arch/ive/ief (2000 - 2005)

1.    Miami The FTAA protests in November, 2003 involved some of the most coordinated and unprovoked military-style assault on nonviolent protesters I’ve ever heard of or seen.
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2. Operation Iraqi Liberation Proof that there are some brilliant satirists who have infiltrated the government at it’s highest levels, “OIL” is, in fact, the acronym first (briefly) used to name the invasion of Iraq, which was later changed to Operation Iraqi Freedom.
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3.  The Face of Victory Welcome to the next Oklahoma City (and many other developments). The veterans of war are returning.
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4.  Song the Songbird Sings In memory of Mahmud al-Qayyed, age 10, killed by Israeli occupation forces for the crime of catching songbirds in the Gaza Strip.
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5.  They’re Building A Wall From Warsaw to the West Bank, the parallels are absolutely chilling.
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6.  Who Would Jesus Bomb? My musical response to an encounter with some rightwing evangelical types at a supermarket in Houston.
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7.  Evening News I watched “CBC National” one night in a hotel in New Brunswick. It was such outrageous propaganda, I had to write a song about that one evening’s newscast. CBC is right up there with Foxhole News, but I just wasn’t expecting it to be quite that bad, so it was a bit of a shock.
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8. Here At the End of the World The planet is still dying, incidentally. Very rapidly, in the scheme of things.
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9. Used To Be A City A song about a post-industrial US city. I had Danbury, Connecticut in mind. Change a couple of lines and it could have been about most cities in the US.
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10. More Gardens Song Ariel from More Gardens in NYC said I should write a song about this wonderful network of people, so I did. They go around planting gardens with local communities on vacant land that somebody ostensibly “owns.”
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11. Butcher For Hire John Timoney. Police chief during any mass convergence these days, it seems, from Philly to Miami to Boston, and even an advisor to the NYPD during the same summer. When the heads of nonviolent protesters need to be cracked to protect democracy, Timony seems to be the man for the job.
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12. Trafalgar Square When the statue in the anti-war/anti-Bush protests in London, November, 2003 was toppled, it was a beautiful sight. And more authentically popular than the toppling of that statue in Baghdad, I might add.
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13. Song for the SOA #2 The community that can be found outside the gates of Fort Benning in Columbus, Georgia every November is a beautiful thing, despite the reason for the semi-annual formation of that community (the US Army’s School of the Assassins). This song celebrates that community.
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14. All The Ghosts That Walk This Earth If you look closely, you’ll see them. They’re everywhere. This is about one named Eric.
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15. Korea During the US war against the people of North Korea in the 1950’s, one in five people in North Korea were killed, and every structure was destroyed by bombs dropped by the US in the biggest bombing campaign in history up to that time.
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16. I Wanna Go Home For the Palestinian refugees, who, at the core of the whole thing, just want to go home.
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17. Moron An ode to GW, and to the Canadian government minister who had a brief moment of straightforward honesty when she called him what he most obviously is. (Others say he’s a sociopath rather than a moron. I disagree. I firmly believe he is, in fact, both.)
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18. The War Is Over GW said so, from atop an aircraft carrier, so it must be true.
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19. The Battle of Blair Mountain I read the book by Lon Savage, Thunder In the Mountains, and wrote this song, about the biggest battle in the West Virginia Coal Mine War of 1920-21.
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20. Oppositional Defiant Disorder It’s not us that have psychiatric problems, by and large—ODD, ADD, SAD, etc.—it’s society that causes anxiety and depression. I had young Alex of Ever Reviled Records in mind, but it could be about...you!
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21.  What If You Knew What would you do if you were seeing the truth every day on TV, rather than neoliberal/neoconservative, pro-war propaganda?
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Liner Notes for Songs for Mahmud:

Dear listener,

For a variety of reasons much too dull and vague to bother explaining here, I figured I’d self-release my next CD, and I figured I’d do a solo acoustic thing. I had a few days off in early March, 2004, went into Sugar Hill Studios in Houston, Texas, spent a few hours there one evening and recorded these songs. Three of them appeared as “previously unreleased tracks” on the AK Press/Daemon Records release, Behind the Barricades: the Best of David Rovics. Otherwise none of these songs have previously been released on CD. Most were written since my 2003 release, Return (on Ever Reviled Records), was recorded.

In the listing of songs coming right up I’ve sought to make the song descriptions succinct and radio-friendly (as with the songs themselves). If you’ve got a radio show or any other such thing like that or you know somebody who does who should have this CD, please feel free to contact me and I’ll happily send out as many as might be used for such purposes. If you go to my website, www.davidrovics.com, you’ll find my contact information by clicking where it says “contact me.” If you click on “radio” you’ll find the emails for the labels that released my previous two CD’s—they’re also happy to send copies to interested radio people and other folks like that.

Whether this CD gets “out there” depends pretty much entirely on the efforts of the grassroots, the listeners, the activists and other folks who think this music has value. In order to facilitate this process, I have audio files of all of the songs from all of my recordings available for free download on my website. I also encourage the copying of this or any of my other recordings. (Of course, you can also buy them on my website, retail or wholesale.) There you’ll also find lyrics to everything, sheet music to most, and lots of other stuff. I encourage you to go to my website and send me an email. If you want to get on my email list, then you’ll hear about my upcoming performances in your area and can tell your friends about the next show...

The CD was mastered in Houston at Essential Sound. The graphics were done by Michael Rutzou. I wrote and played all the songs. As for the politics, I’ll just let the songs do that and sign off here. I hope to see you on the road and in the streets!

Love and solidarity, David

P.S.: As it turns out, Ever Reviled Records is also playing a role in this release, so it’s kind of a self/ERR release, or something like that...

PPS: If you want to help David get to the next protest, please drop a few dollars into David’s PayPal virtual guitar case.