FAWM: "Erase her Wall"

Erase her Wall

13 hours ago by @berni1954

Skirmish: Erase her wall (@acousticmaddie) Challenge: MIXED EMOTIONS

Erase her Wall

berni1954

00:00

Liner Notes

I dithered about whether to do this skirmish or not. I have approached it literally and that was my worry. But in the end I heard my inner voice singing the chorus and couldn't resist writing the rest.

I was in the middle of working on a third verse when I realised it didn't need it. This little protest songs says all it needs to say in just the two verses.

INSTRUMENT: KA-TE - Katy to her friends - Tenor Ukulele #fuc

Lyrics

Intro: (Em) (A) (D)

(D) I was watching a young woman Spray (Em) painting on a wall I'm (A) not a fan of tags, at the best of (D) times But she wasn't writing her name As she (Em) handled that aerosol She was (A) filling the space with what I'd call hate (D) crimes

Erase her (G) wall! Take that hate speech graffiti (D) off it Erase her (G) wall! Before she infects somebody (D) else Erase her (G) wall! She's just following the (D) hate train It's not what (Em) I call art She's (A) just abusing her(D)self

(D) There were slanders on immigrants And old (Em) clichés 'bout the Jews His(A)panics and the blacks all had to (D) go It was all of the nonsense She'd (Em) swallowed on FOX News Then she (A) signed it "MAGA", as if we didn't (D) know

CHORUS

Comments

@jonmeta 9h

My first thought is a serious one: that somebody like that doesn’t really know what they’re doing. They haven’t really thought it through. They’re just repeating what someone else has filled their heads with. But that’s how most tyranny prospers: lots of thoughtless followers. Anyway, I like how your ukulele playing lets me hear all the shuffle notes in my head that you’re not actually playing. I guess what I mean is: your ukulele swings.

@berni1954 8h

Cheers Jon. Yes, all fanaticisms rely on the gullible who join their cults. It doesn't help that the right in the US have spent 40+ years dumbing down the populace to prepare for this moment. Trump is just their rather inefficient puppet, he is certainly not the brains behind it

@jonmeta 8h

The homeschooling movement in conservative America of the 70s-80s was supposed to create an educated class but all it did was prepare a generation to vote for the dumbest president in history.

@billwhite51 10h

i agree with you in this particular case (ill never forget holden caulfield's reaction to a word written on the wall, but then there is paul simons poem on the underground wall) , in general i believe the walls may be the last bastion of free speech. some of the most important works of literature contain obscene foulness, but i wouldnt expurgate any of it. it is the hatred inside the person who wrote these things that must be expurgated. as well as the hatred on the other side of the aisle. i cant see a good side and a bad side to this madness that is tearing apart the american people. every one is culpable. the stench of hatred is everywhere.

@berni1954 9h

Free speech is used as a justification for openly hate filled statements by the likes of Musk. Then their followers take this as a free pass to stir racial hatred, make attacks on feminism and foment homophobic statements and actions. While I have little truck with the over sensitiveness of the more radical of the younger generation with their cancel culture, that doesn't lead to many deaths. Fascism, on the other hand should always be denied a platform, because it leads to mass exterminations and genocide. No tolerance for intolerance is a motto that appeals to me. But this was a skirmish, my narrator's may often draw on what I believe, but my narrators are very rarely ME.

@cjk 11h

An actual wall. It didn't even occur to me. Great music and really good lyrics.

@berni1954 9h

Thanks. I tend towards the literal 😄

@hmstreetteam 12h

I like the way the lyrics hint at the scale of the work it takes to reclaim a vandalized wall. The whole narrative connects the specific scene very precisely to the bigger story. Nicely done!

@berni1954 9h

Yes. Our local underpass, which allows us to cross the train tracks that divide our town, gets regularly targeted by graffiti lovers. It's usually anything but artistic - mainly hideous tags. The city hall regularly spend thousands on cleaning it off. The symbolism of actually tearing the wall down in the song is a way of saying "No platforms for Fascism".

@coolparadisoMod 12h

yes the happy chappy music and an important message from the darker side of life! great last line

@berni1954 9h

Thanks. . The symbolism of actually tearing the wall down in the song is a way of saying "No platforms for Fascism".

@kahlo2013 12h

I love the catchy chorus and the powerful story you developed around it. Great message! I don’t think I’ve ever heard aresol in a song before. You are such a master songwriter.

@berni1954 12h

Aw, shucks. Thanks Liz. It is a near rhyme for wall too!

@acousticmaddie 13h

Wow what a great take on the prompt. I love the lyrics they feel like a 70s song sung att the beach with folks travelling in an old blue ww. Thank you for playing

@berni1954 13h

My pleasure. I resemble that scenario! 😉 Thanks for the prompt.