Despite Andy Ngo's politically conservative worldview and tendency towards exaggeration, his book, Unmasked, made for fascinating reading.  Especially since he and I and other people I keep on meeting have been targeted for cancellation and more by the same group of "antifascist" morons, for different reasons.  Me because I'm a Nazi, of course!  (Didn't you know?)  

Here's a playlist of songs I've written that are on subjects written about in Ngo's book, from a very different vantage point.  If you contrast the perspective of these songs from the way the people of whom I'm singing the praises are considered by Ngo to be criminals or terrorists, it's that much more intriguing, or disconcerting, or something, that we're both being constantly trolled and harassed by the same group of people, or groups with lots of crossover.

Songs related to Unmasked

What if Trayvon had stood his ground?

This is a song from the album, Spies Are Reading My Blog, which you can download or stream in its entirety at:  www.davidrovics.bandcamp.com

Trayvon

This is the studio version of the song I wrote after the racist police execution of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri on August 9th, 2014.

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 on 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

His hands were in the air (4x)

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

His hands were in the air (4x)

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 (4x)

His Hands Were In The Air

The danger of ignoring obvious historical parallels to unfolding events is the prospect of repeating them.

Just Like the Nazis Did

I had a good time chatting the other day with the hosts of the podcast, Unfinished Business with Paul & Rob. We talked about Gaza and music and other things.  The interview with me begins 12 minutes in.

Unfinished Business interviews David Rovics

The words "collateral damage" have come to mean dead civilians. This song puts those words in context.


Collateral Damage

you loved your sweet country for all of your life
like your mother and father before you
the land runs deep, so deep in your blood
your flesh and your bone and your sinews
descendants and ancestors, deep as it goes
a relative circle as far as your eye
it can all be undone in the flash of an instant
mechanical thunder that bruises the sky

(chorus)
goodbye to my relatives, all of my life
never again will I see
you won't have a name when they fly the big airplanes
collateral damage is all you will be

from a faraway place where the language is strange
they come with their angry machines
and the clouds rain a metal that hurts when it falls
and it shatters the ground, making everything scream
and the children run crippled, the old people hide
the babies are caught in the rubble debris
but the strangers don’t know you, you are only a number
and how can they respect what they can’t even see

(chorus)

a mother is more than a number to a baby
who now has to grow up on it’s own
and a grandfather blinded and crippled at his age
is more than just a statistical drone
all of these people are human beings
and deserve to be more than a footnote
this cynical language of killing is killing us
caught like a bone in humanity’s throat

(chorus)

so if you see a ghost in the lonely wind blowing
like shrapnel the sound of the rain
and it’s speaking a language you don’t understand
but you know what it means just the same
it’s too late for innocence, all of that’s over now
don’t say that you didn’t know
when they come to collect for the damages owed
the collateral may be your own

(chorus)

Collateral Damage

Hammer

This piece was inspired by Conlon Nancarrow; not that I'm very familiar with his work, but his method was enough to inspire me to create a piece in a similar style to his own. It was made using one note, replicating it and dragging it to exactly the right place as many times as I needed, for both piano and harpsichord. That is, until I added in a new sound at the end, giving a lot of distortion to it.

I did not expect it to become as popular as it has, given that it was a rather momentary, on the spur, and random creation, and it is less conventionally accessible than many of my other pieces. My only regret may be that this has overshadowed my other work in terms of popularity.

I've created a sequel, and am currently working on a third Conlon Nancarrow inspired piece, but so far they've not measured up to the original. However, there are some interesting and exciting twists in the second piece, 'The Next Level', and I've put the third piece to the side, 'Piano Madness: The Spirit of Conlon Nancarrow Returns', having been unsatisfied with it, though I may attempt it again at some point.

Conlon Nancarrow Tribute

The San Patricios -- the international brigade you've probably never heard of (half a century before the Spanish Civil War).  This version is from Live in Rostrevor (2016) with Lorna McKinnon on harmonies.

St. Patrick Battalion

Episode 1: Tolpuddle Martyrs Part 1

Time to share another track from my new album, Strangers & Friends -- which launches on streaming platforms on January 19th, and is available now to patrons.

I wrote this song in July, over the course of the couple days following the death of Will Van Spronsen, who was killed by police, in the bus yard behind the ICE prison in Tacoma, Washington, where Will was trying to destroy as many buses as he could. This song features some of the more complex vocal arrangements from Lorna and Kamala to appear on the album, which, in my humble opinion, totally transform the song. They're what will make people listen to it a second time -- along with the urgency of the question presented by the song, by Will Van Spronsen's actions that July night.

I explore this a bit more in an article in the current issue of the Fifth Estate, in the print edition, incidentally. It's a question that has caused Will to become an iconic figure for many, immediately following his death. A series of questions, really. When you see this familiar pattern repeating, of a corrupt democracy being eaten from within by the rise of a fascist movement, at what point do you decide, under the circumstances, that nonviolent forms of resistance have become futile? Will Van Spronsen had his answer to this question, certainly, which he demonstrated himself in his prose, his songs, and his actions.

The Time To Act (Song for Will Van Spronsen)

Song for the Biotic Baking Brigade

There are various causes of deadly new novel viruses, as I have recently learned, along with many of you.  One of them is climate change, so we can be sure we'll be seeing more of them.  But whatever the reasons for the fatality rate of Covid-19, we do know why the last global pandemic, the so-called "Spanish Flu" in 1918 was so extremely deadly.  It was a pandemic caused by the particular conditions of the trenches of World War 1, and the movements of troops around the world at the end of the war.  This war virus ultimately killed more human beings on planet Earth in six months -- in every corner of the globe -- than the carnage of World War 1 caused in four years.

Recorded live as part of the Viral Solidarity Concert project at Big Red Studio on April 2nd, 2020.

The Pandemic of 1918

Assata Shakur has long been a heroine of mine, along with the organizations she has long been associated with, the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense and the Black Liberation Army. When the FBI teamed up with New Jersey authorities to announce that she had been declared the #1 Most Wanted Terrorist on their list, and the first-ever woman to occupy that esteemed position, I was appalled, as were many others. It is well-documented that despite her one conviction by a kangaroo court, Assata is innocent of all charges and allegations made against her over the years, including the killing of the cop. The terrorists who should have a lot to answer for, in a remotely just society, are the FBI and other federal and local authorities who considered members of the Black Panther Party and other organizations guilty until proven innocent.

This is a track from my 15-song album, Into A Prism, which can be downloaded in full here:
http://davidrovics.bandcamp.com/album/into-a-prism

Assata

2011 album recorded at Big Red Studio featuring Billy Oskay, Nick Angelo and others.

13. The Last Lincoln Veteran

This trailer has been superseded. Please go to https://soundcloud.com/tayo-aluko/paul-robesons-love-song-by-tayo-aluko-the-trailer/

Paul Robeson's Love Song (trailer)(superceded)

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

The Time To Act (Song for Will Van Spronsen)

davidrovics

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