Steemit Open Mic Week 81 - Stop 'n' Think (Original) - Nathan Kaye
This is about waking up from the somnambulant manical conditioning.
Stop and think.
Pause and feel.
Unite and ignite.
And positively transform our world.
Turn off your mainstream media news sources. It only spreads negativity and fear.
Some say that if you don't watch the news, then you're uninformed, but if you do watch it, then you're misinformed.
It promulgates fear. That's all it does. We don't see good news. We only see bad news. So that's what they should actually call it.
"Hey, did you watch the bad news today on channel Blah blah numbers and letters?" (grimices)
"No, I was busy hearing about the good news today about the new incredible inventions made, and the person who saved dozens of people by making them food, and the thousands of people who are breathing today because someone gave a shit. Etc." (smiles)
These so-called leaders, rich men (& women) in suits, that (apparently) run our countries and the largest corporations in the world carry on as if we, the people and our precious planet, don't matter.
They go to war, killing thousands whilst earning profits and we pay them to do it.
When will enough be enough?
This song is a call to unite!
As with all my one-man band performances and recordings, nothing is looped or pre-recorded in this one-man band performance.
Yes, you heard right!
NO OVERDUBS.
NO LOOPS.
ALL PLAYED SIMULTANEOUSLY.
I am simultaneously playing the
"Violap" Lapsteel Slide guitar (co-designed by Ben Harper),
Slide-Didge (modern adaptation of the traditional Aboriginal wind instrument known most commonly as didgeridoo),
vocals and
electronic foot drums (homemade from wetsuit, plywood, guitar cables, and contact mics into a drum module).
by the way, I punctured my pinky finger whilst playing this tune and bled all over the lapsteel slide guitar!!
The battery of my main camera died about 3/4's of the way through, but at least the iPhone camera was still going.
LYRICS
The act of terrorism cannot be solved by an act of war,
They cannot make a right by doing the very thing that they say that they deplore,
Turn off your TV because it inculcates you with what they want you to see,
It's our humanity, only compassion can bring true liberty,
Stop it! Stop it! Stop it!
Stop and Think!
Am I getting through? Is any of this shit making sense?
Or is apathy so deeply set that you're still sitting on the fence?
Stop it! Stop it! Stop it!
Stop and Think!
You get füked by the bank, the politics, the system, but when are you going to faaarq your wife?
Because it's all the love we share every day that'll stop them fårking with your life.
Stop it! Stop it! Stop it!
Stop and Think!
I hope that you're happy & well right in this moment.
If not, I hope that whatever ails you passes by quickly and easily.
So dear friend reading this, I do hope you enjoy this performance!
If you felt the vibe of this performance, please do upvote, resteem, follow @nathankaye and comment. I'd really love to hear from you.
Thank you so much for listening.
©Nathan Kaye 2002 and © this performance 2018. All rights reserved.
Here are my previous Open Mic entries:
• Week 79 - Nobody's Slave Nobody's Master (Original) - Collab with Ben Lee @benleemusic
• Week 77 - Silence (waves of Life) (Original)
• Week 76 - Lean Into It (Original) - Coolab with Ben Lee @benleemusic
• Week 74 - Lucky Man Story (Original)
• Week 73 - Wings (Original)
• Week 72 - I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For (cover)
Please make sure you vote for @pfunk, @ausbitbank as witnesses here: https://steemit.com/~witnesses. These dudes do lotsa good.
Thanks so much for commenting below
(because I'm hoping you're about to ).
If you felt the vibe of this article, or it's helped you shift perspective,
please do click upvote, click resteem, click follow and comment.
Let's connect, be friends!
I'd really love to hear from you.
I try my best to check out the blogs of my genuine upvoters as well as those of you who do genuine comments and especially those who follow me…
Also, I'm a proud helpinaut!
Visit @helpie to find out what that means and
to find out if you'd be a proper fit for our discord group!
Helping is the #1 goal!
TRUTH brother! Like a breath of fresh air mate, you filled the room with it in this performance, dude... Loved the seething end... and it's rather appropriate that you spilled some blood in the process... Nice, man!
Thanks so much bruthaman @passion-ground!
It really is about connecting to the emotion deep inside when conveying music, feeling it 100% so not inhibiting or censoring it's expression, and then letting it go... Aaaahhhhhhhh...
Haha.. Well, the injury and bleeding was an accident, but totally appropriate! Think those fresh strings are going to get rusty quickly, even after cleaning the blood off... Hehe
Blessings to ya buds!
@nathankaye with that fire heart and passion.. woooo baby
Thank you so much @soundlegion!
When are you gonna sing on one of my songs? hmm? You slipped in a few times that you were keen and I reckon it'd be rockin'!
hey mista' its been awhile since I dropped in a live performance, my life is always on the run and hitting me in waves. Its always the plan to try and drop in, im just mad busy most of the time, biting off more than I can chew types lol, but still, I def need to get some performances up. thanks for calling me out, puts little fire under me to get going on it. I travel alot between us and uk and dont always have my studio and instruments on hand. huge love to you my talented friend, you always inspire with your fire and talent
Click here to see who won Open Mic this week:
Steemit Open Mic Week 81 Winners See Who Won Open Mic And Join Us This Week --- by @luzcypher
Truly ground breaking and mirage shattering :)
Keep up the wonderful music bro
I have added you to my Official Judge's List for Week 81
Check out the full review here please, it's my longest one to date :)
https://steemit.com/openmic/@verbal-d/steemit-s-official-open-mic-judge-verbal-d-s-top-5-entries-for-week-81-original-blog
Wow! Thanks so much, bro!
I deeply appreciate that and elated that you weren’t offended by my use of expletives in this song and you really understand why it’s important to make music about this topic.
I’ll check out your top 5 when I get home.
God bless, mate.
:)
Definitely wasn't offended, though it did catch me by surprise. It is a great and powerful song, I am on that same level and approach so I had to support this movement of yours without hesitation. God bless you too bro.
Fantastic! And after you gave such an incredible review, I realised that my fear was baseless. I'm very grateful for that.
There was a specific reason for the expletives though, as you've probably guessed. It is because when people are shaken out of their comfort zones an opening occurs. Even for a brief moment, the normal firewall of resistance from their conditionings is temporarily destroyed and new truths can make it through to the conscious and subconscious mainframe of their mind.
Blessings
Love the lyrics man Great performance.
Thankfully I stopped watching TV years ago and have never looked back. Television is the drug of the nation, breeding violence, and beaming radiation. It's chewing gum for the mind and offers no nutritional value at all.
Thanks so much bruthamanb @luzcypher!
I used to do a cover with my old band of Television, the Drug of the Nation by Disposable Heroes of Hiphopracy (I think I might have an audio recording of that n an old minidisc somewhere..)!
A profound song (& album) with such an astute lyric!
I saw them play live in a small club in Sydney 1992. Still one of the best gigs I've ever witnessed.
Anyway, my mum called the TV a brainwashing machine when I was a young kid. She was ahead of her time.
Michael Franti is a good friend of mine actually. I loved DHOH but didn't get to know him until later when he started Spearhead. That was after he tried weed and it totally mellowed him out.
Last time I saw him was at a private party we played and he was doing great. Good times and good memories.
No shit!! that's an epic story! Great to see the change in people through the years, like that, hey?
DHOH really impacted my sense of mission with my artistic career when I was 17 years old...
I've only met Michael Franti a few times. My eldest daughter went to school with his son in Bali when we were living there. They often played together.
We'll have to get a big Steemian concert/festival together and get Michael to headline!!
TV free as I can be for almost two decades - we have that in common, luz ;)
Indeed brother. I served in the US armed forces during the invasion, and although I didn't personally go to war, many of my friends were coming home in body bags.
When I would talk about this aspect of the government justifying what we were doing, the reactions were more or less take that rhetoric somewhere else, which is exactly why I didn't re-enlist. It seems many people would rather ignore it than speak against it.
Thanks for this tune mate. I really connected with it, and I love the energy you put into it. Bravo!
Much love,
@futuremind
I'm so so sorry to hear that you lost friends at war, mate. The whole thing just stinks. It’s one (noble) thing, to defend your country from nefarious invaders, but a whole other thing to die thinking you’re fighting for your country, but really have had some corporations pulling political strings to make profits. Sad.
Anyway, you know what is what.
I’m super grateful that you connected with the song and that you made this comment.
Blessings mate @futuremind
I stopped watching TV around 10 years ago ! best decision I ever made , it also gave me more time to focus on more productive things, aside from everything else , TV is a time sucker and we should treat our time with the importance it deserves !
On the performance , this was BURNIN bro , loved it ... loved the ending ''stop n feel!'' that's what it is all about . I wish I could play Slide .. it's one of my frustrations hahah I always end giving up ! I'm soooo picky about intonation I just can't bear to play it for too long hahaha but I wish I could play like Derek Trucks ! You pull emotion out of that slide guitar bro , big kudos!
Bruthaman @pechichemena!
I'm so happy that my mum called TV the brainwashing machine when I was a kid. It meant that I could get a black belt in karate, learn a tonne of instruments, act in feature films and just learn more and more amazing things because I have more time to learn and practice and enjoy more things and things I love most...
Thanks so much bro! "stop n feel" is definitely what it's all about. Being connected to what's inside of us.
Re: slide guitar - it's so much like a human voice in that it has no frets so you really have to hear to stay in tune, but I love that it's expressive like a human voice without those fretted boundaries. That being said I love playing the trusty old 6 string just as much (if not more). I don't know Derek Trucks. I'll have to do a search.
As far as you playing it? Well, you express so beautifully with normal guitar and your voice that you don't need to do slide if it doesn't vibe with you.
Anyway, thanks so much bro!
Blessings
Your musical skills are impressive!!!
Wow, just wow!
You definitely have a new follower in me 😏
Thanks so much @lifetipsbysn!
I really appreciate that so much!
I'm honoured that you're following lil ol' me. ;)
Let's stay connected.
Blessings
Just fantastic, Nathan. The way I see it is that you can't let the world drown you.. you have to turn your back sometimes, but now and then it's important to take a peek behind you to make sure no one is coming to take you down anyway. I haven't watched the news since Trump was elected, honestly. My husband tells me what's going on. I left facebook because it became the topic of nearly every one of my friends and family. Family and friends began to unfriend me because I'm an open mind in a conservative land (Tennessee - the deep south is quite opinionated and very backwards from my own views.) Glad to get away from that.
And you know, a dear family member unfriended me, then got cancer and died before we ever resolved our differences. Life shouldn't be that way. How to live with something like that.. I don't know. Just move on.
Anyway, I relate to your feelings very much, and I adore your song. Thanks for sharing it, my friend.
♥-serena
Thanks so much @paintingangels!
Yeah, you can't let the negativity in the world drown you. Totally agree. In fact, how can you drown in it when there's so much more positivity in the world, right?
(I know what you mean by FB and it's politics echo chambers - so over it)
I'm sorry to hear that a dear family member of yours disconnected then passed before you could resolve it together... As I mentioned in another comment, feeling emotions is important, but then letting those emotions go is vital. That's the same with differences with those we love.
I have found that if I am unable to resolve something with someone (either through death or total disconnection) I do a little ritual of burning something that significantly represents them in the fire (no don't burn their house down. hehe) and set the negativity free whilst visualising all the energetic chords/tentacles being cut so that there are no psychic/emotional/psychological leakages to them. Great way to move on.
I nearly rerecorded this performance again because I got some lyrics wrong and bled on the lapsteel guitar, but the energy was right so I just left it as is and posted it...
Anyway, thanks so much, lovely!
:)
Woah, the feelings you put in there, I feel it too. How you ended it too. You know what, I am thankful that you have showed your feelings in your video. It shows us what is important. Breath and I breath with you. Thank you for being you!
Thanks so much @foxyspirit!
Yes! You get it! Breathe and you breathe with me...
I am wanting people to see/feel that it's important to feel emotions, and then it's just as important to let them go. There are no emotions are bad. They all serve a function. Emotions only become bad when we hold on to them. Then they become dis-ease in the mind, in relations with others and eventually in the body too...
Bless ups!
:)
I love how we connect on the same things. It gives me sense that I am on the right path. And I have been told I am the strange one... LOL.
I try to spread the natural wisdom to people that surround me and they sometimes laugh and shrug it off. Sometimes I am the one laughing in my head at how it is so hard for people to understand how easy it is to let go and see truth, emotions, each other etc. Laughing so that I do not get angry, understanding how so many people are blinded and brainwashed. Hoping more and more will be able to wash their eyes clean :)
I completely understand that. I received years and years of that and it forced me to find new inventive ways to communicate so that the message is heard.
Not everyone will get it, but the most important people will get it and they will spread the message to people we aren't able to reach...
:)