7/21
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| Singing songs of liberation |
Samuel L. Jackson
A long and beautiful day. Jeremy is producing an album for the Peace Poets, urban young adults from the Bronx who have been the soundtrack of the Black Lives Matter movement. Their most well known song, I Can’t Breathe….became the song for the Samuel L. Jackson challenge, and no, he didn’t create it, Luke Nephew did.
We’ve got an eclectic group for the recording session, Poets, special friends, the entire Siegelbaum family (parents with a history of Nicaraguan solidarity), Jeremy’s father and his partner, special guest Stephanie Johnstone of Love Songs for the Rest of Us (http://lovesongsfortherestofus.com/). Oh. And me.
We gather in the top floor gym, where ETHEL once recorded. It’s got that kind of studio acoustic. Jeremy sets up the mics and we begin to learn the songs, one by one.
A long and beautiful day. Jeremy is producing an album for the Peace Poets, urban young adults from the Bronx who have been the soundtrack of the Black Lives Matter movement. Their most well known song, I Can’t Breathe….became the song for the Samuel L. Jackson challenge, and no, he didn’t create it, Luke Nephew did.
We’ve got an eclectic group for the recording session, Poets, special friends, the entire Siegelbaum family (parents with a history of Nicaraguan solidarity), Jeremy’s father and his partner, special guest Stephanie Johnstone of Love Songs for the Rest of Us (http://lovesongsfortherestofus.com/). Oh. And me.
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| Luke and Jeremy get ready |
We gather in the top floor gym, where ETHEL once recorded. It’s got that kind of studio acoustic. Jeremy sets up the mics and we begin to learn the songs, one by one.
 |
| Luke teaches a song |
We start with The Voice of My Great Grand Daughter, a song that started with the Climate March last fall.;
(KEY: F#, TEMPO: 79)
THE PEOPLE GONNA RISE LIKE
THE WATER
WE GONNA FACE THIS CRISIS NOW
I HEAR THE VOICE OF MY GREAT GRAND DAUGHTER
SINGING SHUT THIS SYSTEM DOWN!
I’m fascinated by Jeremy’s process, the way he’ll record different arrangements of people at different times. A core group in front, secondary singers in back. Over and over multiple times. The real work will be in his editing.
Then the song we all know, ) I CAN’T BREATHE.
HOOK:
I STILL HEAR MY BROTHER CRYING: I CAN’T BREATHE
SO NOW I’M IN THIS STRUGGLE SINGING: I CAN’T LEAVE
WE CALLING OUT THE VIOLENCE OF THESE RACIST POLICE
AND WE AIN’T GONNA STOP – TIL OUR PEOPLE ARE FREE (2x)
The Liberation – of All
Black Women Leading– the Call
The change we making is about to be born
HOOK
BRIDGE:
Ain’t Nobody Free, Til Everybody Free!
-Sing that!-
Ain’t Nobody Free, Till Everybody Free!
So if you know that Black Lives Matter
People Sing it with me… HOOK
(KEY: F#, TEMPO: 79)
THE PEOPLE GONNA RISE LIKE
THE WATER
WE GONNA FACE THIS CRISIS NOW
I HEAR THE VOICE OF MY GREAT GRAND DAUGHTER
SINGING SHUT THIS SYSTEM DOWN!
I’m fascinated by Jeremy’s process, the way he’ll record different arrangements of people at different times. A core group in front, secondary singers in back. Over and over multiple times. The real work will be in his editing.
 |
| Jeremy conducts |
Then the song we all know, ) I CAN’T BREATHE.
HOOK:
I STILL HEAR MY BROTHER CRYING: I CAN’T BREATHE
SO NOW I’M IN THIS STRUGGLE SINGING: I CAN’T LEAVE
WE CALLING OUT THE VIOLENCE OF THESE RACIST POLICE
AND WE AIN’T GONNA STOP – TIL OUR PEOPLE ARE FREE (2x)
The Liberation – of All
Black Women Leading– the Call
The change we making is about to be born
HOOK
BRIDGE:
Ain’t Nobody Free, Til Everybody Free!
-Sing that!-
Ain’t Nobody Free, Till Everybody Free!
So if you know that Black Lives Matter
People Sing it with me… HOOK
The songs we sing include :
OUR LIBERATION (F, 85), RIGHT ON TIME / BLM (F, 85), HOW CAN WE NOT REBEL?, a song about mass incarceration,(F, 117) SPIRITS OF THE ONES WE LOVE (C minor, 88) and finally, WHY I WAS MADE (F, 80).
Luke introduced each song. And here’s what he had to say about the spirit and purpose of the music:
The goal is to record songs that have been used in the streets and will be used in the streets in the struggle for Justice and Collective Liberation. We want to do a version of each song that can be taught and shared for other people to use. We want to use the power of the group to build the song and arrive together at the power and beauty of the most precious voice in the world: The People’s Voice. It is also our goal to enter into the feeling of these songs the same way we do instinctually when we take the streets and sacrifice our safely out of love for the people. This music is made to dissolve our fear and reveal the transformative power of our love. Lets enter into that. Let’s sing with the spirits of those locked up, those mourning, those loving, those hoping, those dying, those who have passed and the many more who have not yet arrived. Yes.
And that’s what happens as we work on each song. They’re part song, part chant. A new from fit to the day taking the place of the old Pete Seeger songs that sustained generations of people in the struggle. It’s music that emerged from streets, easily memorized, simple, but with hip hop ethos, hip hop attitude. Usually unison but with occasionally room for gospel harmonies.
It comes from the people who are making this movement. We can accompany. We can march and sing along. Even add a harmony here and there. But in the end, then music, like the movement, is theirs.
LYRICS
OUR LIBERATION – Key: F, Tempo: 85
Luke introduced each song. And here’s what he had to say about the spirit and purpose of the music:
The goal is to record songs that have been used in the streets and will be used in the streets in the struggle for Justice and Collective Liberation. We want to do a version of each song that can be taught and shared for other people to use. We want to use the power of the group to build the song and arrive together at the power and beauty of the most precious voice in the world: The People’s Voice. It is also our goal to enter into the feeling of these songs the same way we do instinctually when we take the streets and sacrifice our safely out of love for the people. This music is made to dissolve our fear and reveal the transformative power of our love. Lets enter into that. Let’s sing with the spirits of those locked up, those mourning, those loving, those hoping, those dying, those who have passed and the many more who have not yet arrived. Yes.
 |
| Double checking lyrics |
And that’s what happens as we work on each song. They’re part song, part chant. A new from fit to the day taking the place of the old Pete Seeger songs that sustained generations of people in the struggle. It’s music that emerged from streets, easily memorized, simple, but with hip hop ethos, hip hop attitude. Usually unison but with occasionally room for gospel harmonies.
It comes from the people who are making this movement. We can accompany. We can march and sing along. Even add a harmony here and there. But in the end, then music, like the movement, is theirs.
LYRICS
OUR LIBERATION – Key: F, Tempo: 85
(Slow and Powerful)
MY LIBERATION
IS YOUR LIBERATION
AND YOUR LIBERATION
IS MY LIBERATION
LET ME HEAR THE PEOPLE SAY:
LET’S GET FREE,
LET’S GET FREE
RIGHT ON TIME
KEY: F TEMPO 85
FROM THE BRONX TO THE BAY AND
YOU KNOW WE NOT PLAYING
WE STAMPING OUT HATE
RIGHT ON TIME
THAT GOOD BLACK MAGIC
YOU KNOW WE BE ABOUT IT
SINGING BLACK LIVES MATTER
WE RIGHT ON TIME!
HOW CAN WE NOT REBEL?
Key: F Tempo: 117
MY BROTHER(SISTER)IS LOCKED IN A CELL, SO TELL ME HOW CAN WE
NOT REBEL?
AS LONG AS THESE PRISONS EXIST
WE’RE GONNA BE HERE TO RESIST!
THE SPIRITS OF THE ONES WE LOVE (Cm, 88)
THESE GUNS CAN’T STOP US
THESE GUNS CAN’T STOP US
WE GUIDED BY THE SPIRITS OF THE ONES WE LOVE
NO GUN GONNA STOP US NOW
(COPS, JAILS, LIES)
8. WHY I WAS MADE (F, 80)
I AM NOT AFRAID
I AM NOT AFRAID
I WOULD DIE FOR LIBERATION
CUZ I KNOW WHY I WAS MADE
MY LIBERATION
IS YOUR LIBERATION
AND YOUR LIBERATION
IS MY LIBERATION
LET ME HEAR THE PEOPLE SAY:
LET’S GET FREE,
LET’S GET FREE
RIGHT ON TIME
KEY: F TEMPO 85
FROM THE BRONX TO THE BAY AND
YOU KNOW WE NOT PLAYING
WE STAMPING OUT HATE
RIGHT ON TIME
THAT GOOD BLACK MAGIC
YOU KNOW WE BE ABOUT IT
SINGING BLACK LIVES MATTER
WE RIGHT ON TIME!
HOW CAN WE NOT REBEL?
Key: F Tempo: 117
MY BROTHER(SISTER)IS LOCKED IN A CELL, SO TELL ME HOW CAN WE
NOT REBEL?
AS LONG AS THESE PRISONS EXIST
WE’RE GONNA BE HERE TO RESIST!
THE SPIRITS OF THE ONES WE LOVE (Cm, 88)
THESE GUNS CAN’T STOP US
THESE GUNS CAN’T STOP US
WE GUIDED BY THE SPIRITS OF THE ONES WE LOVE
NO GUN GONNA STOP US NOW
(COPS, JAILS, LIES)
8. WHY I WAS MADE (F, 80)
I AM NOT AFRAID
I AM NOT AFRAID
I WOULD DIE FOR LIBERATION
CUZ I KNOW WHY I WAS MADE
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