Portishead "It's a Fire" cover - to benefit Free Black University - a PRE-thing primer (Patreon)

{public post - OFFICIAL THING, final draft to come}

hallo loves.

have some time and want to listen to some things and do some art-homework before the actual THING comes out? ja, you do, you do!!!

greetings from hastings, aotearoa, where things continue to be a cocktail of the mundane and the surreal. the coronavirus news from the states is horrifying. i just saw pictures from the streets of NYC and i don't know what to say...why can't people just follow the science and the numbers? 

this is last night on 46th street, photo by @sarakapner on twitter:

...and then someone posted this photo of a beach in the england over the weekend.

jesus. 

whay?

the virus in england and the states is still not under control. not even close. i can't believe that this is happening. i mean, i can believe it. but i can't believe it. it feels like an absurd play. 

well, then, estragon.

let's sit down and make some art.

........

welcome to the second (or maybe third?) time i've PRE-THANGED, (PRE-THINGED? PRE-THUNGED?) A THING.

there's covid-19. there's black lives matter. there's this feeling of hope and this feeling of powerlessness. 

for a month or so, i've been talking to you about a song for charity i've been plugging away at in the background.

because everything is going at a snail's pace and i don't want to lose out on the patreon income, and because time doesn't wait for all artists, we're going to charge for this song NOW and send the entire profit money along to charity - to fund the Free Black University project i've been posting about.

and....weirdly....i'm kind of HAPPY that we are doing it this way!

i kind of like that y'all are going to have a few days to get excited and also do a little listening, digging and homework about the collaborators before THE TRACK DROPS. and the track sounds.....SO GOOD! it's about 90% there, we are just finishing up the artwork and the mixes...and it's...it's good. so good. just not ready for the 30th as we'd hoped. hooray for patreon, as usual, WE CAN DO WHAT WE WANT. :)

in a week or so, the finished mixed of the cover and the artwork will be done and ready for full oooh and ahhhh, and we'll also send it out to iTunes, bandcamp, youtube, etc. you won't be charged a second time when it comes out, obviously).

WHAT'S THE SONG, YOU SAY??

*****drumrolll****

the song is "IT'S A FIRE", from the incredible and never-gets-old record "dummy", by portishead.

press play now.....here's the original version of "it's a fire":

 ....on spotify:
https://open.spotify.com/track/6JHGaBhtCbfEtOh5ea7fLI?si=N_TVUp2NSuaREkype9j2zw

....on youtube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wlW1XtdxGFE

...........

i first came across this extraordinary album in around 1998, when i started working at toscanini's ice cream in cambridge, massachusetts.

it was the most highly rotated album in the shop (especially by jay swinton, and mike penta, who often shared night shift with me), and i have returned to this album again and again for twenty years as a go-to. possibly my most highly rotated album up there with the bach cello suites, cathode's "sleeping and breathing" and beck's "sea change".

i was actually lucky enough to see portishead perform live at glastonbury (RIP THIS YEAR'S GLASTO) a few years ago. i just dug this up....it's the entire set (sadly, no "it's a fire", but hey: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KgzcFZhLxXo)

......

so

i was in need of some comfort a few months ago when neil first left, and i was playing the album over and over again in the kitchen of the air bnb.

i was in the most beautiful place in the world, feeling the most terrible feelings.

so

bent over a pile of dirty dishes in the sink one day, after receiving a long series of texts from my desperately sad and disillusioned and masked friends in new york.....i stopped in my tracks.

It's a fire

These dreams they pass me by
This salvation I desire
Keeps getting me down

'Cause we need to
Recognise mistakes
For time and again
So let it be known
for what we believe in

I can see no reason for it to fail...

'Cause this life is a farce
I can't breathe through this mask

Like a fool
So breathe on, sister breathe on

...

From this oneself
Testify or tell
Its fooling us now

So let it be known for what we believe in

I can see no reason for it to fail

'Cause this life is a farce
I can't breathe through this mask

Like a fool

So breathe on, little sister, breathe on
Ohh so breathe on, little sister, like a fool....

'Cause this life is a farce?
I can't breathe through this mask?

yep.

just had to cry.

had to cry.

............

i texted jherek.

jherek and i have now collaborated on at least twenty or thirty song arrangements for strings, orchestra, and what have you.

here's me and jherek in the studio during the making of "there will be no intermission", photographed by allan amato....

i asked if he was up for a new cover song project.

he said...yep, just locked down in my pad in LA, watching the world burn down and stuff.

i sent him the song and told him to arrange it for.....our times.

he got on the job, and hired local string players in los angeles, who would all play in isolation from one another.

how fitting.

it felt really good to give musicians work again. 

not just raise money for them, but give them paying work.

.........

did you see these pictures of Patience and Fortitude, the lions outside the new yuork public library? they are now wearing masks, like good new yorkers.

..........................

i can't breathe.

i can't breathe in this mask.

both of those phrases are political rorschach lyrics right now, aren't they....

it felt more poetic, releasing, relieving to say "i can't breathe in this mask" a few months ago, before masks became "politicized" in america.

there is no doubt: wearing a mask is a pain in the ass. it's hard to do shit in a mask.

but seriously. we have to keep each other safe. 

why are we so desperately bad at keeping one another safe? there are levels of willful ignorance at play in my country that i cannot wrap my head around.

and then....not off topic, we keep seeing more and more instances of black people in america being killed by police. saying, literally: 

i can't breathe.

we know the refrain by now.

........

i texted rhiannon giddens, and asked if she'd be my singing sister.

this is rhiannon.

photo: David McClister

i discovered rhiannon's work with the carolina chocolate drops years ago, maybe around 2013, through our mutual friend, sxip shirey (who's currently living at my pad in woodstock, by the by).

some dry fax from wiki: 

Rhiannon Giddens (born February 21, 1977) is an American musician. She is a founding member of the country, blues and old-time music band Carolina Chocolate Drops, where she is the lead singer, fiddle player, and banjo player.

Giddens is a native of Greensboro, North Carolina, an alumna of the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics, and a 2000 graduate of Oberlin Conservatory at Oberlin College, where she studied opera.

sxip spoke, back then, about rhiannon's incredible soul and musicianship, and raved about her band.

this is her band....here's little rhiannon, back in 2012....

THEY SLEIGH.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EmPf1CJaF5s

........

i kept up with rhiannon's work through twitter and sxip and such, but it wasn't until this past year that i paid enough attention to became a drop-to-my-knees, where-have-i-been fan of her songwriting. 

she released “songs of our native daughters” in february of 2019,  just before i dropped "there will be no intermission":

i was about to tour....and i kept meaning to listen but between the kid, the album launch and the tour....i kept missing the moment.

then, in around may (was it may?), i was at a local US radio station doing a promotional segment, and a woman who knew my work literally put a set of headphones on my head and said: "LISTEN". 

you can watch me listening, here. it's the last segment. there's tears.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bYSnr8Tkwfw

these lyrics filled my head ....

and time stopped.

(content warning: this song has rape, blood, murder).

Mama's cryin' long (And she can't get up)
Mama's cryin' long (And she can't get up)

Mama's hands are shakin' (And she can't get up)
Mama's hands are shakin' (And she can't get up)

Mama's runnin' hard (From the boss's man)
Mama's runnin' hard (From the boss's man)

Caught her anyway (The boss's man)
Caught her anyway (The boss's man)

They lie on the ground (Again and again)
They lie on the ground (Again and again)

I can her screamin' (Again and again)
I can her screamin' (Again and again)

Mama's cryin' long (And she can't get up)
Mama's cryin' long (And she can't get up)

Mama's hands are shakin' (And she can't get up)
Mama's hands are shakin' (And she can't get up)

It was late at night (When she got the knife)
It was late at night (When she got the knife)

She went to his room (When she got the knife)
She went to his room (When she got the knife)

Mama's dress is red (It was white before)
Mama's dress is red (It was white before)

Lift it up and see (It was white before)
Lift it up and see (It was white before)

Mama's cryin' long (And she can't get up)
Mama's cryin' long (And she can't get up)

Mama's hands are shakin' (And she can't get up)
Mama's hands are shakin' (And she can't get up)

All the men have come (And they brought the rope)
All the men have come (And they brought the rope)

They came here for Mama (And they brought the rope)
They came here for Mama (And they brought the rope)

Mama's cryin' long (And she can't get up)
Mama's cryin' long (And she can't get up)

Mama's hands are shakin' (And she can't get up)
Mama's hands are shakin' (And she can't get up)

Mama's in the tree (And she can't come down)
Mama's in the tree (And she won't come down)

Mama's flying free (And she can't come down)
Mama's flying free (And she won't come down)
Mama's flying free (And she can't come down)
Mama's flying free (And she won't come down)
Mama's flying free (And she can't come down)
Mama's flying free......

.................

there is a great documentary about the making of this song.

please, if nothing else....watch this.....

please.

please give yourself some space.....

and watch it.
it's not an easy watch. that's WHY you gotta watch it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M7PvWw97Cq0

.....

then, if you want to stay in the zone as you listen....follow it up with this....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RRHO29T4Gwc

"all babies must cry", rhiannon's duet with my pal sxip shirey.

also, rhiannon is HERE on patreon....

if you're looking for a new artist to support, she's the one:

https://www.patreon.com/rhiannongiddens

...........

back to the story.

rhiannon was psyched to duet, and she'd just come home from her own tour down under. she's a mama, too, and she's been locked down in ireland.

she said she could record at home. 

one of the delays is that she did the recording of her part of the vocal, and it was SO good ....and the mic not quite good enough....that we decided to hold off and wait until she could get into a real recording studio. 

she's doing that now.

it's worth the wait.

..........

i'll send a few more pictures of myself in the studio (in auckland - and lucy lawless, who was hanging there that day, got some great video takes of the piano), and jherek & musicians in the studio (in los angeles), and rhiannon in the studio (in ireland)....when i THING.

for now, here's one more quickie lucy took while i was tracking at roundhead, neil finn's studio in auckland, aotearoa.....

it was such a beautiful space.

it healed me.

............................

the song 

is

being 

completed

and mixed 

as we speak....

by jherek.

.....

then....WHAT FOR ARTWORK?

alex knight, our fearless merch queen, had discovered this artist on instagram and sent her my way. the whole team has been on the lookout lately for more black artists we can bring in for projects and work. 

this image knocked out my feelings:

her name was

 jessica coppet
https://www.instagram.com/jessicacoppetillustration

she's a french Illustrator, based in melbourne. here's more of her work:

i loved her style of art.

i wrote to her website and asked if she'd be up for a commission and i explained the song....and a rough concept for a piece of artwork featuring me and rhiannon.

she loved the idea and took the job.

here are a few of the super-rough-draft sketches .....

and i cannot wait to see the final result.

she's working away at in in melbourne as we speak.

things take time

and

they come together.

.......

the entire profit from this project, after the artists and musicians are paid, is going to go to fund the FREE BLACK UNIVERSITY.

you probably caught it when i posted about this a few weeks ago.....here's the recap from when melz owusu (@freeblackuni) took over my instagram account:

https://www.patreon.com/posts/love-note-vote-38164230

...............

there are so many worthy projects to give to nowadays, but i think something as small and progressive as this is a perfect place to put our dough right now. education is paramount.

more.....

The Free Black University is a hub for radical and transformative knowledge production. The fight to decolonise education has been going on for years and it has become ever clearer that more is required than what the current education system can offer.

Universities hold a deep responsibility when it comes to racism, the knowledge that introduced the very ideology of racism into our society was born in British Universities.

The Free Black University exists to re-distribute knowledge and act as a space of incubation for the creation of transformative knowledge in the Black community. We firmly believe education should centre Black people healing and it should be free, anti-colonial, and accessible to all – so we will provide it.

.....

here's the current state of the gofundme.

back when melz did the instagram takeover it was only at about £30k....it's really coming along. let's keep helping.

and just so you are reminded of the small community phenomenon here....the free black uni gofundme fundraiser was shared by hannah on a previous patreon post where i encouraged patrons to share stuff they were they were supporting related to black lives matter:

https://www.patreon.com/posts/black-lives-37857676

that's how all this happened. thanks again, hannah. look at what you've done.

......

i'll check back with you all in (hopefully less than) a week with the finished track...

i think you will love it.

and i love you.

breathe on,

sisters, 

breathe on.

.....

all my love, from the backyard with the chickens.

xx

afp

------THE NEVER-ENDING AS ALWAYS---------

IF YOU'RE IN THE USA.....DON'T FORGET TO REGISTER TO VOTE IN THE NOVEMBER 2020 ELECTION. DO NOT BE CONFUSED!!! help is there: you can register to vote, find your local voter registration deadlines, update your voter registration, check that your registration is still on the books, find your polling place and other important election information HERE at http://headcount.org

..........

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