Get all 31 David Rovics releases available on Bandcamp and save 70%.
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1. |
This Is Genocide
02:15
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This is genocide, it is not a war
It is a slaughter in a ghetto by the shore
A ghetto with no army, a ghetto with no ports
A ghetto under the jurisdiction of the military courts
Of an occupying power with the target: everyone
Killing them with bombs and chemicals and guns
This is genocide, they’re using famine and disease
As our lives go on, just across the seas
The occupying army is imposing starvation
On everyone in Gaza, of every station
Parents or children, people anywhere
They’re being killed because they’re still living there
This is genocide, it’s happening now
The western politicians talk about how
They must stop the bombing and let in aid
But the murder continues with American-made
Missiles and jets with zero regard
As the buildings collapse like houses of cards
This is genocide, whether or not
The media moguls have decided they’ve got
Elections to cover or any number of things
More worthy than what is happening
In Gaza, where they’re facing two million dead
That’s what the heads of the UN departments all said
This is genocide, and if you disagree
There is a phrase to describe your idiocy
Those who see, and then look away
Those leaders who talk but at the end of the day
The hunger, the bombs falling down from the sky
Is a holocaust that they would rather deny
This is genocide
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2. |
Song for Aaron Bushnell
02:54
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On the 25th of February, 2024
In protest against a US-sponsored genocidal war
As bombs were falling and exploding all around
Burning up the bodies of the children on the ground
Huddling in tents and just waiting to die
This young man could no longer stand to hear the cries
On International Drive in Washington, DC
A young Airman walked up to the Israeli Embassy
As mothers buried babies, who had no milk within
As white phosphorous munitions burned off the peoples’ skin
As the troops were firing on those trying to find bread
As the body count was building up to 30,000 dead
Dressed in his fatigues, there on Embassy Row
He announced into the camera this was where he’d meant to go
An act of desperation, and one designed to share
The horrors of the crimes being committed over there
Like a mirror to the world, so no one could look away
From what’s happening in Gaza every minute of each day
He stood in front of the building, as ready as he’d get
He put his phone down so he could livestream it on the net
When he lit the fire, on the day he chose to die
With no way to stop the slaughter, at least he had to try
As the flames rose up – yellow, red and blue
Did he look up at the cross and wonder what would Jesus do?
The Secret Service came to point a gun at Aaron's face
The Airman didn't move, he just stood in place
He'd come to make a spectacle, that was understood
If he couldn't stop the war, he'd do what he could
As his body burned before us, in an unmistakable sign
Again and again he shouted out, “free Palestine”
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3. |
Song for Gaza
03:20
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If I could sing a song for every bomb that flies
I’d sing each and all the days
If there were to be a verse for every dying child’s cries
For every helpless father’s gaze
If I wrote a love letter to each corpse as it is carried
I’d never still my pen
If I had to stop a moment for each one that’s been buried
I’d never move again
And the stocks are going up somewhere in America
Sing a song for Gaza
If I could shed a tear for every home that bombs destroy
I’d never stop crying
If every broken brick were a heart of a little girl or boy
All the world’s children would be sighing
If I could hold each shattered body, each baby stilled at birth
I’d have no time for loneliness
I’d spend all my time embracing the people of this savaged earth
Feeling the poisoned wind’s caress
And the billionaires are laughing somewhere in America
Sing a song for Gaza
If each barren pharmacy were a woman’s shining eyes
I’d fall in love forever
If every bombed-out kindergarten were a factory in disguise
Wouldn’t that be clever
But bricks are only bricks, and dust is only dust
And death is all around
Each minute another missile falls and sometimes the only thing to trust
Is the shaking of the ground
And they’re loading up the warplanes somewhere in America
Sing a song for Gaza
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4. |
Taking to the Waves
02:29
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Since the siege began, across humanity
People have tried to show solidarity
Marching and campaigning and searching for a way
From Australia to Sweden to Turkiye
Folks began to organize ships to the shore
To this occupied land of perpetual war
Some boats made it all the way to the port
Most others had their journeys cut short
Boarded by commandos, like pirates on the sea
In international waters, not governed by their country
But it’s 2024, the year of genocide
And more boats are taking to the ocean wide
To the land where all the homes
Have been turned into graves
The flotilla is taking to the waves
The destruction has been almost complete
As the Israeli regime aims to repeat
The Catastrophe of 1948
But some people just can’t wait
They know that lives depend on whether they might fail
So, soon the ships set sail
Thousands of tons are headed there
Through international waters where
All the world's countries must take a position
A life and death decision
Watch the demise of the Palestinian nation
Or help the flotilla reach its destination
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5. |
Flour Massacre
02:13
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Almost five months since the blockade was complete
Millions have hardly had anything to eat
Most had now fled to the border with Sinai
The rest who, through the bombing, had managed not to die
Were living in the rubble with the other refugees
Hoping before they died of famine and disease
Trucks might come with deliveries of flour
As starving Palestinians were counting by the hour
The Army fired at every convoy that attempted
To make it to the north, but this one was exempted
It was contracted by the Army to come to this point on the map
So that they could set a trap
They waited for people to start unloading the aid
While they watched from above the pen that they’d made
Then they began to fire at those helpless below
To kill their unarmed and starving foe
Scores lay dead or dying all around
People fled the trucks amid the deafening sounds
Of gunshots and screams of those breathing their last breaths
Whose need to feed their families now resulted in their deaths
When people went back to the trucks to try again
It’s hard to find the words to even say what happened then
The troops began to fire more, round after round after round
Everywhere you looked a sea of blood was what you found
And then the soldiers drove their tanks over the dead
And then the western media just repeated what they said
“It was chaos on the Strip, we had to let the bullets rain
We can’t have starving people grabbing bags of grain”
So instead, another bloodbath, one of so many now so far
That makes Gaza Wadi smell like the ravine of Babi Yar
For a sack of flour, they'll shoot starving children dead
Though that's somehow not how the headlines read
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6. |
Lines Are Drawn
02:26
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Around the world people try to read the signs
In other places they are on the battle lines
One side builds the ghetto walls
The other just wants to see them fall
One side is a sovereign nation
The other side is under occupation
One side cuts off the food supply
The other side starves and dies (saying)
You can back the fascists
Or stand with the resistance
Lines are drawn
Now which side are you on
One side has the fighter planes
The other has the backed-up sewage drains
One side says they represent the West
The other side proclaims this is a test
For the nations of the world to react
And demonstrate they understand the impact
What will happen if they don't
Whether it's because they can't or because they won't
One side says it's a surgical strike
But that's not what it looks like
To anyone else who's seeing this
It looks just like the apocalypse
It looks like a whole population
Being targeted for total devastation
Times like these, you pick a side
You can't be neutral in a genocide
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7. |
Airdrop
03:05
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When the blockade was imposed, and no one could come or go
And in order to successfully throttle off the flow
Of food and fuel and what's needed to survive
To keep more than two million people alive
The authorities limited imports to just a few
Tons that would be allowed to pass through
To try to break the siege on the ground
Seemed impossible until the world heard the sound
Watch the aviators streaking through the sky to try
To find out how much cargo they could fly
They drafted every plane that could be flown
Determined not to leave these millions alone
To be cold and hungry or else to be subsumed
They said it was impossible, an endeavor that was doomed
Every thirty seconds, a plane would fly away
To deliver to those trapped five thousand tons a day
More than two million, supplied by air alone
Thousands of airdrops flown
Chorus
Planes crashed, as they do, a hundred people died
But the flights kept coming, no way to put aside
The needs of all these people to have something to eat
To have fuel and medicine and shoes upon their feet
It was in West Berlin way back when
And it could all be done again
To save the Gaza Strip, or forever wonder why
We just let all the Palestinians starve and die
Chorus
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8. |
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On the internet they say it loud and clear
Someone we might have been related to lived around here
2,000 years ago, whatever happened since then
Doesn’t matter – look, there was a temple, way back when
So it’s all ours to bulldoze and remake the way we like
Anyone who disagrees should have their heads up on a pike
That's what I learned from the Hasbara Trolls
On the internet they say the Mufti said OK
So it makes good sense for us to take their land away
And besides, we tried, to make peace so many times but
Those ungrateful terrorists just want a bigger cut
Whatever has been offered, they always want some more
So now we're taking all of it, from the river to the shore
On the internet they say they've got a made-up history
We've rewritten all of it, now Islam is the enemy
Don’t mention the Crusades, or the Inquisition
Or whatever else might get in the way of our revision
The Muslims are the bad ones now, the Christians are our friends
If we're lying that’s OK – the means justify the ends
On the internet they say everything was fine
We're not sure why they keep talking about Palestine
Which only ever existed in someone's imagination
Just like all the history of this so-called nation
Which is all just an illusion, a fantastic con
Just like the existence of Egypt or Lebanon
On the internet they say remember October 7th
It rhymes so neatly with September 11th
Crimes were committed, the terrorists fought back
Obviously they deserve everything they lack
This was our opportunity that fell into our lap
To completely redraw the map
On the internet they say they don't like our state
Even though we make their lives in it so great
They have towns, they have schools, they have democracy
As long as you don’t count the few million refugees
They fire missiles at us, who knows why
Our sensible conclusion is all their kids should die
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9. |
Smashing Elbit Systems
02:43
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Protests were going on, they were going on for years
And then Palestine Action started smashing up the gears
And that's when the people got up off their seats
Took their families into town and blockaded the streets
For three days and nights, you could hear the hammers swing
Though no one knew for sure what the future might bring
They knew one thing for certain -- these weapons of war
Must not be sent to the ports they're heading for
So this is a note to Elbit Systems – you will be shut down
When the sledgehammers of justice come to town
After smashing up equipment, and smashing a whole bunch
A lot of folks began developing a hunch
The cops took three full days to send anyone inside
And after fifteen hours, they let the charges slide
It seems the prosecutors understood the clime
British companies aiding and abetting war crimes
The factory in Oldham had to close it's gate
And the muralists in Palestine said that's smashing great
Chorus
All around the country, hammers being swung
Showing civil disobedience is stronger than the tongue
Taking action here so the weapons go nowhere
So they don't get sent to the IOF, because we know what they'll do there
And so does the prime minister, and the men who he supports
Selling weapons to war criminals who don't want to go to court
Who don't want to face the facts of what they've done
Where the bullets go when they're fired from the guns
Chorus
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10. |
Hollywood Bread
04:14
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In a building called Hollywood Bread, now more than two decades ago
The stuff that went on in that structure, I wonder who cares and who knows
For years I said nothing about it, on the road in an RV
I figured if they were trying to track me down, I didn't want to make it too easy
In a building called Hollywood Bread I had an office on the ninth floor
And along with mine there were several more
One with so many computers that I wondered just how much IT
Does it take to run a little fleet of trucks for a trucking company
In a building called Hollywood Bread, I didn't wonder too much back then
But in retrospect the moving company staffed only by Israeli men
Was a strange operation, particularly because
Some of the guys when I asked them didn't know who their boss was
In a building called Hollywood Bread, which was ten stories high
A guy I knew went to the tenth floor and summarily died
Men in black with earpieces showed up, they said he got drunk, hit his head
Well I knew the dude didn't drink, but he had the keys to Hollywood Bread
In a building called Hollywood Bread the smokers all went out to toke
That's where you might meet your neighbors, outside having a smoke
That's how we all knew Mohamed Atta, the Israeli movers as well
The truckers with all of their IT equipment, and the tale gets stranger, I'll tell
In a building called Hollywood Bread that was the scene up until
September 11th, 2001, when thousands of people were killed
Suddenly all of my neighbors there on the ninth floor were gone without a trace
All of their IT equipment, as if it had just been erased
From a building called Hollywood Bread I called the FBI
I thought they might want to talk to people who knew the guy
They never called me back, and I still don't know what to do
But I thought I'd let you know that all my words are true
In a building called Hollywood Bread, now more than two decades ago
The stuff that went on in that structure, I wonder who cares and who knows
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11. |
Centralia
03:54
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It was the 11th of November, 1919
If I were to tell the story and try to set the scene
It was the town of Centralia, in Washington State
Where still today so many people can’t forget the date
The war was on and the way the press put on the spin
They named all the Wobblies “the enemy within”
They were German agents, and if that line didn’t stick
After the Russian Revolution they just called them Bolsheviks
The Seattle General Strike was earlier that year
The Timber Barons were determined that it wouldn’t happen here
The Palmer Raids were on from the west coast to the east
Arson, death and deportation, til the union's deceased
The hall destroyed a year before, this time they prepared
Those who lost so much before decided to be there
On the anniversary of the ending of the war
They were prepared for self-defense, because they knew the score
Across the country when the union was attacked
In Centralia the Wobblies fought back
The patriotic mob was marching past the union hall
In uniformed formation several Legionnaires would fall
As they went inside the building, the gunshots would resound
From union men who thought they had the right to stand their ground
The cops would not protect them, but afterwards they came
To charge seven Wobs with murder in the prosecutor’s name
But not before a power cut turned off all the light
And the mob came to the jail that night
They grabbed Wesley Everest, dragged him from his cell
The things they did to him are too horrible to tell
They hung this union organizer beneath the bridge on Mellen Street
Brought his body back, laid it at his cellmates’ feet
Who each got 25 to 40, in a railroad court In a trial as unfair as it was short
This is a story of the workers, how they were held in check
When they lynched Wesley Everest with a rope around his neck
Now it’s been more than a century since that abomination
Since the war against the Wobblies across all of Creation
Since the FBI was formed to stop a revolution
Complete with lies and defamation, legal persecution
And sending in the Legion to do the dirty job
Protected by police, like a proxy lynch mob
Doesn’t matter if you like it, you can disagree
I’m just telling you a tale from US history
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12. |
East Palestine
02:38
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Almost ten years ago the train came through
In the center of Lac Megantic it blew
Scores of people died that night
What's been done since then to set things right?
They'd like to know in East Palestine
Trains derailed in Washington State
They talked about reform – too little, too late
The industry lobbied both sides of the aisle
Legalized bribery American style
Ask the folks in East Palestine
Reforms discussed but never made
Ancient tracks, worn and frayed
As expected, the brakes failed
And dozens of rail cars derailed
In the town of East Palestine
Carcinogenic chemicals leaked
Killed thousands of fish in two creeks
Poisoned air made people sick
You can hear the time bomb tick
In the town of East Palestine
Acrid air across the county
Who knows whether to stay or flee
The EPA says it's all clean
It says so on this machine
In the town of East Palestine
The next disaster's coming soon
As surely as the rising moon
The air, the water, and lives at stake
But we can't make them get new brakes
Just ask the folks in East Palestine
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13. |
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The last time the US invaded Russia
Along with France and Italy, Japan and the UK
The troops came to stop the Revolution
Whatever else the lying textbooks say
If they even mention this invasion
Usually it will not qualify
As a footnote in the story of this nation
In which tens of millions have died
Since the last time the US invaded Russia
When it was invaded once again
By more armies come to stamp out Bolshevism
Whose ranks were filled with German-speaking men
Sent to fight and die for their Fuhrer
On a mission to kill all the Russian reds
Brainwashed by the lying propaganda
That for years had been stuffed inside their heads
The last time the US invaded Russia
Armies came to stop this nascent state
They came from the west, north, south and east
They came from across the Bering Strait
They came with tidings from the White House
From the men of industry, of course
Hundreds of thousands of soldiers made up
This sprawling, global military force
The last time the US invaded Russia
It was an existential threat
When the armies came across the ocean
Some people never can forget
Such as most anyone from St Petersburg
Murmansk, Crimea, or Odessa
There are still trucks standing by the road there
From the last time the US invaded Russia
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14. |
It's Not A Trade War
02:53
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Tanks were rolling into Ukraine The globe was horrified
There were calls for negotiations To heal this divide
Others called for sending missiles Armored trucks and fighter planes
And for sanctioning the Russians To block their shipping lanes
As the slaughter went on It did not take long at all
For the war and the sanctions First victims to fall
As the price of food skyrocketed No fertilizer for the soil
And a doubling price of oil
(But) fear not, world, as long as you can pay
You can buy all the things you need from the USA
By a freak coincidence We’ve got these purple fields of grain
Growing lots of corn and wheat As long as we get rain
In the commodity markets Prices have quintupled
Good time to tighten our belts Get extra fit and supple
Don’t know about that pipeline Who made it explode
But now that you’ve lost your main source from Where the gas once flowed
For five times the price We’ve got all of it you need
And a whole lot of corporate greed
And we’ve got your weapons too In case you fear your neighbors
Or the Russians or the Chinese Start rattling their sabers
You might as well be ready For when that time arrives
You’ll want to stock your Air Force up With these F-35’s
And if your country gets destroyed In the process of resistance
As you’re picking up the broken pieces If you need assistance
We can sell you steel, glass Lumber and concrete
In victory or defeat
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15. |
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Over fifty years ago a bunch of folks agreed
It was time to form the African People’s Socialist Party
They started doing work they’ve been doing til today
Fighting for justice in the USA
They have members across Africa, and elsewhere
And when supporters have contributions to share
They accept donations, just like lots of groups do
They go to international conferences, it’s true – but
No one needs the Russians to see
That we live in a shambles of a country
Where your life may be determined by what zip code you live in
And by the color of your skin
FBI SWAT teams came armed head to toe
Ready to combat some nefarious foe
Not the elderly man they arrested
On what charges, no one has attested
“Russian influence” is all that they’ll say
At the FBI’s leisure, who knows, they may
Tell us why they’re attacking this organization
With SWAT teams across the nation – but
Who here is unindicted?
Who is waiting to be invited
To this secret list of those who’ll be graced
By a cop with a gun at your face
Who here is a co-conspirator
Would you even know if you were
When they come to take your neighbors away
What will you do, what will you say
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16. |
Without Henry Kissinger
03:01
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He was born in 1923
Left in ’38, to escape the Nazi country
Whatever lessons he learned from being a German Jew
Were different from the ones some other people drew
Still a young man when he joined the Department of State
And the rest of the world would discover its fate
Consider Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam
And the millions of tons of napalm
Imagination can be wondrous, and it can drive you mad
Thinking about the world we could have had
Kissinger commanded the empire he led
In a war in Indochina, three million dead
Where every day people still are killed and maimed
By the bombs left over from his Great Game
How many reigns of terror, how many genocidal wars
Might have gone so differently if not for
This man, who knows, the world we’d get
Might be one that never knew the rule of Pinochet
What if East Timor had never been invaded
Without that one, and so many others he orchestrated
Under the doctrine of might makes right
And no death toll is too high if you want to win a fight
For world domination at the terrible cost
Of so many innocents lost
If individuals change history and how history plays out
Then here’s one where there is no doubt
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17. |
Ballad of the TikTok Ban
03:39
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Debate rages from Brussels to DC
Which app do the kids like best?
Is it promoting democratic values
That we all uphold and cherish in the West?
Like freedom, democracy, selling advertisements
And getting rich people elected
Does it have the algorithms that brainwash the best
And get the right politicians selected?
Yes, scandal after scandal doesn't matter
There's no limit to all we can afford
For any company stacked with former cabinet members
From the White House on their corporate board
Appeasing all the wishes of the Pentagon
Conducting business there on California soil
They may just be in it for the profit
But to God and country they are loyal
Because Facebook's not a Chinese corporation
There's no need to ban or block
It's run by patriotic American billionaires
Unlike TikTok
Look at a video on YouTube
Within a few recommendations
You'll be seeing lies on the subject of your choice
It isn't true but it's good for scintillation
Whatever keeps us all glued to the screen
It's well understood
Whatever lines the pockets of the billionaires
It must be well and good
Because YouTube's not a Chinese corporation...
Scroll through your feed on Instagram
As their own studies attest
The more time you spend on the platform
The more lonely and depressed
But as long as they can use your emotions
To encourage you to spend and buy
It must be OK, it's the American Way
Be a patriot and don't ask why
Because Instagram's not a Chinese corporation...
As the billionaires make more billions
And the tent cities grow and grow
As we look at our phones and see what the billionaires
Want us to do and know
As we hand off our communications
To our masters, Sili-con
As long as it's red, white and blue
Then we know which side it's on
Because it's not a Chinese corporation...
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18. |
Pedie Perez
02:50
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Pedie Perez was born in Berkeley in 1989
Grew up past El Cerrito and the Contra Costa line
His parents run a work yard in Richmond, California
He drove a truck there on the west coast of America
Pedie Perez was a gentle soul, known to his neighbors and friends
If someone was in trouble, that's who he'd defend
As with so many more among us, he liked to have a drink
Which shouldn't be a problem, or at least that's what you might think
Pedie Perez was hanging out on Cutting Boulevard
When a cop came to visit, he had been drinking hard
But Pedie gave his address, said where he was bound
When the cop began to beat him and threw him to the ground
Pedie Perez may not have done all that he was told
As the cop attacked him and put him in a pain hold
Fists pounding on his head, he tried to get away
He wasn't lunging for the gun, all the witnesses say
Pedie Perez was turning, as the ballistics evidence shows
Trying to walk off, everybody knows
Except for the cop who pulled out his gun
Who figured death was the penalty for a guy who tried to run
Pedie Perez was unarmed, and did not pose a threat
“Please don't shoot me,” were the last words he said
But Officer Jensen fired, and he fired again and again
Three bullets to his torso, and then
Pedie Perez stumbled into the liquor store and died
The witnesses told the truth and the officer lied
The city saw this, too, and paid the family
Money in lieu of justice, as anyone can see
Pedie Perez is dead while Jensen is retired
Collecting half his salary until the day he is expired
Not in prison for murder, which is where he'd probably be
If he were not a cop in a land of police brutality
Pedie Perez was born in Berkeley in 1989
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19. |
St Patrick Battalion
03:20
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My name is John Riley
I’ll have your ear only a while
I left my dear home in Ireland
It was death, starvation or exile
And when I got to America
It was my duty to go
Enter the Army and slog across Texas
To join in the war against Mexico
It was there in the pueblos and hillsides
That I saw the mistake I had made
Part of a conquering army
With the morals of a bayonet blade
So in the midst of these poor, dying Catholics
Screaming children, the burning stench of it all
Myself and two hundred Irishmen
Decided to rise to the call
From Dublin City to San Diego
We witnessed freedom denied
So we formed the Saint Patrick Battalion
And we fought on the Mexican side
We marched ‘neath the green flag of Saint Patrick
Emblazoned with “Erin Go Bragh”
Bright with the harp and the shamrock
And “Libertad para la Republica”
Just fifty years after Wolf Tone
Five thousand miles away
The Yanks called us a Legion of Strangers
And they can talk as they may
Chorus
We fought them in five major battles
Churobusco was the last
Overwhelmed by the cannons from Boston
We fell after each mortar blast
Most of us died on that hillside
In the service of the Mexican state
So far from our occupied homeland
We were heroes and victims of fate
Chorus
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20. |
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I woke up one morning, on September 6
To find out that the movement had one less mover in the mix
I had just heard him speak a couple days before
A voice I won't hear in live form anymore
Only on recordings now, because he has been released
So let's take a moment to remember the last words of Kevin Zeese
Power to the people is how he started out
Watch these movements growing, and what they're all about
This is how change happens, with the people in the street
He said we should not be deterred if we meet defeat
The wall looks so unbreakable, then the light shines through a crease
Let's take a moment to remember the last words of Kevin Zeese
He said Trump is the worst president I've seen in all my years
But all the suffering from Joe Biden, who could count the tears
He supported each inequity I ever fought to stop
From mass incarceration to ghettos full of killer cops
So let's keep on moving towards the day when both these parties cease
Let's take a moment to remember the last words of Kevin Zeese
He said we see this decade as one of transformation
With movements coming together all across this nation
From the movement for Black lives to the 99%
From Fight for 15 to those striking for the rent
And only if we fight for it might we know justice and peace
Let's take a moment to remember the last words of Kevin Zeese
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21. |
In One World
04:19
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In 1948 I fled my village
The Stern Gang drove my family from the lands
We ran into the desert
Where I've spent these decades living by my hands
Life in Haifa wasn't easy
But so much better than this hellhole with the soldiers and barbed wire
And the closures, and the hunger
The humiliation and the checkpoints, the machine gun fire
And each day I wonder after Haifa
The home that we abandoned when the Zionists had won
Is there a family with a child
Does it's father love it as I loved my only son
Before the soldiers shot him down
Riddled him with bullets in his back and in his head
Home in Haifa, in my house
Does someone's father know the pain there is in an empty bed
In 1960 I fled my country
Left the Tigris River for this foreign place
I had to leave home, I didn't want to
But they were rounding up the leftists and the papers had my face
And my son, a student leader
On the streets of Baghdad was nowhere to be found
So I walked through the mountains
Just the shirt upon my back, knowing not where I was bound
Now here I am, this town of Haifa
In this little house, but at least I'm still alive
And each night I wonder how is Baghdad
Would I recognize my friends if any did indeed survive
It took a long time, but I made a home here
And I wished my son could be here in this town upon the shore
I was with my wife, it was the Sabbath
When an old Arab couple knocked upon our door
We asked them in, gave them tea
For that's what you do with strangers, and we could see they meant no harm
They told their story, we told ours
Us of our life in Baghdad, them of their family farm
And of this house, which they once lived in
Where once they raised a family, long before their hair turned grey
Of their son, and the troopers
And of ours, who we cry for every day
So much in common, so much gone bad
So much running, and never coming home
You can hear the cards falling down
See the faces of the children, forever forced to roam And here we were, in this house Fearing that tomorrow would be just like yesterday
So much resentment, so much at stake
And I really don't remember who was the first to say
In one world
In one village
In one home
Let us live together
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David Rovics Portland, Oregon
Singer/songwriter, writer, podcaster (on Spotify, Substack & Patreon), anarchist, dad, lover of life.
David Rovics recommends:
A Hand Full Of Songs
by Jim Page
Seattle's Jim Page is one of the very best songwriters in the English language (and just as oriented towards what we might call the world around him as I am).
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Ryan Harvey of Baltimore is another of my favorite songwriters, writers and organizers on the planet.
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Heart First Aid Kit
by Grace Petrie & the PC Brigade
Moving across the pond, here's one more of my favorite rabble-rousing songwriters -- Grace Petrie.
go to albumIf you like David Rovics, you may also like:
supported by 4 fans who also own “Bearing Witness”
All of this album is just great. But Storm to Weather is just an amazing sing along track that is always a joy to hear live.
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Anthemic and hook-laden folk-rock from Grace Petries is full of both good humor and wryly poetic observations on life and love.
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such bad things happen
by Levi Fuller & the Library
Turbulent indie rock from Levi Fuller & the Library that has the snarl of hardcore and the knotty meter of math rock.
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