Son Of A Bitch's Brew (The Emancipation Of America)
You had to be tough
to make it across in the first place
crammed in the hot as hell hold
and you hadn't even heard of hell yet
but if you made it across
there'd be someone with a cross
to tell you all about hell
and eventually it came through
"Oh right, hell!
I've already been there!"
You had to be tough
to drink that bitter water
and taste those bloody whips
you learned to watch and listen
and you worked
and you worked
and into the spaces between being treated like an animal
and being treated like an object
you packed in all of the humanity which slavery can never repress
Your liberation had so much to offer
but then fear, and hate
and greed, and pride
and the will to power
sang such a mighty chorus in the ears of rich white folk of all faiths and factions
and pretty soon they were singing along
to lynchings where there could have been learning
and color bars where there should have been land grants
and no amount of your striving
was ever allowed far beyond mere surviving
So how is it that you have overcome?
For you have overcome
You have overcome to the center
to the core, to the marrow
You are now the masters
and only you can teach us the way to go forward
You had to be tough
to make it at all
in the concrete hall
of the disintegrating urban sprawl
that leapt out of a world unimagined by your friends
or even your greatest ofay
No government conspiracy to flood your neighborhoods with crack
no evil doctors engineering plagues to depopulate your future
no liquor stores on every corner
can compare to the devastation you found
when you finally won through to the center
to the very heart and soul of America
and found them broken and lost
Perhaps you can redeem this festering miasma
repaying injustice with your morality
and brutality with your excellence
Perhaps you can explain why the euromans should be happy
with the lonely, frightened, ugly, dying empire
which they have themselves created
Perhaps you can invent a rhythm to rap it into my skull
over and over, until the beat becomes my reason for living
and the voice of the turtle is heard in some imagined land
but not in this land
with its jury of housewives of every donahue
its judges going off like buchanans
its just desserts a humble pie
served cold and stale, and without a seat at the counter
How can you be blamed for shaking your head?
How can you be denied the few small snorts of laughter?
Why should you pick up the pieces?
Why should you save our ass?
I don't know, but only you can
You had to be tough
because we demanded it
Now you are the toughest we have
and you have earned the right to grasp America
and remold it to your will
That is what our posterity will call "The Emancipation of America"
credits
from Rubber Soul Train,
released April 8, 2013
Beth Custer- Bass Clarinet
Dan Rielly-Guitar
Guy Geduldig-Drumbox
Lewis Jack- Donbecq
M.Y. Shapiro- Vocal, Lyrics, Engineering
Steve Farzan- Synths
Steve Heithecker- Engineering
Tom Wheeler- Bass, Drumbox, Trumpet, Engineering
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