David Rovics: Return CD Track Listing
David Rovics
Return (2003)
This recording is dedicated in the loving memory of Jihad, Muna and Kifah El-Ali.\nThey were killed by mercenaries under orders from Ariel Sharon in the Shatila \nrefugee camp in Lebanon in 1982 along with 2,000 others, mostly women and children.\nNever again.\n\n"return" - david rovics\n\ni can't help it.\ni don't care how far you think the analogy extends itself.\nwhen i see you making that bus driver climb up and down\non and off the roof of his bus\nfor your amusement\nfor hours in the hot sun\ni think of how we once had to dance and sing for them\nwhile they shot our parents.\nwhen i see you keep that woman\nand her husband\nat the checkpoint\nwhile she's in labor\nand you stand there\nlistening to her scream\nwatching as she gives birth\non the back seat of a taxi\ni think of the walls around our own ghetto\nand how we had to crawl through the sewers\nlooking for rats to eat\nwhile we could hear their children playing\non the other side.\nwhen i see you crush that house\nand kill that woman\nand her baby\nwith your armored bulldozer\nbecause they didn't have a permit\ni think of the way we were once forced to leave our homes\nat the point of a gun.\nand when i hear your general say\nthat in order to deal with the intifada\nyou must learn from the tactics of another general\none mr. stroop\nin warsaw\ni think of how they bombed our buildings\nshot us as we fell from the roofs.\nand i remember\nhow we wished we could kill their babies, too.\nand i feel sick.\nsick of your displaced anger\nsick of your self-deception\nsick of your attempts to deceive the rest of the world\nsick of your accusations of anti-semitism\nsick of your occupation\nsick of your apartheid state\nsick of zionism.\nbecause standing here\nin auschwitz, birkenau and warsaw\ni see jenin, jaffa and rafah.\nand i think of our ancestors\nthe jewish palestinians\nwho spoke so eloquently\nin their arabic language.\nbut the dead cannot speak.\nand now i find myself\nagain behind the wall of a ghetto\nstanding with millions of other palestinians.\nand i find myself shouting\nthawra! thawra! hatta al-naser!\ntomorrow in jerusalem!\nal-awda\nreturn.\n\nWith a project like this CD, many thanks are in order. \nIn so many ways a project like this is so much bigger than the artist.\nWhether or not each listener is aware of it, what they are hearing is \nso much more than the songs themselves. It's the sound of the instrumental \naccompaniment, from the sparse, ethereal sounds of the electric mandolin \non "The Death of Rachel Corrie" to the full band on "Strike A Blow Against The Empire." \nIt's the skill of the musicians playing those parts, the choices made by the producer, \nthe ear of the engineer. So big huge thanks to Sean Staples, who lined up the studio, \nchose the musicians and the arrangements for the songs, played all kinds of instruments \nhimself throughout the CD, managed to get me to play more or less in time, and otherwise \nguided the whole process along. The engineer at Wooly Mammoth Studios, Dave Westner, also \nplayed many other key roles throughout the project. I'd thank all of the stellar musicians \nindividually, but I'll try to get too repetitive here and leave that to the credits.\n\nMajor thanks must go to the good anarchists of Ever Reviled Records (www.everreviledrecords.com), \nwithout whom this CD wouldn't have happened. They've been amazing, everything I'd hope for an \nindy label to be. Making the project possible, enthusiastically promoting it, and giving me \ntotal artistic freedom. They're a fine bunch of folks, with great politics and a deep \nappreciation for the power of music to shake things up some.\n\nAnd most of all, thanks must go to the rebels around the world who make life worth living \nand give me something to write about. Thanks to the fighters and the survivors. (Especially \nthe ones that buy my CD's and make it possible for me to sing songs for a living!)\n\nAim high, throw hard,\nDavid\n\nOn www.davidrovics.com you will find:\n\nMP3's available for free download of every song on this and several other CD's\nLots more links to audio and video files\nLyrics to everything\nInformation on buying CD's and songbooks, retail or in bulk\nHow to get on David's email list (send him an email)\nInformation on upcoming gigs in your area\nLinks to other like-minded musicians and activist groups\n\nDo you or someone you know have a radio program that would like a CD for airplay? \nGo to www.everreviledrecords.com or email them at info@everreviledrecords.com!\n\nThis CD was recorded in June, 2003 at Wooly Mammoth Studios in Boston, Massachusetts\nProduced by Sean Staples\nEngineered by Dave Westner\nMixed by Dave Westner and Sean Staples\nMastered by Dave Westner\n\nAll the songs were written by David Rovics (except "Resistance" - words by David, \nmusic by David Rovics and Allie Rosenblatt) \nDavid Rovics: vocals and acoustic guitar, electric guitar on "Strike A Blow"\nSean Staples: electric guitar on "Reichstag Fire," "Strike A Blow," "After the Revolution," \n"Occupation"; acoustic guitar on "Occupation"; acoustic and electric mandolin, \nbouzouki, banjo, percussion, harmony vocals\nMike Piehl: drums\nJabe Beyer: accordian, organ\nTim Kelly: dobro, lap steel\nDave Westner: electric guitar on "Occupation," "Reichstag Fire," "Song for Ana Belen Montes," \n"Promised Land," "Palestine"; acoustic slide on "Palestine," bass on "Reichstag Fire"; percussion\nLou Ulrich: bass\n
This folk cd contains 14 tracks and runs 57min 19sec.
Freedb: c40d6d0e
Category
: Music
Tags
: music songs tracks folk Folk-Rock
- David Rovics - After the Revolution (05:31)
Some thoughts on how life could be different.\n - David Rovics - Palestine (03:44)
Based on the story of a woman who was a little girl when her mother was raped and hacked to pieces by eighteen men under orders from Ariel Sharon on the floor of her home in the Shatila refugee camp while she hid under the bed and watched.\n - David Rovics - Occupation (04:08)
The infracture of terror.\n - David Rovics - The Death of Rachel Corrie (02:49)
Rachel Corrie was part of an ISM (International Solidarity Movement) delegation in Rafah, Palestine when she was killed by a young Israeli terrorist in a bulldozer. She was a friend of many people I knew from my days at the Evergreen State College in Olym - David Rovics - So Many Years Ago (03:02)
A song about love and disappearance.\n - David Rovics - Resistance (03:41)
The name of the enemy always changes, but the war between the haves and the have-nots continues to rage, as it has for the past several thousand years, as it will until there's sanity in the world, or until there is no more world. - David Rovics - Reichstag Fire (04:44)
Given history, those of us who weren't born yesterday must ask the obvious question: Who knew what and who did what and why is the government so terrified of asking these questions? - David Rovics - Promised Land (04:06)
Everyone can, and must, be understood. This is a song from the perspective of Mohamed Atta.\n - David Rovics - Times Gone By (03:51)
A love song. (But they're all love songs.)\n - David Rovics - Strike a Blow Against the Empire (05:03)
Silence is the voice of complicity, that's the point. If you know what's going on and you're just sitting by and trying not to do harm, that's not good enough. What have you done? What will you do? They're killing your family. - David Rovics - Song for Ana Belen Montes (03:51)
Married to a career soldier, deep in the Pentagon establishment, she was the highest-ranking person on Caribbean policy in the Department of Defense, and she was a spy for Cuba. That is, she was committed to a higher law, committed to fighting US terroris - David Rovics - Hiroshima (05:41)
And the nuclear weapons research in Oak Ridge, Tennessee continues right now, every day.\n - David Rovics - The Key (05:02)
I was trying to write a song for Sami Al-Arian, currently being held in solitary confinement in the US for the crime of being an outspoken Palestinian. In one of the interviews with him I found on-line he mentioned his grandmother, and the key around her - David Rovics - Return (01:57)
Al-awda.\n
