Remixes with Kamala and Chet

From the Ashes is an album consisting of 10 songs I wrote between November, 2024, and January, 2025.

One of the songs is about a historical event -- the burglary of the FBI field office in Media, Pennsylvania in 1971 conducted by the Citizens' Commission to Investigate the FBI that revealed Cointelpro to the world.

The rest of the songs are about recent, or ongoing, events, including Israel's genocide in Gaza, riots in Amsterdam, fires in LA, an assassination in Manhattan, the death of Cornelius Taylor, Antony Blinken's last press conference, and Trump's second inauguration.

The woman singing with me on many of the tracks is Kamala Emanuel.  Other than the guitar or mandola I'm playing, all the other instruments are from Chet Gardiner in his studio in Hawai'i.  The process is I record at home, or if on the road with Kamala, in a random location with a smartphone, and then send that recording to Chet, to work his magic.

Cover photo also taken with a smartphone, by Jeffrey St Clair.

From the Ashes

A playlist of songs directly related to the Trump agenda, and opposition to it.

Trump 2.0

Scott's Trump 2.0

When I write a new song, especially if it's about current events, I usually make a primitive recording of it and put it up here in this playlist.  (Eventually the song will usually get recorded better, and put out on an album.)

Broadsides

Playlist for December in History and Song -- www.davidrovics.com/history/december

December

A song about current events or one related to this date in history, with a little bit of context.  Available on all the usual podcasting platforms if you look for This Week with David Rovics.

Song For Today

A little background to the refugee crisis on the US/Mexico border.  These refugees were "made in the USA."  The least we could do is let them in to the country that destroyed theirs.  Also international law is on their side, but the Constitutional law professor in the White House and most members of both parties of Congress don't seem to care about that.

From the album, When I'm Elected President:
https://davidrovics.bandcamp.com/album/when-im-elected-president-wayfaring-stranger-double-album

Lyrics:

US Embassy

There was a coup in Guatemala, the CIA sent planes
To assist the Guatemalan generals in tightening the chains
Two hundred thousand Indians killed in thirty years
As butchers of their people, the generals have no peers
Where did they get their guns up to this very day
From the men of the CIA

There was a coup in Chile 'cause the US couldn't stand
A democratic government that might give a helping hand
So the generals took over after they had made a pact
With their friends in Washington, and that's a simple fact
This is what we look like when you scratch away the fuzz
This is what America does

But there's never been a coup in Washington, DC
Because they don't have a US embassy

There was a coup in Haiti that overthrew the priest
Who was representing those who had the very least
They were almost self-sufficient, standing on their feet
When the generals insisted on democracy's defeat
The CIA headed south and the lifeboats sallied forth
This is why the refugees go north

There was a coup in Tegucigalpa, I promise I'm not lying
As a consequence of this people are leaving and dying
Gunning down democracy is the USA's MO
It could be called Hypocrisy if it were a TV show
But this is not a fiction, these are bodies full of lead
And thousands and thousands of refugees on the border dead

US Embassy

A high-quality studio version of this song can be found on this album:
https://davidrovics.bandcamp.com/album/when-im-elected-president-wayfaring-stranger-double-album

It's a pattern, ever present in the places that don't strictly regulate the abilities of the rich to make more money at the expense of everybody else.  Currently one of many cities that the wealthy developers are trying to destroy is my latest home town of Portland, Oregon.

Lyrics:

Gentrification Town

I've moved out of three cities 'cause I couldn't pay the rent
Folks like me weren't welcome so I packed it up and went
It's always the same story, I find a place I wanna be
And soon enough I'm joined by all the other refugees
Then watch the websites warble, this is the hippest place to hang
Hey check out Division, it's the sweetest thing since Tang
Then watch the millionaires come in and build a luxury hotel
Sipping coffee on the sidewalk, saying isn't this place swell

Rents are going up and the neighborhood's going down
Here in Gentrification Town

See the families leave the city, watch how they accept their fate
Except the ones who had the timing right and bought some real estate
The ones who had the timing and the ones who had the credit
The ones who paid attention to whoever it was who said it
This is a nation that won't suffer utopians or fools
He who has the gold rules
He who has the gold, he who bought the stock
He who is the landlord who owns your block

They say you can't blame the yuppies, they're just responding to the will
Of the market and the strength of the US dollar bill
But the dollar's only strong if you have some to your name
Otherwise you're on the business end of the game
The end that just stays home 'cause they can't afford the show
The end that has to pack their things and find a place to go
The new hip place to be, for a little while, then
The wrecking balls move in and chase us out again

Gentrification Town

A high-quality studio version of this song can be found on this album:
https://davidrovics.bandcamp.com/album/when-im-elected-president-wayfaring-stranger-double-album

Turning away refugees is unfortunately a long tradition in the US.  But the propaganda represented by the Statue of Liberty is really lovely stuff.  If only it were much more real.

Lyrics:

Statue in the Harbor

Give us your huddled masses yearning to be free
That's what it says on the Statue of Liberty
And here they come, from the other side
Across the southern border, across the great divide

And now they're told that they should go away
But the statue in the harbor says "stay"

Give us your cold and hungry, let them come by land or sea
Let them all find solace in this land of refugees
Escaping persecution, just trying to survive
And they worked as hard as Guatemalans as soon as their ships arrived

Give us your persecuted, but only if they're white
It doesn't say that on the statue that holds aloft the light
What did you think would happen in the lands you overthrew
Where should all the children go after the coup

Statue in the Harbor

A high-quality studio version of this song can be found on this album:
https://davidrovics.bandcamp.com/album/when-im-elected-president-wayfaring-stranger-double-album

Although I wrote it during the current (July 2014) Israeli invasion of Gaza, this is a song about how life in Gaza is under "peacetime."

Lyrics:

Gaza

One point eight million people surrounded on all sides
Refugees since '48, since '67, occupied
The only reason they're not starving is down to the UN
Most have never left there, stuck in the lion's den
The most crowded place on Earth, and there they'll stay
They can't visit friends or cousins a half hour's drive away
Drones overhead constantly
Who will die tomorrow, a daily mystery
In Gaza

The settlers moved out, fighter jets moved in
In Gaza there's just no way you can win
You can't take out a copter with an antiquated gun
You're just a target sitting in the sun
Waiting for your death to come raining from the sky
Where the end really is nigh
You can hear a sonic boom and see a flashing light
Every hour of the day, every hour of the night
In Gaza

There are no shelters, nowhere you can hide
Life is nothing like it is on the other side
There's nothing post about the traumatic stress
There's never more, usually less
And still some people wonder, they insist on asking why
Anyone would be so mad as to reply
So mad as to think that it might make sense
To lob some missiles over the fence
From Gaza

Gaza

A high-quality studio version of this song can be found on this album:
https://davidrovics.bandcamp.com/album/when-im-elected-president-wayfaring-stranger-double-album

RIP Michael Brown.  Unarmed teen executed in broad daylight by racist cop.

Lyrics:

His Hands Were In The Air

The town is mostly black, almost all the cops are white
You can see it right away, something isn't right
There's no funding for the schools and they're being shut down
The powers that be don't give a shit about the town

They were walking in the street, it's the safest place to be
In case someone comes shooting, you got a better view to see
They were walking in the street, they weren't hurting anyone
Then came a white man with a badge and a gun

His hands were in the air (4x)

“Get the fuck off the sidewalk,” that's what the cop said
He cut them off in his car, fat face, blood red
The cop says he was attacked, and from a cursory check
It seems his fingers were assaulted by Michael Brown's neck

There were witnesses who saw it, it was recorded on a phone
But the police couldn't handle the light that would've shone
She was forced to hand it over so they could try to hide away
A racist execution in the middle of the day

He had just finished high school and was off to college next
Instead he was shot and killed with no pretext
The media joined in, called the community a mob
A cop called them animals while Michael's mother sobbed

His Hands Were in the Air

Outside of the west they're reporting the WHO and just about every other UN department are holding constant press conferences, trying to sound the alarm about an imminent genocide, and all the people in Gaza who are about to die of famine and disease.

Famine and Disease

This song is a public service announcement, to thank the Houthi Army for their service to the global public.

Song for the Houthi Army

Rovics Gaza

If A Song Could Raise An Army

Is it just a happy coincidence that whoever wins or loses, the US arms, oil, gas, and other industries benefit?

Here's the latest track to receive the Chet Gardiner treatment, which will eventually be part of the next album, to be titled Bearing Witness.

It's Not A Trade War

A song of appreciation for all the protesting students, staff, and faculty at Columbia and many other institutions across the US.

Boycott, Sanction, and Divest

Whoever thinks the Indian Wars ended just isn't paying attention.

Song for Big Mountain

UNICEF says 35 children per day on average have been killed by Israeli bombs, snipers, or other such means since October 2023.  Now the numbers will grow exponentially in the ongoing famine Israeli forces are imposing.

35 Children A Day

There were some ugly scenes in Amsterdam that went down while Kamala and I were in the Netherlands in early November.  Pretty much the entire mainstream western media completely distorted what actually went on, unlike this song.

In Amsterdam

On March 8th, 1971 antiwar activists in Pennsylvania burglarized an FBI office, ultimately revealing to the world the Bureau's long-standing campaign of disinformation, infiltration, dirty tricks and assassinations known as Cointelpro.

The Citizens' Commission To Investigate the FBI

Delay, deny, depose.  A song for Luigi Mangione.  New remix from Chet Gardiner's studio in Hawai'i. #FreeLuigi

So Many Ways to Kill a CEO

In what has been standard operating procedure since the Palestinian Holocaust began in October, 2023, during the last few days of 2024 the Israeli occupation forces systematically destroyed and then burned every inch of a massive hospital complex that used to serve the needs of the population.  Once destroying the building, the standard procedure is they arrest and torture the staff, which is what everyone is certain is now happening to the hospital director, as happened to hospital directors, doctors, and other staff at every other hospital in Gaza that the Israelis have systematically eliminated in the course of their genocidal war against the people, which the western media misrepresents (when they mention it at all) as a "war between Israel and Hamas."G

The Siege of Kamal Adwan Hospital

Last Thursday, at Secretary of State Antony Blinken's last press conference, journalist Sam Husseini asked such pointed questions that they had to drag him out of the room.

Blinken's Last Press Conference

Moving on from the frying pan to the fire.

The Richest Man in the World Says So

Another song for the ongoing DOGE coup d'etat.

It's A Coup

I'm constantly unable to decide whether they're brilliantly theatrical, Machiavellian coup-plotters or just bumbling billionaires whose emotional development stalled out a long time ago.

Toddlers-in-Chief

ICE agents taking orders directly from the top and disappearing a student activist with no warrant, no due process, canceling his green card and holding him incommunicado in an unknown location, this is what's happening in the USA right now.

Mahmoud Khalil

Stumbling stones.  A German artist named Gunter Demnig started putting little bronze squares in the sidewalks of German cities in 1992.  Now there are thousands of them in several different countries in Europe.  They are placed in front of the homes and workshops from which people were taken to be sent to concentration camps, primarily.  It's a powerful form of art, turning much of Germany into a permanent exhibit, a constant reminder of what has been, and what must never be.

From the album, 1939:
https://davidrovics.bandcamp.com/album/1939

Lyrics:

Stolpersteine

When I first showed up in Deutschland, camping on the Rhine
The first town that I went to was also the first sign
Of the kind of self-reflection that had gone on around here
Indications everywhere, so shiny and so clear
Look down at the sidewalk where a little light is shown
When you stumble upon a stumbling stone
Stumble upon a stumbling stone

What did this place once look like, who lived on this block
It can't be recreated but you can partially take stock
Look down at the sidewalk for a little bronze square
Read the words engraved upon it that says who was living there
Before they were taken away to the dark unknown
When you stumble upon a stumbling stone
Stumble upon a stumbling stone

Little squares all over, you'll find them all around
Not much information on them, and they don't make a sound
But if your imagination is anything like mine
Then all you need to trigger it is one lone Stolpersteine
Take a moment to remember as you look down from your phone
When you stumble upon a stumbling stone
Stumble upon a stumbling stone

There are six little squares here – one for each member
Of one family that was taken one morning in December
The youngest child was 2, the eldest one was 10
Within a year each one of them had died at Sachsenhausen
Their bodies burnt to ashes – flesh and blood and bone
When you stumble upon a stumbling stone
Stumble upon a stumbling stone

And every time I see them I wish I would see more
Embedded in the sidewalks on so many other shores
Just one stone to remember each one who met their fate
At all the slave plantations, in all the torture states
But for some it's safer to just leave the dead alone
When you stumble upon a stumbling stone
Stumble upon a stumbling stone
Stumble upon a stumbling stone

Stolperstein

The miners' rebellion that brought Australia the eight-hour day decades before anyone else.

Song For The Eureka Stockade

A journalist pointed out the UNICEF statistic that half a million Iraqi children had died under the sanctions.  He asked Secretary of State Madeleine Albright "if the price was worth it."  Yes, she said, the price is worth it.

Song for Basra

Written after an incident with a fanatical George W Bush supporter I encountered at the Whole Foods Market on Kirby in Houston, Texas one day.

Who Would Jesus Bomb?

On April 18th, 2012, Khader Adnan was released from an Israeli prison after being on hunger strike for 66 days. He was objecting, among other things, to Israel’s policy of indefinite detention without trial, which still continues — but only for Palestinians.

Khader Adnan

On April 19th, 1943, what might be accurately described as the greatest urban rebellion in the history of civilization began.

Warsaw Ghetto Uprising

On April 20th, 2010, the Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded off the coast of Louisiana, killing eleven workers and causing the worst environmental disaster in US history.

Deepwater Horizon

On April 22nd, 1991, a young Palestinian named Saed Bannoura was shot 6 times by IDF soldiers — but he refused to die.

The First Intifada

On April 23rd, 1971, veterans of the war in Vietnam carried out a series of operations in Washington, DC, actions involving thousands of recently-returned soldiers, one of which involved the depositing on the White House lawn of 700 medals veterans had received for their service in the military.

Throwing of Medals

Singer/songwriter, writer, podcaster (on Spotify, Substack & Patreon), libertarian socialist, dad, lover of life.