, the "beautiful voice of the American Resistance". I wrote about him in 2009, then I interviewed him, then I met him. He still makes me laugh, and cry and hope. The Saker
"Obama gave a speech, I wrote a song."
Terrorist In Chief
It's September 11th and Obama gave a speech
On the War on Terror and its mighty reach
The arm of the law is long and victory will be ours
As long as we cooperate with certain powers
Such as the ones who funded the Islamic State
The Saudis are our allies, of this there's no debate
The misogynist king will bring us some relief
From the Caliphate – so said the Terrorist-In-Chief
It's September 11th, listen to the man
Talk about successes in Afghanistan
Still the world's poorest country, still beneath the yoke
Of the very terrorists whose back he claimed we broke
Now we're at war with IS in Syria and Iraq
Though we can't support the main army that's fighting back
They're terrorists too, though with a secular belief
So down with Assad! So said the Terrorist-In-Chief
It's September 11th and there's someone on the screen
I'm still trying to figure out what he means
The Peshmerga are ours now, we give them air support
While just across the border, lives cut short
By our Turkish allies, also in this fight
As they kill our infantry when they have them in their sights
There are some things not worth mentioning, he's got to keep it brief
So said the Terrorist-In-Chief
It's September 11th and I'm hearing every sound
3,200 boots, but they don't really touch the ground
And all the mercenaries, they don't really count
These details don't matter when there's a campaign to mount
Just listen closely, the White House has it sussed
We'll protect those refugees, these oil cans won't rust
David came up with another fantastic song. Here is what he writes about it:
Ever since the rightwing nutjobs started complaining that Barack Obama is a tree-hugging, socialist, immigrant-loving, peace-loving Muslim I've thought, "if only it were true." This morning it occurred to me to write a song about it.
Check it out:
I love the man, there is no other way to put it :-)
A popular Hawaiian recording artist turned a top-security dinner of Pacific Rim leaders hosted by President Barack Obama into a subtle protest with a song in support of the “Occupy” movement.
Makana, who goes by one name, was enlisted to play a luau, or Hawaiian feast, Saturday night for leaders assembled in Obama’s birthplace Honolulu for an annual summit that is formulating plans for a Pacific free-trade pact.
But in the midst of the dinner on the resort strip Waikiki Beach, he pulled open his jacket to reveal a T-shirt that read “Occupy with Aloha,” using the Hawaiian word whose various meanings include love and peace. He then sang a marathon version of his new song “We Are The Many.”
“I was pretty nervous. In fact I was terrified. I kept thinking ‘what are the consequences going to be?’” Makana, 33, told AFP.
“It was incredibly comical. I was terrified but also enjoying it,” he said.
Makana, who was born Matthew Swalinkavich, said the song prompted awkward stares from a few of those present but the Obamas appeared too absorbed with their guests to notice what was happening.
The performance occurred at a dinner for summit participants from 21 economies around the Asia-Pacific, including Chinese President Hu Jintao and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, amid a security lockdown in Waikiki.
As Makana sang, about 400 protesters including anti-globalization and native Hawaiian rights activists staged a protest march toward the dinner site but turned back after encountering the smothering security.
Makana released the song on the Internet the day before and decided to play it at the urging of fans, he said.
Inspired by the anti-capitalist [sic] movement that began with the “Occupy Wall Street” demonstrations in New York, it denounces Washington politicians, corporate greed and what he sees as an unfair American economic system.
The song features the refrain, “We’ll occupy the streets, we’ll occupy the courts, we’ll occupy the offices of you, till you do the bidding of the many, not the few.”
He sang it “over and over” for 40 minutes, varying his tempo and delivery to avoid triggering an overt reaction.
“Whenever I felt the heat might come down, I would ease off. It was a very careful procedure,” he said.
We Are The Many
Ye come here, gather 'round the stage
The time has come for us to voice our rage
Against the ones who've trapped us in a cage
To steal from us the value of our wage
From underneath the vestiture of law
The lobbyists at Washington do gnaw
At liberty, the bureaucrats guffaw
And until they are purged, we won't withdraw
We'll occupy the streets
We'll occupy the courts
We'll occupy the offices of you
Till you do
The bidding of the many, not the few
Our nation was built upon the right
Of every person to improve their plight
But laws of this Republic they rewrite
And now a few own everything in sight
They own it free of liability
They own, but they are not like you and me
Their influence dictates legality
And until they are stopped we are not free
We'll occupy the streets
We'll occupy the courts
We'll occupy the offices of you
Till you do
The bidding of the many, not the few
You enforce your monopolies with guns
While sacrificing our daughters and sons
But certain things belong to everyone
Your thievery has left the people none
So take heed of our notice to redress
We have little to lose, we must confess
Your empty words do leave us unimpressed
A growing number join us in protest
We occupy the streets
We occupy the courts
We occupy the offices of you
Till you do
The bidding of the many, not the few
You can't divide us into sides
And from our gaze, you cannot hide
Denial serves to amplify
And our allegiance you can't buy
Our government is not for sale
The banks do not deserve a bail
We will not reward those who fail
We will not move till we prevail
We'll occupy the streets
We'll occupy the courts
We'll occupy the offices of you
Till you do
The bidding of the many, not the few
We'll occupy the streets
We'll occupy the courts
We'll occupy the offices of you
Till you do
The bidding of the many, not the few
We are the many
You are the few
Download song for free here:
http://makanamusic.com/?slide=we-are-the-many
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Comment: David Rovics also composed a beautiful song on the same topic:
Occupy Wall Street (We're Gonna Stay Right Here)
Because this is where they buy the politicians
Because this is where power has its seat
Because ninety-nine percent of us are suffering
At the mercy of the madmen on this street
Because all of us are victims of class warfare
Being waged on us by the one percent
Because these greedy banksters rob the country
Leaving us without the means to pay the rent
Because the last time that we had a decent government
Was about 1932
Because we the people are supposed to run the country
But instead it's all run by and for the few
Because now we know the rich do not pay taxes
But when they need a hand it's us who bail them out
Because we suspected we lived in a plutocracy
But suddenly of late there is no doubt
And so we're gonna stay right here (2x)
Because both my parents lost their savings
Because I have never opened an account
Because the interest on my credit card just doubled
And now I can't pay the minimum amount
Because these budget cuts are just immoral
With our schools as overcrowded as they are
Because there are no buses where I live
But I can't afford to drive a car
Because so many of us don't have health insurance
The rest of us have it but it sucks
Because the rich are riding in their private jets
While the rest of us are slogging through the muck
Because capitalism isn't working
This system has just failed to produce
Because the one percent is prospering
While the rest of us just suffer their abuse
Because it has been demonstrated amply
That the winners are the ones who stick around
Because this world should belong to everyone
Not just the banksters who would smash it to the ground
Because we've noticed voting doesn't change things
When the politicians are mostly millionaires
Because we're learning how to stand up like Tunisians
Like they did in Tahrir Square
Where a young man named Mohamed Bouazizi
Struck a match that lit up all the Earth
And all around the world the spell was broken
And a movement for the future was in birth
Because there's only so much shit the rich can feed us
Before we figure out which side we're on
Because we've learned if we want our liberation
It will come only if we stay here til the rising of the dawn
Because corporations are not people
And we can't just let them choose
Because if we leave our fate to them
Then all of us will surely lose
Because the climate clock is ticking
And we can't just leave our world behind
Because corporate rule isn't working
And it's time for humans' hearts and minds
Because you can't take it with you
Because the rich just do not care
Because it doesn't matter how much you make
But how much you can share
Because these moments don't come often
Because we want truly to be free
Because we know what really matters
Something called society
One soul at a time, the realization that 'enough is enough' is gradually making its way into the USA.
Since I recorded “Song for Bradley Manning” on my iPhone less than two weeks ago it has been viewed many thousands of times. This is a lot more than usual for a song that was recorded badly and has received no radio airplay or media attention aside from the occasional blog. I've been getting emails from lots of people I don't know, which is a very good sign.
I have noticed that the songs and videos of mine and other people's that tend to go viral like that, without the help of conventional media, usually share certain things in common. One is they're songs that speak to people. The other is they're professionally recorded with a good band and they have a professional-quality video to go with them. Also, though independent music is never heard on the commercial airwaves and rarely on the “public” or on syndicated “independent” programs either, if there's any hope of a song breaking that sound barrier, it needs to be professionally recorded.
My business model, such as it is, is to write topical songs, make some kind of recording of them, release them on the web for free and hope that some of the people who hear the songs will want to organize a gig for me when I'm in their area. This model allows me to make a decent enough living, though I can't afford some things like health insurance and, since my daughter was born, I have not been able to afford to make any recordings with a band.
If you go to www.soundclick.com/davidrovics, where I have 248 songs up for free download, you can see that most of the songs to make it into the“Soundclick Top 50” or “Soundclick Top 10” are from the last studio CD I recorded that involved a band, which was in 2006.
I'm happy to live within my means and continue to make inexpensive, generally solo-guitar-and-voice recordings that I put up on the web.
Given the obvious interest in this song, however, I thought I'd put it out there, come what may, that I would be even happier to make a high-quality studio recording of the song with a great bunch of professional musicians and then make a music video to go along with it.
I can't pay for it, though, and there aren't any record labels approaching me about it either, and there won't be. I know that probably half of you reading this also don't have health insurance.
But for those of you with any disposable income, be it $10 or $100 or more, here's my offer, take it or leave it:
Any donations that come in via the “donate” button at www.davidrovics.com (where you can also hear the song in question) by the end of this month will be used next month to make a high-quality recording of the song. This email will be the only effort I will make at raising this money. Here's what I will do with it, depending on how much people donate:
$500 I'll rent an award-winning studio for the day and make a high-quality solo recording
$2,000 I'll rent the studio for two days along with several amazing studio musicians and make a recording of the song with a band
$4,000 I'll hire the studio, the band, and a team of professional cut-rate videographers to make an MTV-quality video in the process
In the unlikely event of more donations than that, I'll hire a publicist to try to get the song some conventional media attention. To make the concept more interesting, anybody who contributes $500 or more gets a complementary house concert next time I'm in your country or region.
Obviously, feel free to share this email with whoever you want to.
Yours,
David
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Ok, by now most of you will now that I am a huge David Rovics fan, so you will not be surprised by the fact that I really ask you to help David raise the money needed for this recording. Frankly, being quasi broke myself, all I could send is 20 bucks, but I did it with a strong sense that not only was I helping a true hero of mine, but I was also contributing to a truly immensely important cause: I strongly believe that David's music has a huge impact on the people who actually get to listen to it. I have been living in the USA for a total of 15 years of my life, and I can tell you that every time I shared David's songs with an American the person was initially shocked - Americans are, sadly, not used at all of being exposed to any real opposition to the US Empire and political system - followed by amazement and, very often, a deep reflexion on the topics raised in David's songs. Real art is, I believe, subversive and libertarian by nature. It has to speak truth to power. When it does not, it is merely entertainment.
Ask yourself that simple question: when is the last time you heard some really subversive music?
Guys, please, pitch in and help David as much as possible. Helping him is really a way of resisting which everybody can afford. Send him even just a couple of bucks, and you can go to bed knowing that you did you share, no matter how little, to help the resistance against the Empire. Bradley Manning put his entire life on the line. Surely we can spare a couple of bucks?
David just email me his new song 'Song for Bradely Manning'. He has not made a professional quality recording of the song yet, but he has shared it by posting a homemade video of him singing it on YouTube.
I recently met David face to face for the first time and introduced him to my wife and kids. It was a huge joy and honor for me to finally give a big hug to then man whom I call "The Beautiful Voice of the American Resistance". Does that make me sound like a Rovics-groupie? Absolutely. Guilty as charged, my friends! David's songs give me courage to continue to resist, even in very small things, day after day. They remind me that there are still Americans out there who see it all and hate it all too. I very much hope that Bradely Manning will hear this song and that it will give him some courage too.
Guys, I would ask all of you, at least those who can, to contribute a little something (or a big something!) to David who puts all his songs on the Internet for free download. Any money you send will go to him, his wife and daughter, not some anonymous corporation run by millionaire crooks. Unlike them, David has a hard time making ends meet, and yet *his* generosity remains unaffected. He actually came to Orlando to sing his songs for a very small group of enthusiastic supporters, maybe 15 people (my family of 5 included!) even though he new that he would make no money from that (the entry fee to the bar was 5 bucks). David is all about sharing, about giving. So guys - please - click here and give something back to him. I have never asked for a penny to support this blog, even though I also barely make ends meet, but this time I do ask you to help a friend of mine, who is much more deserving of help than I am.
Thanks a lot!
The Saker
(click here for a Q&A with David I did a while ago)
Song for Bradley Manning
Private Manning was an analyst if what they say is true
He was paid to read reports and find the patterns sifting through
As he read the data the patterns did emerge
Patterns that were clear both before and since the Surge
Patterns of abuse of the most horrific kind
Gunning down civilians out of view and out of mind
Gunning down the opposition in the middle of the night
Sending off the scholars to be tortured out of sight
Sometimes you need desperate measures when you live in desperate times
And Private Manning saw he was looking at war crimes
He wondered what to do to allow the dead to speak
He finally decided to contact Wikileaks
Now it's all out on the table and everybody knows
The emperor is naked, he's not wearing any clothes
Now Adrian Lamo has to live within his skin
He stabbed Bradley in the back, called the cops and turned him in
But not before the soldier took half a million files
If you printed all the pages they'd stretch on for miles
Evidence against the state right from the horse's mouth
Machinations in the west, bombings in the south
A treasure trove of details for all the globe to see
How much they need to lie and kill for democracy
How many drone strikes have hit villages leaving everyone to die
They blamed on someone else – the official line, “Not I”
How many coups have been plotted by ambassadors who say
That free and fair elections be the order of the day
Now it's all out on the table and everybody knows
The emperor is naked, he's not wearing any clothes
Now the Genie's out of the bottle and they're trying to stuff it back
And stop it from illuminating everything we lack
Such as the rule of law or playing by the book
Look you can read it, it's right here, the ship of state is run by crooks
And they vilify the messengers, call them every name
For daring to blow the whistle on the nature of their game
The game of taking lives and endangering the rest
In order for the wealthy few to do what they do best
Dominate the world for the corporate elite
But now their cover's blown from their head down to their feet
And now the stars and stripes is looking much more like a rag
The lid is off the box, the cat's out of the bag
Now it's all out on the table and everybody knows
The emperor is naked, he's not wearing any clothes
They said it couldn't be done, that Americans couldn't raise money fast enough to buy a boat to join Freedom Flotilla 2 in the fall. But never underestimate American determination in the face of Israeli intransigence and brutality. The launch of the US Boat to Gaza began last night in New York, and Free Gaza was there to participate.
Listen to Col. Ann Wright's eloquent speech, then watch our TWITTER page for the next video uploads.
And this is just a beginning, as witnessgaza.com gets ready to go live for events across the US and across Europe.
"The Audacity of Hope" is more than just a book title. It is a call to everyone who believes in justice for Palestine... that there is hope, that civil society will do what governments refuse to do, that we will sail again and again until Palestinians gain the human and civil rights that have been denied to them for 62 years.
Email from David (with my own favorite songs in red):
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Hi folks,
Here are ten new songs, most written while I was on tour in Europe over the spring. If you like them and feel compelled to do something to support my musical efforts here are 3 things you can do:
1) Share these songs with your friends. (Especially your friends who host radio shows and organize festivals.)
2) Volunteer to organize a show next time I'm in your area. (I tour regularly on four continents, so there's at least a decent chance I'll be there soon...)
3) Drop a few coins in my Virtual Guitar Case – click the “donate” button at www.davidrovics.com (contributions small, large and medium all welcome).
You can find my Ten New Songs as high-quality free downloads at www.soundclick.com/davidrovics (along with 238 other songs). You can also click on the link following each song title below and listen to the song that way.
On Earth Day last I was on a plane headed to Europe, reading Riki Ott's fantastic book, One Last Drop, about the Exxon Valdez disaster, just as the oil began to gush off the Louisiana coast. Everybody should read that book. Anyway, this song is about a particular incident in 1993 when fishermen blockaded the harbor.
My latest in a series of pirate-themed songs. I was thinking about what I'd like to do to the oil industry's executive officers and larger stockholders, but the song was getting altogether too violent and so I turned it into a pirate song, making it much more palatable and even child-friendly!
Hearing the stories of out-of-work fishing communities in Louisiana, thinking about the history of the Cajun people, and how the refugees from Canada are now becoming refugees again. This time the reason is not the British Empire, it's a transnational corporation with a very British and very imperial history.
I had friends on several of those boats, including the Mavi Marmara. Just when the most cynical of leftists thinks Israel can't possibly do something even more outrageous than the last outrage, they go and do it. They massacred unarmed activists trying to bring basic necessities in to help alleviate the suffering of a besieged, hungry population. Read Kevin Neish's firsthand account of the raid on the ship.
It's strange getting older. When I was young the old people around me were the 1930's generation, veterans of the massive Depression-era struggles of the day. Bob Steck lived a few miles down the road from my mother in Connecticut and was, among other things, a veteran of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade and spent 16 months in one of Franco's concentration camps. He died a couple years ago at the age of 95, and this song is for him and others like him. Many of them of course were killed in battle in Spain long ago. Most of those who survived the war spent the rest of their lives serving humanity in one way or another. The few survivors are now in their nineties.
I wrote this song after the last high school massacre. I don't remember where it was, but it followed the typical pattern – ostracized teenage boy finally snaps and shoots pretty, popular girls who tend to ignore kids like him. There will be more, unfortunately, and this song is for them, too.
There are persistent myths about Japan being a basically homogeneous society made up of obedient drones. It's not, and never has been – in fact a serious reading of Japanese history is full of dissent of all kinds, going back many centuries. During the Nazi holocaust in Europe there was a Japanese Schindler, and his name was Sempo Sugihara. I heard about him through my friend Ben Manski, who is alive today because of this man and his wife Yukiko. Ben and his grandfather, Samuil, are what some call Sugihara Survivors.
On a recent trip to Athens, Greece I personally verified the legend: the dogs of Athens are on the side of the anarchists. This song is about a particularly legendary dog who I may have met, not sure, but in any case his name is Loukanikos and he has been photographed at every riot in Athens over the past two years, always right up in the faces of the police, impervious to tear gas, smoke grenades, and whatever else the cops throw at him.
After playing a gig at Roddy McCorley's on the Falls Road in West Belfast, spending the entire night after the gig singing rebel songs with members and relatives of a band called the Irish Brigade, and then reading an excellent book I bought at the Sinn Fein book store about the 1981 hunger strike in the prisons there (Ten Men Dead, great book) I had to write a song about one of the hunger strikers and this is what happened.
I was just fiddling around on the guitar one day and this is what came out. I was thinking of stories Bob and Jo Steck used to tell about the 1930's in their respective homes – Bob in Iowa and Jo in New York City. I suppose this song represents the most fundamental message I and others like me are trying to communicate – in union we can achieve anything.
It is truly a huge pleasure for me to publish this Q&A with David Rovics, a phenomenal artist whose music I have only recently discovered, and about whom I wrote a piece entitled "David Rovics - the beautiful voice of the American Resistance". Three months have passed since I wrote this piece. I discovered more of David's songs and I came to the conclusion that he is probably the most talented American singer I have ever heard, bar none.
For those of you who have not listened to his music yet, I have selected what I think are 52 of his very best songs, archived them into one zipped file, and made them available for download here (enter the word "saker" next to "Пароль на файл:" and then enter the number you see next at the right of "Код безопасности" in the box "Введите код: and hit "enter", and the download will start in 5 sec). Alternatively, you can also download it from here. (Note: all the songs which I refer to in this Q&A are included in this archive)
I contacted David and asked him to agree to a Q&A exchange for my blog. He kindly agreed and here is the result of our exchange:
Q: Please tell us something about your family background: where were you born, what was the ethnicity/origin of you mom and dad, do you have any siblings, what kind of education did you get, were did you go to school, etc.?
A: I was born in New York City and raised in the well-off, white suburbs of Wilton, Connecticut. My parents are both classical musicians who taught at the University of Long Island. I wasn't brought up with any particular religion but my father is of Jewish lineage and my mother's family was Episcopalian, though she later became a Quaker. I have a sister named Bonnie, 3 years younger, who is also a leftwing musician among other things. I was educated in primary school in a wonderful hippie place called the Learning Community. After that I went to Wilton public schools and then briefly to Earlham College and Evergreen State College, but never got a BA.
Q: Who are the main influences of your art in terms of ideas, of course, but also in terms of music? What are your favorite authors/poets and what kind of music do you listen to most?
A: Musically I've been influenced profoundly by Appalachian music, bluegrass, traditional and contemporary Irish music, the singer-songwriter scene, nueva cancion, African music, all kinds of stuff. If I were to name a single songwriter who has impacted me most profoundly it would be Jim Page, with many others close behind.
Q: You are clearly not afraid of singing about topics and people which no other artist would ever dare touch, not with a 10 foot pole. For example, "Jenin" is about a Palestinian suicide-bomber, "Burn It Down" is about what the Uncle Sam would call "eco-terrorism", "Song for Ana Belen Montes" is about a top DoD official who spied for the Cuba not for money, but because her conscience told her to do so, "Lebanon 2006" is about Hezbollah and "International Terrorists" is about the US Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines! Even though these are some of your most powerful and beautiful songs, I know that they sometimes deeply offend, scandalize and infuriate people. Are you concerned about such reactions?
A: There are also many songwriters and other artists who would and regularly do write about all of those things. The ones who are scared of them usually either don't know enough about the issues or they're afraid of losing their record contract. The independent musicians like me don't have such concerns, for better or for worse, so our only concern might be for our safety. I don't think I have much to worry about in that regard. I can't think of a single instance of an artist in the US being killed for his or her art. Harassed, audited, spied on, phones tapped, passports taken and maybe jailed briefly (in the 1950's) but these are not serious concerns for anyone who gives a shit about humanity. And anyway, I rarely have the pleasure of reaching audiences beyond those who are already part of the progressive community, so I rarely cause controversy of any kind, unfortunately.
Q: Your music is very clearly American in style - it covers a wide breadth of American music styles - and I suppose that this choice an expression of your love for this land, its people, their culture and its landscapes. Yet at the same time you are clearly dismayed by the history of what the ruling elites have done to your country ("Parking Lots and Strip Malls", "Everything Looks the Same", "Before they nuke DC", "Floating Down the River"). How do you personally deal with the pain of seeing the country you love also being the "homeland" of the ideology which you despise so much? Have you ever considered leaving the USA and going into permanent exile? ("I think of moving eastward, Maybe Gant or Amsterdam, Far from Ronald McDonald, And his greedy Uncle Sam") or do you feel that your place is fundamentally here?
A: There are many places in the world I'd love to live. The US (or parts of it anyway) is only one of those places where there are wonderful people, lots of natural beauty, and other good things in life. Basically it's a beautiful world, and the US is beautiful too, it's just that the government is a neo-fascist empire bent on wiping out life on Earth. I feel like the place I can be most effective is in the US, where I'm from, which is one of the reasons I stay. Though of course I leave often, for tours... As for playing a distinctly American kind of music, nah. If I sang with an Irish accent or an English accent it'd be Irish or English music. There are lots of people there who like bluegrass and play guitar the way I do. Is bluegrass American? Sort of. At least to the extent that Irish immigrants and African slaves were/are American. The banjo is an African instrument.
Q: Some of your songs are amazingly optimistic ("We Are Everywhere", "Shut Them Down"). Considering what is going on in the world, how do you overcome a sense of despondency, of doom and gloom ("The Draft Is Coming")? Do you do that by seeking beauty and peace in the people we love ("Life is Beautiful") or do you see objective reasons to continue to hope that things will eventually change for the better ("Minimum Wage Strike", "The Pirate Radio Song", "Who Will Tell The People")?
A: There are all kinds of ways things can go at different places and times in this world, and what's certain is that mass movements are necessary to make things go in a positive direction. What's also certain is that music needs to be part of any movement. So I do my thing, hoping for the best. Things look pretty grim in the US, Europe and a lot of other places right now. The neoliberals and the xenophobes seem to get more powerful every day. On the other hand there is South America, where real changes are happening real fast. South America is the beacon of hope for the future of planet Earth at this time, it's largely where my hope for the future comes from right now, on a macro scale, but in little ways my hope for the future comes every day I have the pleasure of interacting with more kind and generous human beings, who are everywhere.
Q: One of your songs ("Whoever Wins in November") ends with the words "whoever wins in November, Neolib, neocon, Stands only for death, Whichever face he has on, We will build a new world, And set us all free, Once we drive the whole lot of them, Right out of DC". I personally fully agree with you in that I see no hope whatsoever in this corrupt system or in the naive hope that the elites which run it will somehow "reform themselves". But how do you think can they be "driven right out of DC"? Do you still believe that a 3rd party candidate can eventually win, do you believe in a Gandi-like satyagraha peaceful civil resistance or do you believe that only violence can and will eventually bring down this entire system?
A: Of course the first step in the process is education. People need to understand that the two-party system is hopelessly corrupt, and give up on it. Then there's the possibility for change in all kinds of ways. There's the possibility of a third party movement, of a mass nonviolent movement, of a violent uprising, who knows? All kinds of ways change can happen. I think it would be silly and dishonest to predict how that change might come about or which kind of change will be most effective, because we don't know the future or the circumstances it will involve yet, but change can happen in all kinds of ways. Not through voting for Democrats though.
Q: Your songs are a wonderful education tool for children. I have three kids whom I homeschool; they listen to your songs every day and constantly ask me questions about the events or people you refer to. I cannot think of a better history, civics or social sciences "curriculum" than your songs (-: "Homeschoolers for David Rovics!" - what a slogan :-). When you wrote these songs, did you just speak about the issues which were dear to you, or did you make a conscious effort to educate people or their kids?
A: I'm so glad you think my songs work well for educating children, 'cause home school vs. school is a constant theme in my life, having a little girl myself. I'm more in favor of home schooling, though right now she's part-time at a Waldorf place she seems to like (when she gets enough sleep). I didn't write these songs with children in mind, but I did write them with the idea in mind of communicating the most essential aspect of a story and not complicating it too much with tangents. I think songs about historical or current events tend to work best that way. That also works well for kids, at least if they're old enough to have some idea of the context. Of course I also write songs that are explicitly for kids, little kids, where I'm making different assumptions in terms of awareness of context, more appropriate for the age group.
Q: Your songs are extremely "singable" in the sense that they have simple choruses and melodies which are ideally suited to group singing (we often sing them with my wife and kids during car trips and we have a great deal of fun doing this). This is something which the vast majority of singers seem to have totally forgotten, that songs are not only meant to be listened to, but actually sung. Many popular music traditions aboard (Latin America, Celtic countries, Russia, Greece, etc.) also share that feature of being "singable", but in the USA you are one of the very few artists who cares about this. Why is it? Is that something you deliberately decided to include in your songs?
A: Interesting you say this, because I just did a tour of Tvind schools in Denmark and some of the headmasters complained that though they liked my songs, they were often not singable enough. It's all relative... Compared to many modern singer-songwriters my songs are singable. Compared with, say, songs of the civil rights or union movements, my songs are completely obtuse and not very singable. I like writing some songs that are easy to sing along with, and I like writing songs that aren't very good for that as well. But the thing is that if you like a song enough any song can be good for singing along, even if it doesn't have a chorus!
Q: Your entry in Wikipedia says that you are Jewish and in one of your poems you write "I think of the walls around our own ghetto, And how we had to crawl through the sewers, Looking for rats to eat, While we could hear their children playing, On the other side". Do you consider yourself Jewish and, if yes, what does it mean to you? Some "Jews" such as Shlomo Sands or Gilad Atzmon do not even believe that there is such thing as an ethnic Jew, that being "Jewish" is in reality a cultural/tribal self-identification, something one chooses but not something which one "is". You are not religious (at least according to the Wikipedia) and you very clearly abhor the Zionist ideology as in the same poem you say "I feel sick, Sick of your displaced anger, Sick of your self-deception, Sick of your attempts to deceive the rest of the world, Sick of your accusations of anti-semitism, Sick of your occupation, Sick of your apartheid state, Sick of Zionism". But then who is the "we" that you speak of in this poem? Can there be a way of being Jewish other than an ethnic, religious or ideological one?
A: I'm Jewish in the sense that I'm Jewish enough to have been gassed in Hitler's gas chambers and Jewish enough for Israeli citizenship. I'm also Jewish in the sense that I was told about this heritage and what it meant from birth by my father's mother especially. In terms of religion I'm an atheist. In terms of ethnicity I don't know if such a thing exists on a scientific basis or how that would be defined. There are genetic differences between people from one village to the next. At what point is an ethnicity constituted? Who knows? Personally I just don't care, I think it's all silly, but it would be equally silly to say that I'm not Jewish. What would that mean? Just as little or as much as being Jewish means. But certainly it's mostly a political and to some extent cultural definition, not genetic or religious in nature, at least not as far as I'm concerned.
Q: You wrote only one song about 9/11 - but an extremely powerful one (Reichstag fire). The chorus of this songs is "I am left to wonder, As the flames are reaching higher, Was this our latest Lusitannia, Or another Reichstag Fire?" Are you still wondering about this, or have you come to some conclusion?
A: I think there are many unanswered questions around what happened on 9/11. I think there are many people who have come to all kinds of unsubstantiated and unsubstantiatable conclusions based on guesses and not concrete facts, which is unfortunate for all of us. But there are certainly unanswered, important questions, and I imagine that will continue to be the case for a long time. -------
If you want to find out more about Rovics and his music, the following ressources are available on the internet:
http://www.davidrovics.com (main web site) http://www.blogtalkradio.com/davidrovics (weekly radio show, every Monday 11AM PST) http://www.soundclick.com/davidrovics (his music) http://songwritersnotebook.blogspot.com (his blog) http://www.myspace.com/davidrovics http://www.facebook.com/davidrovics http://twitter.com/drovics http://davidrovics.guestbooks.cc
The signs up all over the airport and various places elsewhere in town are calling it Hopenhagen, but everybody I know is calling it Cop-enhagen, which seems far more appropriate. The international media has been giving this lots of coverage, and rightly so. Of course much of the media is unable to walk and chew gum at the same time, so other things, such as the reason the protests are happening in the first place, can get lost.
Inside the Bella Center lots of stuff is going on. Namely the US, Australia and others leading the way in making sure nothing meaningful takes place there, while many other delegates and activists within try to make the best of it, or at least make the effort to thoroughly expose the bankruptcy of the position taken by the rich countries. The center itself is divided into floors where the big decisions are being made, and then the rest of the place for the little people, the delegates from unimportant countries like Tuvalu, representatives of small NGOs and other riffraff. Many of the folks involved with the process inside are dividing their time between the meetings and events outside in the streets and at the alternative conference going on elsewhere in town.
Copenhagen is a beautiful city. The architecture in the heart of the city is understated but exudes the wealth of a place that was once the capital of a fairly sizeable empire. Of course, though the Danish empire brought some riches home to Copenhagen, the wealth of modern Denmark is far greater, that being the product not so much of empire but of the Danish labor movement and Danish social democracy. It is this check on Danish capitalism that has allowed this wealth to be so impressively distributed, bringing Denmark a quality of life that is the envy of most anyone who knows about it.
Of course, as in any society there are different forces at work in Denmark. Most Danes would identify much more with those peasants who rebelled in the 17th century and helped pave the way for modern Denmark, not with the soldiers who massacred them, but those soldiers were also Danes. Most Danes would prefer to remember the heroic stories of resistance during the occupation of Denmark in the 1940's, but there were also many enthusiastic collaborators.
At so many points in history there are pivotal moments when things can go different ways, and something pushes events in a certain direction. The direction of social democracy has been the ascendant one in Denmark for quite some time, but this was able to happen for a variety of reasons – the strength and purpose of the Danish labor movement, the fear on the part of the rich of the spectre of communism, the moral bankruptcy of the leaders of society who collaborated with the Nazis after the war, and so on.
If people know anything about this most southerly of the Scandinavian countries they know it's full of windmills. Germany actually has lots more windmills than Denmark, but many of them are made in Denmark anyway, at the Vespas factories in Jutland (where they recently laid off thousands of workers).
There's a reason Denmark has been a pioneer in windmill technology, and it is, to a large extent, the Danish environmental movement. In the early 70's the Danish government was thinking about building their first nuclear reactor, following the example of Sweden, which has one right across the water, upwind. People inspired by ideas of communal living and experiential learning formed a community centered around a Free School near the little village of Ulfborg and began making plans to build the world's largest windmill. Over the course of three years, working with scientists, artisans and large numbers of hippies, they built the world's largest windmill. They refused to patent any of their ground-breaking technology, making it all available for anybody to use. Their windmill, still standing and providing power to the community 35 years later, is the prototype for the big windmills you'll see scattered around Denmark and the world.
This windmill provided more than just energy – it and the movement that built it provided political capital. Those in parliament arguing for a nuclear reactor lost the fight, and Denmark became a nation of windmills.
For the past decade or so, however, Denmark has been run by a coalition led by the neoliberal, xenophobic Vestre party. They have been privatizing hospitals and passing some of the most restrictive immigration legislation in the world. They have had troops in both Afghanistan and Iraq, and they have been forcibly deporting refugees back to these war-torn countries. Fueled by the changes to Danish society wrought by EU membership, this conservative coalition keeps winning elections. Along with a love of capitalism and a fear of foreigners, these people also can't stand hippies or punks or other dissenting elements, and they are on a quest to “normalize” the 900-person intentional community in the heart of Copenhagen known as Christiania. To that end they conducted a police raid early one morning in 2007 and destroyed a house they deemed to have been illegally constructed. (I got my first taste of Danish tear gas there a couple hours later.)
Shortly before this home demolition in Christiania, hundreds of Danish police had landed on the five-story squatted social center known as Ungdomshuset (“Youth House”) by helicopter early one morning. They fumigated the place with tear gas, arrested those inside, jailed them for several months, and proceeded to follow the new government policy of destruction of the house. Masked construction workers from Poland did the dirty work, since Danish unions forbid their members from doing work that requires police protection.
Over the course of the next 1-1/2 years, however, the government was forced to backtrack on their plan to civilize Denmark. The movement to support Ungdomshuset grew dramatically, involving a number of fairly significant riots and probably more importantly a weekly drill of marches every Thursday for a year and a half, involving many hundreds and often thousands every week. Eventually the chief of police and the mayor of Copenhagen had to admit that their policies had been a mistake and they gave the movement what it was demanding, a new house, bought and paid for by the city. (Leftwing foundations had offered to buy a new building for the movement but these offers were refused on principle – the line was that the government destroyed Ungdomshuset and they should replace it with something comparable.)
In the course of the riots and demonstrations around Ungdomshuset the police preemptively arrested hundreds of people on a few occasions. They weren't technically allowed to do this, but they came up with excuses. One eyewitness told me that the police started arresting people, claiming some of them were throwing rocks at them, although the rock-throwing had clearly started only after the police began arresting the assembled crowd.
A new law was passed in preparation for the climate summit which makes this kind of mass preemptive arrest perfectly legal – all the police need to do is arbitrarily determine that an area is designated as a “riot zone” and then they can arrest whoever they want. Any non-Danes arrested can be held for 40 days (including people who were born in Denmark but are not citizens, a reality for many here that may seem surprising to those in the US reading this). It went into effect a week before last Thursday, and since then the Danish police have carried out mass preemptive arrests that dwarf anything they've done before. They don't even need to pretend they had any justification for what is essentially collective punishment.
Those of you from the US reading this should be familiar with preemptive mass arrests. If you haven't had your head in the sand for the past few decades then you know this happens regularly at demonstrations throughout our great democracy. But it's new for Denmark, and it is a serious step in the direction of the Americanization, you could say, of the country. Being an American, I can say first-hand that emulating US policies in terms of law enforcement or in terms of the privatization and outsourcing of industry is all a very bad idea, at least as far as the vast majority of people are concerned – but the interests of a privileged minority are what moves people like the Danish Prime Minister, not the interests of society as a whole.
The policies and concerns of the new Danish government were represented eloquently by the kettling and mass arrest of a small march that was en route to commit acts of civil disobedience at the docks run by the Maersk corporation. Maersk is one of the world's richest men and runs one of the world's biggest shipping companies (look for his name, it's everywhere). Blockading docks is illegal, of course, and under the normal legal procedures in a democratic society people committing such acts would be told to stop and after a certain amount of time arrested, fined, brought to trial or whatever. Yesterday, however, as with the day before, hundreds of people were preemptively arrested, including many who had no intention of committing any illegal acts, such as one reporter for the Times of London.
I narrowly avoided being arrested two days ago. Of those arrested the overwhelming majority had nothing to do with the rock-throwing incident at the stock exchange that apparently set off the police action. The overwhelming majority didn't even know anything had happened at the stock exchange. All they knew was they were suddenly, randomly being arrested while taking part in a permitted march organized in part by the very mainstream Social Democratic Party. This was a family march involving tens of thousands of people with no civil disobedience or other illegal acts planned as part of it.
The new law may allow for mass preemptive arrests, but international treaties which Denmark has signed called the Geneva Conventions outline certain guidelines for the treatment of detainees which were clearly violated by the Danish police. People were handcuffed in uncomfortable positions for many hours on the frozen pavement, not allowed to move, not allowed to go to the toilet. Some fainted, many wet their pants, adding to the danger posed by the freezing temperatures. Elderly people were arrested along with teenagers. Anne Feeney's husband Juli, a 66-year-old Swede who had been slowly walking beside a carriage, was handcuffed and made to sit on the frozen ground. Among the marchers from Tvind, the Free School movement with whom I was walking, those arrested include headmasters and teachers from throughout Europe and Africa. Every one of the Norwegians I had just been hanging out with the day before from Trondheim were arrested.
I participated in a march that was very quickly thrown together involving several hundred people, starting near the Valby train station and going to the prison to which most detainees had been brought. The police surrounded (escorted?) us and seemed to be thinking about arresting all of us, but apparently ultimately thought better of it. Instead they informed us as we were marching towards the prison that most of those detained had just been released, and that we were welcome to march to the prison but no further.
Outside the prison – a temporary prison that used to be a brewery -- I heard more stories of how the Anarchist Black Cross representatives who had been attempting to provide soup and solace to people as they were being released were told to leave the premises. When they attempted to set up at the train station a kilometer away they were again told to leave. So as most people left the prison there wasn't even anyone to meet them and tell them where to find the train station. Most detainees were at no point given any food by the police. After six hours some had been given water.
Tonight after Naomi Klein, Lisa Fithian and others from Climate Justice Action held a meeting at the Big Tent in Christiania hundreds of police and dozens of police vehicles were involved in more or less laying siege to Christiania, which was defended, as in the past, by hundreds of masked, black-clad young people making burning barricades and throwing large numbers of bottles at the police, who then fired lots of tear gas. Tonight the police reportedly used a water cannon to extinguish the main burning barricade and arrested 200. Most of this happened while Anne Feeney and I were playing a concert in the Opera House, not far from the main entrance.
The future is not written. There was nothing inevitable about Denmark building a nuclear reactor, and because of the environmental movement it built windmills instead. Equally, there is nothing inevitable about Denmark becoming a neoliberal police state. The years ahead in Denmark -- and more broadly in the rest of Europe, run increasingly by pro-business and xenophobic governments – will determine in which direction things will go. And perhaps the next few days will be a particularly important moment in that process.
David Rovics www.davidrovics.com davidrovics.guestbooks.cc www.soundclick.com/davidrovics songwritersnotebook.blogspot.com www.myspace.com/davidrovics www.facebook.com/davidrovics twitter.com/drovics
In a country which has practically turned into a world-wide symbol of the pretend and fake, it is an amazing thing to discover something so true, so powerful, so genuine that it leaves your head spinning. Have you ever felt the exhilarating feeling of coming out from a deep long dive and taking a lung-full of fresh sea-smelling water? Have you ever had the chance to breathe some pure oxygen? Or think of the proverbial glass of cool mineral water in the middle of a sun-scorched desert - any of these will convey to you what I felt when, for the first time in my life, and after having lived 8 years in the USA,I heard David Rovics' songs last week.
It all began when, during a break on DemocrayNow, a heard his beautiful song "Behind the Barricades" which David sang a capella, accompanied only be a female vocalist.
(Please use the player below to listen to this, or any other song I mention in this review)
Frankly, I had no idea who David Rovics was. I decided to check him out, but I figured that "Behind the Barricades" was probably his best song, if not the only good one. Little did I know what I would discover next.
First, I did what I usually do. I used a torrent tracker to download a collection of his albums. I don't believe that there is anything wrong in downloading music like that since I believe that there is no such thing as "piracy", at least not for music or software. As it turns out, neither does David Rovics - and most of his music is - 222 songs! - available online for download. Ditto for his excellent songbook which can be downloaded in PDF format from here.
Here is what David writes:
Feel free to download these songs. Use them for whatever purpose. Send them to friends, burn them, copy them, play them on the radio, on the Internet, wherever. Music is the Commons. Ignore the corporate music industry shills who tell you otherwise. Downloading music is not theft, you're not hurting anyone, I promise. (And in any case, yes, this is legal, and I'm making all of these songs available myself.)
Wow! When I read these words I knew I was dealing with the "real thing" - a guy who not only rejected the capitalist "corporate" world, but who refused to live by its ideology of greed and dollar worship. While I don't like labels, in particular not the "Right vs Left" or, even less so, the "Conservative vs Liberal" - I will coin one to try to summarize David's art: "new hard libertarian Left" (yeah - that's ugly, but that's the best I can come up with).
Rovics is unapologetically anti-capitalist and anti-corporatist. In a time when the vast majority of the so-called Left "does not have the courage of its own opinions" (French expression), it is wonderfully refreshing to listen to an artist who simply says what he thinks without giving a damn whether anybody likes it or not.
We shall fight them on the beaches We shall fight them on the shore They will bring us exploitation We'll bring them their class war We'll lock down to the gates As they're spreading vicious lies They want to dominate the world And we see through their disguise
If they'd have one big multinational With their corporate flag unfurled Searching everywhere For the lowest wages in the world Then we'll have One Big Union From Melbourne to Prague to Seattle-town Wherever they may go We will shut them down
We'll shut them down, we'll shut them down We will shut them down
And CNN will spread the lies This is just how it's gotta be Well they can have their CNN 'Cause we got our IMC And we will tell the truth quite clearly Though they don't want to hear it And they'll try to stop our broadcasts 'Cause the truth is that they fear it
They want a world full of strip malls Plants grown by biotech As long as they get richer They just don't give a heck But we don't want their ecocide We want a world we can live in That's why we're here to stay And we're not gonna give in
And they'll infiltrate us Provocateurs within our ranks And if they can't divide us They'll send in the tanks But we will stand together Pacifists and Zapatistas Workers, farmers, the indigenous Tree-huggers and baristas
And we will build a new world Without the corporate elite And we will see the day Of their international defeat We'll have self-determination And equality for all For what choice do we really have But to rise up and see them fall
One can agree or not with Rovics on the desirability of class warfare (although I would argue that, since the plutocrats are already fighting the rest of mankind, it's not like we have much of a choice), but one has to respect his determination not to give in to the "fat cats" running the Empire today. In fact, if there is one thing which Rovics' fully understands and, therefore, loathes, it is the hypocrite nature of the ideology which underlines all USraelian Empire's polices.
The President got on TV and there was nary a dry eye, he said he loved his country and mom and apple pie He said he was a proud man and he liked his home fries grilled, and as for countries harboring terrorists, those people should be killed He said we'd send our bombers to deal with rogue states and all those evil people would have to meet their fates So it was with some trepidation that I looked up to the skies, 'cause I was driving past Fort Benning when I came to realize
That I guess we're gonna have to bomb Columbus, Georgia, home of the infamous SOA 'Cause they train the death squads of Colombia who commit a massacre every day Civilians are their targets, folks just like you and me I guess that makes them terrorists, any idiot must agree
And I was heading further south for a vacation to spend some time hanging on the beach Soaking up some sun and playing volleyball with all my troubles out of reach And then I saw Brothers to the Rescue flying in the clouds above my head And I thought this trip might not be too restful if tomorrow I am dead
'Cause I guess we're gonna have to bomb Miami, with all those insurgents running loose Killing Cubans at the Bay of Pigs and elsewhere, they say they've got some kind of excuse But isn't terror terror irregardless if your victim is a fan of Karl Marx So let's bring on the cluster bombs and napalm, kill off some people, fish and sharks
Well I thought I would head north, go someplace where I might feel safe These thoughts all seemed a bit unsettling, I was feeling a bit like a lost waif It was then I thought I'd move to Costa Rica, though such a thing seemed terribly uncouth Because I suddenly realized with horror, the terrifying clear and present truth
I guess we're gonna have to bomb Washington, DC, 'cause terrorists are lurking all around Sending soldiers, guns and money wherever death squads and dictators may be found So let's appreciate the situation, take your Orwell off the shelves If we are to listen to our President then we're going to have to bomb ourselves
One of his most amazing "songs" is actually not a song, but a poem entitled Lebanon 2006. I have to admit that when I heard it for the first time it brought tears in my eyes.
Please listen to this short poem by clicking on "play":
Two soldiers had been captured They’d crossed to the other side Two soldiers taken prisoner Several others died This is how it started So said the Jewish state Forget about ’96, ‘82 ’67, ‘48
Two soldiers taken hostage And by the Sea of Galilee We must defend our borders Wherever they may be We must defend our soldiers Wherever they’re deployed Two of them are captured One country is destroyed
Somewhere in Tel Aviv Generals drawing battle lines For the town where Jesus Turned water into wine On the ten-year anniversary Of a massacre of children They thought it was a good idea To massacre some children
Anyone in the south I heard Ehud Olmert say Everyone’s a target And may be killed today And if your home has turned to rubble It may be pulverized some more ‘Cause two soldiers have been captured And we gotta settle up the score
A hundred thousand homes Levelled to the ground Every olive branch on offer Burned where it was found Every chance at dialogue Rejected right on cue If you’re gonna burn your bridges You might as well bomb them too
They even bombed the prison Where they used to torture fighters Where they had the dogs and leashes Cigarettes and lighters Where they were kept shackled Not allowed to stand Where they torched the forests Turned them into sand
Who’s the terrorist now?
And the entire world watches
A few thousand demonstrate Governments take action All too little or too late All the telephones are ringing In case you couldn’t read the signs This is the IDF And you’re in the firing line
Condoleeza came to visit For about an hour She thought it was a party Some kind of baby shower She said these were the birth pangs Of a brand new morn But in the hospitals today All the babies were stillborn
The stars and stripes among the ruins Say where they were made In case anybody wonders About all that military aid In case anybody wonders About the mines around the farms Or why so many toddlers Are missing legs and arms
Or why so many of them ask Exactly what was meant By wiping out their homes And then sending them a tent Or why if you ask them Who is Nasrallah They’ll tell you he’s our leader And we all are Hezbollah
It takes real guts to dare to write these words in a country in which the vast majority of the people, including of the so-called "Left", seriously believe Uncle Shmuel's propaganda about Hezbollah being the "A-Team of terrorists". Rovics - who has actually been to Lebanon, knows better, of course.
In the bad old days of the Soviet Union, my friends and I used to make a distinction between "dissidents" and "opponents". We called "dissidents" the folks who wanted to right some wrongs of the Soviet system, but who fundamentally saw themselves as "Soviet" and who thought of their country as the "Soviet Union" - people like Andrei Sakharov, Roy Medvedev or Sergei Kovalev (After the fall of Soviet Union in 1991 - these type of dissidents turned rabidly pro-American). We called "Opponents" the folks who did not try to reform the Soviet system, but who wanted it completely eliminated. They thought of themselves as "Russians" their country as "Russia" - people like Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Igor Ogurtsov or Leonid Borodin. Typically, the Soviet regime treated the "opponents" much more harshly than "dissidents". Likewise, the CIA-sponsored media like VOA or Radio Liberty gave much more support and visibility to the "dissidents" than to the "opponents". For all practical purposes, most opponents stood against the Soviet regime alone (Solzhenitsyn being the exception). David Rovics is in the same situation in the USA. He is an open opponent of the USraelian Empire and he clearly does not believe that this system can be reformed or otherwise changed from within (and, in this, I fully agree with him!). Being the open opponent that he is, he is also clearly quietly marginalized not only be the corporate propaganda media in the USA, but even by a good segment of the "moderate" Left. Frankly, I am absolutely baffled by the fact that I discovered this amazing artist only by chance, a full 8 years after moving to the USA. If somebody like me, who roams the Internet and the "alternative" blogosphere for several hours each day, can only discover an artist like Rovics by chance, what is the likelihood that anyone else will?
Yet, this relative solitude does not stop him from committing "crimethink" after "crimethink". Just listen to his song about the 9/11 attacks:
The planes hit New York City And thousands now are dead "It was Arab terrorists" This is what you said Well if that is the truth Then what have you got to hide And what were you doing On the day all those people died Where the fuck were the fighter jets Ordered by the FAA And what is your explanation For what you were heard to say When you told the Air Force to stand down Not to intercept Did you plan to let it happen Or are you just inept
I am left to wonder As the flames are reaching higher Was this our latest Lusitannia Or another Reichstag Fire
There's some distressing information, sir Which I think should be explained Just which things have been lost And just what has been gained Like the thousands of put options Bought days before the crash If the money were collected It would make quite a pretty stash And the only stocks they bought Were American and United Deutsche Bank knows the answer But the names have not been sighted And is it just coincidence That this firm in the private sector Was once run by "Buzzy" Krongard Ex-CIA Director
There's something fishy in Virginia And I want an explanation Why did they get the contract What is Britannia Aviation A one-man operation Corporation with no history He said he worked in Florida But there he was a mystery So is there a connection I think it bears investigation When the FAA found boxcutters Does this cause you consternation Hidden behind the seats In these Delta planes That had been fixed in Lynchburg With Brittania at the reigns
You said Bin Laden was your friend But he isn't anymore Now that he's not fighting Russia In your proxy war Who called the FBI Off the Bin Laden family trail When so many times you had the chance To re-write this sordid tale Sudan in '96 The Taleban in 2001 Offered to turn him over And right then you coulda won But perhaps it is the case That you're avoiding victory That to justify your exploits You must have an enemy
If you were not hiding from the truth Then you'd have a truth commission And not some masquerade Kangaroo investigation Hiring Henry Kissinger The ancient master of deceit To make sure all stones are left unturned And the ruse is kept complete And now you carry out your plans Which you have had for decades Conquering the world With your troops and bombing raids I see an evil regime Led by an evil man On Pennsylvania Avenue Where this evil war began
Unlike so many othe, shall we say, "Left-leaning" artists and commentators, Rovics does not have a mental block about 9/11. On his excellent blog - The Songwriter's Notebook - Rovics has expressed his frustration with the typically rude "bullhorn" "truthers" who interrupt events with mantric screams about "911 was an inside job", yet even their antics do not blind him to the fact that there are some crucial questions about 9/11 which need to be asked.
There are too many songs by David Rovics to mention them all here, even though at least another 20-30 would deserve to be included to fully cover the breadth of Rovics' phenomenal songwriting. So I made a selection of some of my favorite ones and I put them all into one zipped file which you can download directly from here. Another option is to download them directly from David's website using the FireFox extension "Downthemall" (just set the "Fast filtering" field to "downloadSong"). And then just listen to his music. David has a beautiful voice, his guitar playing is excellent, and the melodies of his songs are varied, original and always well written. Sure - his words are what packs most "punch" - but his music is beautiful too.
And, please, make sure to do one more thing. Go to his website, check out his "support page" and read about what we can all do to support him. And, please, do send him some donation, no matter how small. Remember that David gives us all his art for free - and show him that we truly appreciate his courage and talent!
First, go to Amazon.com (not Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.fr or any other Amazon site) Then click on "Gift Card" on the top of the page Then click on "Email" at the "Ways to Send" menu Finally, choose a card and amount. That's it!
Cash by snail mail:
The Saker PO Box 711 Edgewater, FL 32132-0711 USA
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e-book in *PDF* format - not paperback!
How to contact me:
Main email address: vineyardsaker@gmail.com (for example to be included in the "Saker's friends" low volume mailing list) Alternative/backup emails: vineyardsaker@mail.ru thesaker@unseen.is
Fear them not therefore: for there is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed; and hid, that shall not be known. If ye continue in My word, then are ye My disciples indeed; and ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free
Holy Gospel according to Saint Matthew (10:26) and Saint John (8:32)
Trust not in princes, nor in the children of men, in whom there is no safety. His breath shall go forth, and he shall return to his earth; in that day all his thoughts shall perish.
Holy Prophet and King David (Psalm 145:3-4 according to the LXX)
To love. To be loved. To never forget your own insignificance. To never get used to the unspeakable violence and the vulgar disparity of life around you. To seek joy in the saddest places. To pursue beauty to its lair. To never simplify what is complicated or complicate what is simple. To respect strength, never power. Above all, to watch. To try and understand. To never look away. And never, never to forget.
Arundhati Roy
Thou shalt not be a victim. Thou shalt not be a perpetrator. And above all, Thou shalt not be a bystander
Yehuda Bauer
In a world of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act
George Orwell
Each small candle lights a corner of the dark
Roger Waters
I am prepared to die, but there is no cause for which I am prepared to kill. I object to violence because when it appears to do good, the good is only temporary; the evil it does is permanent. Strength does not come from physical capacity. It comes from an indomitable will.
Mahatma Gandhi
I am for truth, no matter who tells it.
Malcolm X
Globalize the Intifada!
Lowkey
I am a pessimist by nature. Many people can only keep on fighting when they expect to win. I'm not like that, I always expect to lose. I fight anyway, and sometimes I win.
Richard Stallman
Truth is treason in the empire of lies.
Ron Paul
Dieu se rit des hommes qui déplorent les effets dont ils chérissent les causes
Protect Freedom - Join the Free Software Foundation!
Quenelle Epaulee
No to Internet censorship!
Save the Internet from corporate greed!
GNU/Linux distributions I recommend:
Debian, the Universal Operating System Mint, the easiest to use distribution Xubuntu, distribution for older hardware Knoppix, general purpose distro on live-CD Puppy, small size distribution and live-CD Tails, the privacy and security oriented distro Ubuntu Studio, distribution for artists Trisquel, the 100% free softwaredistro
