Tyrants

They take what's yours and dare you to speak up.

This song is called “Tyrants.” It’s a new one.

Making art at a time like this is an interesting challenge.

Every Friday I check the new releases on Tidal (yes, I’m a Tidal subscriber — there are dozens of us!), and whenever I do I feel like I’m listening to songs that were written in another era.

I enjoy a good pop song, or a lovesick ballad, or a rap anthem. But it’s hard to get into them at the moment. It feels a little like watching Nero fiddling while Rome burns: I’m sure you’re good at the instrument, but, uh… look over there.

What would I prefer? A bunch of songs about the miserable state of the world?

Maybe. Bruce Springsteen released “Streets of Minneapolis,” which is a very timely protest folk song. Lucinda Williams dropped her new album, World’s Gone Wrong, which is an apt title and very much about the odd awfulness of now.

Pretty much everyone else is just making regular songs, and I can’t muster much enthusiasm.

Whither Rage Against the Machine?

What I think we really need right now is some revolutionary, angry, driving music. What we need is for Rage Against the Machine to get back together and tap into the latent fury they implanted in every Gen-Xer.

When that album drops, an army of people in their 40s and 50s with pre-existing back problems will stream out into the streets, immediately reinjure themselves and remember that they are too old for this shit.

In their absence, I’m not seeing a ton of energetic protest music coming from other artists.

In fact, artists of all kinds seem curiously quiet on the subject of what’s happening in the world right now. I can’t imagine a better time for music and visual art and writing and dance and all other art forms to galvanize us into clarity and action.

While I wish I had such a work of art in hand, I don’t. What I have instead is this weird acoustic ballad about living under tyranny.

The inescapable awfulness of now.

I have no idea how the tyrants showed up in this song. The melody and the first verse came to me and I thought it was some kind of love song.

And then there they were: threatening the populace, destroying the past, taking over the future.

I suppose the creative process involves mining whatever’s going on in your subconscious, and at the moment mine is stuffed with a bunch of toxic monsters.

As protest songs go, this isn’t one. It’s more an exploration of what it feels like to be alive right now, when so many of the worst possible people seem to have won.

In fact, they have won. But the question is: how long does such a victory last? When will someone else win again? And how can they do it, when all the rulebooks have been ceremonially piled up and burned?

In the world of a song, those answers can be explored safely.

The quiet revolution.

You wouldn’t pick this song to soundtrack a movie scene where people overthrow a government. In fact, you probably wouldn’t pick this song to soundtrack anything much.

But working it out has been a lot of fun.

I’ve had so many conversations lately about what we can do. How can the average citizen fight back against the evil assholes in power?

And of course, there are many small things we can do. We can boycott companies and brands that support fascism and Nazis. We can care for those in our communities who are under threat. We can refuse to believe in the lies that are shoved in our faces day after day.

Still, I want more. I want there to be a way to actually put a stop to this.

That’s what this song ends up imagining. A way of getting to the heart of their power and pulling the plug.

If anyone reading this knows how to do that, please… do that. Meanwhile, I’ll be writing a strongly worded email to Zack de la Rocha.

Tyrants

Ask you if you would
Knowing that you can't.
You dodge me with a smile.
It's oh so elegant. 

The tyrants take what's yours
And dare you to speak up. 
They save a bullet for
Anyone who does. 

To show

You can't go back
We destroyed the past
Can't go forward
The future's ours. 
You can't stay here
And watch what you love burning down. 

Are the tyrants winning?
Will the tyrants take us down?
Can the tyrants still be stopped?
With the weapons that we've got?

[We've got your lover’s throat]
Call in the favour 
[We’ll squeeze until it goes]
You think will save you
[How much will you give?]
Work all the angles to
[Are you sure you want to live?]
Get close to them and get through.
[Got your evidence]
Chances are slim but
[And there is no good sense in]
If you can make your way
[Fighting back when you’re a]
Into their chambers
[Hopeless cause, a hopeless cause.]
You might be the saviour.

Even tyrants sleep
All alone in bed.
That is where you'll wait
For him to wake again. 

The moment that he does
He'll see his time is done. 
And what you must do next,
You'll do for everyone.