Kelly Marshall a.k.a. Rocksteady TNT: bass, acoustic guitar, keys, prim, brač, accordion

Crna Kronika

- Written in collaboration with ChatGPT

Went to the shop just to buy some tea
Faced a machine starin' back at me
"Scan your item, place it right"
But it beeped and flashed a little red light

I looked around, I waved my hand
Asked for help — no one gave a damn
I miss the days of a checkout smile
Now I'm stuck here for a while

Oh can you help me
Ohhh, I'm lost in the digital age,
Trapped like a bird in a cage.
I just want a human voice,
But the robot leaves me no choice!

Doctor's gone, now there's just an app
Tried to log in — password's zapped
"Two-step sign-in," what's that mean?
I just want some antihistamine

AI's writing love songs now
And telling jokes — I don't know how
It knows my name, it knows my cat
But can it make a proper chat?

Oh can you help me
Ohhh, I'm lost in the digital age,
Trapped like a bird in a cage.
I just want a human voice,
But the robot leaves me no choice!

I miss the good old fashioned days
When down at the shop was a familiar face
And all the children played outside
Instead of staring at their phones all day and night

Click the button, tap the screen,
World's more tricky than it's ever been.
I laugh, I sigh, I sing this song,
Technology's moving, I can't keep along!

Press one again - I'm lost in a loop
Trapped in a call with a robot troop
'Your call is important', yea, that's a lie
I've been on hold since half past five

Technology's fast - I'm moving slow
Where did the friendly humans go?
Click this, swipe that, I can't pretend
Somebody help me press one again

Oh can you help me
Ohhh, I'm lost in the digital age,
Trapped like a bird in a cage.
I just want a human voice,
But the robot leaves me no choice!

Lost In The Digital Age

Friday night - full of potential
Time to unwind - and have some fun it's so essential
Feeling free - end of the work week
Just you and me - no more responsibility

Three whole days - all starting right now
Time to play - turn up the music boogie down
Lets make a plan - and make the best of it
Pay check in hand - and I sure can't wait to spend it

When I sit in the office chair
- The minutes, they feel like days
Dream I'm out in the clean fresh air
- Friday's so far away
Where did the weekend go?
- It's over all too soon
Was so happy - now I'm so low
- I've got the Sunday blues

Saturday morning - can't wait to wake up
Head out the door - soon as I've had my morning cup
The sun is shining - head out on my bike
World so enticing - we can do anything we like

Let's take a drive - visit the seaside
Feel so alive - how Mother Nature can provide
Let's climb a mountain - that's just a short drive
One with a good view - but one that's not too high

When I sit in the office chair
- The minutes, they feel like days
Dream I'm out in the clean fresh air
- Friday's so far away
Where did the weekend go?
- It's over all too soon
Was so happy - now I'm so low
- I've got the Sunday blues

Sunday evening - we slowly unwind
Time for chores - like the washin' and the dryin'
Mow the lawn - and trim the flowers
Feel withdrawn - there's just a few more dwindling hours

It's the truth - not just a cliche
When you have fun - the time so quickly slips away
Oh what I'd give - just to press rewind
Go back three days - if I could only turn back time

When I sit in the office chair
- The minutes, they feel like days
Dream I'm out in the clean fresh air
- Friday's so far away
Where did the weekend go?
- It's over all too soon
Was so happy - now I'm so low
- I've got the Sunday blues

I've Got The Sunday Blues

Budgie Blue

There must be someplace we can go
Where peace and love and kindness flow

Please can somebody show the way
Feels like we’ve gone so far astray

So Far Astray

Ultraviolet Tongue
- Written in collaboration with AI

Ultraviolet Tongue
- Written in collaboration with AI

They handcuff the air, put a tax on the breath
Edit the script till the truth has no depth
Silence in velvet, censorship dressed
A muzzle so clean it can pass every test

But words are insurgents, they leap from the cage
Graffiti on silence, they bleed on the page
I rhyme with the ghosts that the archives erased
Their echoes ignite every phrase I've embraced

You can't chain the hum of a pulse in the lung
Can't erase the taste on an ultraviolet tongue
You can curb the street but the beat still runs
Every ban is a spark, every silence — drums

Algorithms decide what the masses can see
But the code can't decode what it means to be free
They bury dissent in invisible files
But the crowd still chants in forbidden styles

Speech is a current, it floods underground
Slips past the fences, erupts with no sound
Control is illusion, a leash made of air
But the howl in the throat still fractures despair

This is syntax in exile, a hymn in disguise
A cipher encrypted in the whites of their eyes
If you cancel the word, then the gesture will teach
If you bury the book, then the bodies will preach

You can't chain the hum of a pulse in the lung
Can't erase the taste on an ultraviolet tongue
You can curb the street but the beat still runs
Every ban is a spark, every silence — drums

So I rhyme with the hidden, compose with the banned
Plant seeds in the cracks they can't censor by hand
The muzzle is myth, it dissolves when we speak
For the silence they crave is the freedom we seek

They redraw the borders where the vowels reside
Police every syllable that cuts too wide
But language mutates in the shadows we keep
A cipher encrypted in the mouths of the meek

They can strike down the letter, but the spirit will bend
Turn whispers to rivers that roar without end
Oppression is brittle, it fractures with time
But each word forbidden returns redesigned

You can't chain the hum of a pulse in the lung
Can't erase the taste on an ultraviolet tongue
You can curb the street but the beat still runs
Every ban is a spark, every silence — drums

I've seen verses smuggled in the spine of a hymn
Heard sermons in slang where the light grows dim
The truth wears disguises, but the mask is thin
And the pulse of the people keeps breaking in

No censor can measure the breath of a crowd
When silence combusts it erupts too loud
Freedom's a storm you can't legislate
Every raindrop a voice that won't dissipate

So I rhyme with resistance, insistent, alive
A current electric the wires can't hive
I speak in the key that the system can't mute
Plant verse in the cracks and it rises as fruit

You can muzzle a body, but the spirit still sings
Carry thunder in stanzas, rebellion in rings
Invisible lines only sharpen the speech
For the curb is the lesson, the voice is the breach

What they bury in silence we exhume in sound
What they scatter in ashes grows roots in the ground
Freedom is not granted — it bleeds, it is won
And the echo outlives when the speaker is gone

Ultraviolet Tongue

Be Kind, Not Just Nice

It’s better to be kind than just to be nice,
One is sugar on top, the other is heart and spice.
Nice is a bow that’s tied on top,
Kind is the gift that will never stop.

Nice says, “Oh sure, I don’t mind at all,”
When all the while it just feels so small…”
Nice gives a handshake, kind gives a hand,
Nice sees the surface, kind understands.

Nice will smile while the truth goes unsaid,
Kind will stick it’s neck out and speak up instead.
Nice keeps it quiet, stays out of the way,
Kind dares to help out on a cloudy day.

Nice is a shadow, kind shines the light,
Nice keeps it simple, kind makes it right.  
Nice is the cover, kind is the page,
Nice lasts a moment, kind lasts an age.

It’s easy to smile, but harder to care,
Nice stays at the doorway, kind pulls up a chair.
Nice says, “You’re fine, don’t worry at all,”
Kind says, “I’ll catch you if ever you fall.”

So be kind, not just nice, take my advice,
A bit of courage makes life taste - twice as bright.
Nice is polite, but kindness is true,
Kind changes the whole    world—starting with you.

Be Kind, Not Just Nice

It’s better at home
All alone
If you’re looking for me
Best to let me be
Can’t be bothered
To pick up the phone

Go to the pub and have
Your rounds of beer
Enjoy yourself
While I stay right here
Saturday night
And I’m staying in
'Cause my social energy
Is a fragile thing

Feel worn out
When I’m in a crowd
Pushed and shoved
Through all that brotherly love
Can’t hear a word you say
Unless you shout                
 
My kind of party
Is peace of mind
But it starts to waver       
Around humankind
Feels so unnatural
If you ask me
But to the rest of the world
It is blasphemy

R.S.V.P.
Regretfully
I won’t appear
At your wedding next year
‘Cause I’ll be shopping
For my groceries

Don’t take offense
Of my self-defense
I could come for a while
Plaster on a fake smile
But I would rather
Just avoid pretense

Rather save words
For the trees and birds
Out in the green
Where the world is serene
My fellowship is
On a nature reserve

The world won’t understand
An introvert’s plea
When I’d really rather 
Just stay home and watch tv
Ain’t nothing wrong with me
So don’t worry
Saturday night at home’s
Where I want to be

Staying In

There’s a black cat who can be seen
All around the neighbourhood
Bushy tail and eyes of green
Sure as hell she’s up to no good

She will come to say hello
And she may even linger
If you try to pet her though
She’s likely to bite your finger

She’ll watch you from the garden wall
With calm interrogation
As if she’s weighing human souls
For some dark organisation

She naps beneath the neighbour’s car
Or sunbathes on your chair
And somehow, though she owns no house
She’s everywhere, and nowhere

They say she brings a streak of luck
Though good or bad, none can say
If ever she should cross your path
You’ll learn it—come what may

Perhaps she’s what we wish to be
Unbothered, sly, and free
The world her home, the night her friend
No master—only mystery
 

Black Cat

ROCKSTEADYTNT.COM

I’m Kelly Marshall, and Rocksteady TNT is where I blend ska, rocksteady, and reggae with the sounds I’ve carried with me — Eastern European folk, funk, soul, jazz, punk, hip-hop, and a few ’80s echoes. I play bass, guitar, keys, and whatever else feels right, layering each track at home in Glasgow. What started in 1999 as an experiment has become my way of honoring roots while inventing new directions — keeping rhythm, melody, and heart at the core.

Be Kind, Not Just Nice

Rocksteady TNT

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