Rob Hirst Whistleblowers get a raw deal in Australia. They risk their health, careers and reputations to bring the rest of us the truth about Australia bugging East Timor during critical oil and gas negotiations, about SAS war crimes in Afghanistan, about US gunship murders of civilians in the Middle East. Like the other songs… Read More The Strongest Memory
When the Taliban moved closer to Kabul in the early days of August 2021, a series of unusual advertisements flooded the shopping pages on Afghan social media. Musicians were putting their instruments and equipment – the tools of their trade – up for sale. Many were being offered for a fraction of what they were worth. Yet,… Read More The Taliban’s fear of art is killing Afghan culture
250 musicians are Rockin’ In A Free World! Lyrics There’s colors on the streetRed, white and bluePeople shufflin’ their feetPeople sleepin’ in their shoesBut there’s a warnin’ sign on the road aheadThere’s a lot of people sayin’ we’d be better off deadDon’t feel like Satan, but I am to themSo I try to forget it… Read More Rockin’ in the Free World
Song by KT Tunstall See out the side of my eyeA pick-pocket city in darknessBodies shifting, I am driftingThrough the sodium light Mind feels like an alarmHeat like it’s trying to harm meBody twitching, something missing in my soul tonight Scream of a sirenBow my head as another one goes downGotta get goneGotta get goneGotta… Read More The Mountain
An initiative by Kabir Project to take the power of the mystic song to children and young people, Shabad Shaala is coming to Delhi in partnership with Manzil Mystics. This is a chance for the youth of Delhi (15-30 years) to learn bhajans, kaafis and baul-gaan from the great gurus of folk tradition, and also engage in reflective and… Read More Shabad Shaala in Delhi : An Initiative by the Kabir Project
The Way I Feel was written by Gordon Lightfoot in 1967. Sandy Denny recorded it with Fotheringay The way I feel,is like a robin,Who’s birds have flown,to come no more,Like a tall oak-tree,alone and cryin’,When the birds have flown,and the nest is bare… Lyrics: https://www.sandydenny.co.uk/lyrics/thewayifeel.htm Listen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cUeTVLZoMeg
The solution to the monstrous men of art, Claire Dederer argues, is not to smash our idols but to avoid making them idols in the first place. (Note: I have added some remarks on this which can be read at the bottom of this post) BY LAURA MILLER “Can I still listen to David Bowie?” That’s… Read More The Art of Monstrous People
Harry Belafonte obituary NB: He sang songs of plantation workers in the Caribbean, I remember hearing them through my childhood. What a great man. RIP Harry Belafonte (1927-2023) Harry Belafonte in a recording studio in the late 1950s. Photograph: Pictorial Parade/Getty Images Day O! The Banana boat song Day-o, day-oDaylight come and we want go homeDay,… Read More Harry Belafonte’s staggering musical and screen career
Jesudas and his son Edwin are skilled craftsmen, known in the Carnatic music universe of Chennai and elsewhere for the mridangams they give life to, though they still face occasional communal biases Ashna Butani The sounds of Carnatic music on the radio fill a cramped room painted blue in a small lane of Mylapore. Photos… Read More The mridangam makers of Mylapore
Knowledge is a deadly friend / When no-one sets the rules The fate of all mankind I see / Is in the hands of fools. The wall on which the prophets wrote Is cracking at the seams. Upon the instruments of death The sunlight brightly gleams. When every man is torn apart With nightmares and… Read More King Crimson – Epitaph
After the truth-shower 