Get all 5 Anthony Oscar releases available on Bandcamp and save 50%.
Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of Pretend You Don't Know Me, sweetnsour sally, If I Told You, The Shine, and It Used To Be A City.
1. |
Autobiography
01:45
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I’m a folk singer, songwriter, painter & friend
a poet, a brother, I draw with a pen all sorts of fantastic creations & plots, a book or a guitar I always have got. come sit down beside me, i’ll sing you a song about a funny old world that’s a coming along. I’ll paint you a picture of where I have been or something I’ve seen way down in New Orleans.
There’s lots of folks talking of lots going on, I take them and twist them up into a song. there’s plenty to do if you just look around to keep your mind sharp & your boots on the ground. there’s lots of good people doing lots of good things,
if you’re feeling stuck, just give them a ring. i’m dreaming & scheming & learning new songs & asking what you want when that better world comes along. once there’s enough freedom around for us all to plant a good tree & eat the fruit when it falls.
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2. |
I'm The Dawn
06:57
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I’m The Dawn
Like a pawn of tomorrow
Like a gold-dusted frown
In the sights of a rifle
That will never make a sound
I have come close to heaven—
Every wild escapade—
In between the mouths of lions
Have I learned to be brave.
Someone asked me if I had seen her
Had I ever known Snow White?
All the sweethearts went to dinner
They all disappeared last night
At a hero’s remembrance
In a hall cold as steel
I have learned that a heartache
Takes a lifetime to heal
It is one, then the other
I have always known the Truth
But the feathers and the tar balls
Keep on falling from the roof
It’s the Shine that I’m after
Like a lightning bolting rod
I am stronger in the shadows
I and I-who-am-God
Crooked captains on the river
Hiding out after the war
Smuggling salt and sugar
Whiskey underneath the floor
Shotgun house dripping water
Try not to renew the lease
Caught a mouse in a bottle
Sold him for a quarter piece.
Frozen footsteps I have witnessed
Though it’s been a while since
I have crossed the Lake of Fire
In the presence of the Prince
I’m not phased when the lights fade
If the Shine finally fails
It’s the Question I am after
Why I ride along the rails
All this time, they’ve been looking
Never realized I was gone
I’m not there or in Brooklyn
After all, I’m the Dawn
It’s the Chaos that they’re after
Once it’s all said and done
I’m the one who brought the laughter
I’m the one, I’m the One
I’m the frightened deer in headlights
I’m the shivering autumn leaves
I’m the Watchman standing upright
I’m those aces up your sleeve
I just called to say Nothing
I’ve lost my sight again
I won’t call back in the morning
I’ll have packed the van by then
It’s a cold and lonely winter
I’ve been struggling to say:
Goodbye to you, my Sister
It has always been this way.
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5. |
Mayday
04:54
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Mayday
I was born with a broken heart
& I felt lost from the very start
I grew up mean, but I grew up smart
First I rambled near, then I rambled far
I caught a train down to New Orleans
To drive a spike into Jim Crow’s machine
‘cause of all the sights I’d ever seen
nothing was quite like that New Orleans
So many men sitting on their stoops
There’s lots of work, but none to do
Tell me what’s a strong man to do
When his chances feel worse than the blues
Now they say the river might finally rise
& when it does, so will the guys
‘cause you hear their thoughts louder than their cries
& you know they’re thinking keep your eyes on the prize
Now I live down in New Orleans
I still feel lost & I still feel mean
But I share a vision realer than a dream
That together we can take down
the oil-slickened
dark money-driven
Jim Crow-addicted
prison industrially complicated
trying to keep us under-educated
in the name of the filthy, dirty, rotten, rusted system
called the capitalist machine
Yeah, together we can take back New Orleans
Together we can take back New Orleans
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7. |
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A Hymn For Alton Sterling
I have been up to St Louis
I have been to Michigan
I have called out from the forest
& I have called you in as friends
I am here with you in the nighttime
I am here with you til the end
It is me that they are after
It is me who calls you friend
I have been to Baton Rouge
I have been up to St Paul
I have seen all the Broken
I’ve been thrown up against the wall
How much longer can this happen?
I’ve been asking all my life
I have seen too much hatred
Only love can set us right
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8. |
When I Said...
04:52
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When I said, We are imprisoned…
When I said, We are imprisoned
by a lack of imagination,
I meant we have a hard time dreaming.
We drink too much poison
because we don’t know where to find water
Holy water
Cleansing water
Water that will cure our thirst
for Life.
When I said, We are imprisoned
by a lack of imagination,
I was talking about the way
we see justice as one of two things:
being locked in a box of shame
or executed
by a system that set us up to fail.
When I said, We are imprisoned
by a lack of imagination,
I meant we can’t move
that we are binded by binaries
of gender & race & political parties
that we are taught to take what is
as all that can be.
See, they want us to believe we’ve lost our vision.
They want us to feel blind.
They don’t understand
that the Wonder of Stevie
is how the light shines from his mind
that a genius is only a human
who recognizes his gift
& then puts in the work to lift up himself
so he can shine light on his brothers
so they can mine their own wealth
so they can unshackle confusion
& start improving their health.
Because the poison we’ve taken
is designed to destroy.
First a thousand small knife wounds
from our feet to our neck,
then we’re covered with hatred
that is meant to infect.
But we don’t have to believe we’re out here all alone.
We’ve got healers among us.
They can knit broken bones.
They put us back together.
They’ve got balm for our wounds.
If you let them, they’ll teach you
how thorns are removed.
If you let them, they’ll teach you
to open your eyes.
If you let them, they’ll teach you
it’s all right when you cry
that’s how the toxins leave you,
it helps to clean out your mind.
When I said, We are imprisoned
by a lack of imagination,
I was talking about the exhaustion
that makes your bones hurt.
That exhaustion that makes you believe
that you are weak, that you need to sleep
& when you do fall to sleep, you don’t even dream
& if you do, it’s a nightmare
mixed with reality.
I know that you’re tired,
but the cure isn’t sleep.
In fact, sleep is the poison
that is keeping you weak.
Sleep is the poison that is keeping you weak.
Sleep isn’t dreaming.
Sleep is just sleep.
You see, When I said, We are imprisoned
by a lack of imagination,
I was implying we need to get up out of prison.
But first, we need to understand
What this prison really is,
How this prison was built
& more importantly why this prison was built.
This prison isn’t any ordinary prison.
This prison does not discriminate for any reason.
It does not matter what color your skin is
or with what gender you identify.
This prison just added bars to the Tower of Babel.
This is a very diverse prison.
So, imagine.
Imagine what it would be like for
The community that is chained up inside
To co-exist lovingly outside this prison.
You see, when we say,
“We have a duty to fight for our freedom,”
This is what we are talking about.
When we say,
“We have a duty to win,”
This is what we are talking about.
When we say,
“We must love each other & support each other,”
This is what we are talking about.
When we say,
“We have nothing to lose, but our chains.”
When we say,
“We have nothing to lose, but our chains!”
This is exactly what we are talking about.
When I said, We are imprisoned
by a lack of imagination,
I was talking about that Voice that tells you, No.
That Voice saying, Don’t say that,
They don’t want to hear your idea.
That Voice saying you don’t belong there.
You don’t belong out there.
You don’t belong with them
You don’t have the right color skin.
That’s the Voice keeping you In.
The Voice doesn’t want you Out.
The Voice wants you.
The Voice wants you to doubt
that you deserve freedom,
that you deserve to feel loved,
that you deserve to experience the Wonder
that these sisters & brothers have to offer,
that you can support them
*without stealing from them
You see, if you do this
You will gain life
You will gain their support
You will start to feel free.
When I said, We are imprisoned
by a lack of imagination,
I did not mean that’s the way it has to be,
but we have to wake up enough to want to be free.
We have to wake up enough to want to be free.
We must listen & learn & act like we’re free.
Tonight, I’ve been thinking what it means to believe
that the first shall be last
& the last ones shall lead.
We are all in this struggle
& we all need to be heard,
but will you learn to be humble—
& give up the last word?
Take a minute
& step back
Take a minute
& Breathe.
Be quick to listen,
Slow to anger,
Slow to speak.
Together, we’re stronger when we open our eyes
& we learn to go farther when we organize.
when we let go of our doubt
& we let go of our fear
& we start falling in love
with the freedom right here.
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10. |
Anthony Oscar New Orleans, Louisiana
folk songs
joke songs
news songs
blues songs
new orleans, la
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