Can you understand the words. you don't hear
Can you hear the voices, without form
Can you dance if there is no music
Can you sleep if your eyes are open
Can you?
Can you love, without the snow
Can you love, without the rain
Can you forget
I don't know where shall i bury the eyes that look at me today
I don't know where shall i put the voices calling
I don't know where shall i let them travel today
Do you know how far is the desert of loneliness
Do you know how close is your hearth to the ground where I buried the eyes
Do you?
My friend.
My friend
My enemy
My slave
Where did we leave the freedom that birds were carrying that day
Where did we leave the voices talking
Where did we leave the cries and the music of last moments
There is still pain in my hearth
(because i have one)
It is a rainy day today
It is a cold day today
It is may today
A good day
A very good day, to remember
To remember what so many want to forget
Claim to forget
Feel, as well as think they have the right to forget
Oh, of course because it is so, so fucking long ago
So long, so god damn long ago
Why should…?
Why turn the page again, and again, and again
And again, and again, and again
WHY?
So let us be angry and NO SHOW(allowed)
NO SHOW, of what one thinks nor feels
It is a rainy day today
It is a cold day today
It is MAY
Today
And I WILL remember
FOREVER!
so what is life lonely solider walking down the paths full with roses
smelling the myrtles - do the alcoves smile?
do they smile at you?
lonely princess,
lonely princess can you walk without feeling the shadows of your sorrow
fast.. faster ...run! run! princess for they, they might catch you
faster...faster....breath the life in, take it ...take it ...live it...fast ...faster ...princess
now you stand - just looking around you as the walls sing your song melting the struggling hands of one taking you ...oh, can this be love ...oh, princess
do you need to run again, princess....
silent.. silent are the walls that carry hands embracing your kisses
kisses of raindrops falling on the heavenly ceiling of death caressing your hair.
death is so wonderful ...its tune is fast ... faster ...run ....run princess for death is your life breath! breath! breath! IN-- princess-for you are to die-
I can hear us dancing through the valleys of our existence
it is the history that carries our tune
it is the story of us within the others
it is you caressing my ears with melodies covering the shadows bigger than your voice
it is me being there for you
it is me and you hearing the melody of our dance
listen my love, listen
//////////////////
how big and how small is the world around
how far can your steps reach
how deep can your thought go
where do you end and where shall you start the beginning
Cover all the shadows you know you can
cover all the raindrops shivering through the sound
cover all the vicious moments that make you stop
cover them
because you can
It shall be music
it shall be tune
it shall lead
////////////////
simple and known
and it shall not change
for it shall stay as it is
time is playing moments - time lets shadows dance
can you hear them dancing?
////////////////////////
There was a piece of me
there was a small piece of me
there was a piece of me
there was a melody
there was a tiny - mighty melody
there was a piece of me
there was a fast and awakening crescendo
fearful yet persistent
there was a small piece of me
strong - fast
i shall die today -
there was a small piece of me
a tune a melody
a tune a melody
a small piece of me
piece of me
just me
////////////////////////
I hear you running with me
I hear yourunning with me thorugh the streets of BERLIN
schlafe mein Schatz
I hear you running through the street of BERLIN
I breath with you
I run with you
I love with you
I am you - through the streets of BERLIN
verloren or lost and i found YOU
in the streets of BERLIN
walking - walking feeling the music
oh, BERLIN - deep, painful, sweet
I HATE YOU BERLIN
I DIE IN BERLIN
I LOVE IN BERLIN
Shoes
In the silence of night your shoes shine
Don't they
They shine
So you can see, how to take your steps and where
And there are days when the shoes get old and dirty
Do they still shine then to you?
Once i met a friend he did not need any shoes
And he wore some
Do your shoes shine? My friend.
White lies, red lies, green lies
Lies, lies, lies
For what?.......................
f
or shoes that shine.
Shoes.
.
Pleasant
Pleasant could your life be solder if you'd dance to the music which is not there.
Pleasant would your life be solder if you'd sing the songs no one can hear.
Pleasant would your life be solder if you'd cry the tears you don't have.
Pleasant would your life be solder
Wouldn't it?
Scream
Did you scream recently my girl?
Did you scream?
Did you shout?
Did you know?
OLD LOVERS
Like old lovers we walk the streets of passion and chase the pain of separation
Like old lovers we walk the paths of wisdom and chase the beauty
Like old lovers
Like old lovers we walk.
Together.
Searching
Are you searching for comfort in the desert of pain
Are you
Don' t
One solder
Lightness of a day can bring you joy
So your feet shall not burn any more old solder
The stones and fears you carry are no more
You don't know that your feet are warm now
The bleeding steps that follow your existence are gone, my solder
Let the winds of wisdom carry your burning feet and bleeding steps of hot winters and Cold snow
Far, far away
Oh, my solder, cry ...cry all the tears of easiness and lightness,
You may, you may dear to be alive again
Your bleeding feet are burning in silence, my dear solder
Oh, solder! I love you.
Evil
Is there evil somewhere
Yes there is.
Sex
Sex is better than dying.
Lights of Manhattan
And she was screaming more..more...more
Sex is better than dying indeed.
Silence
Silence may embrace my soul soon
And i shall not remember hearing you
And i shall not believe knowing you
Silence shall embrace my hearth soon
You'll be gone and i shall be here
Listening to music which i can't hear no more
So how small?
How small, are our souls to be hurt so much when there is the moon, the sky
The green......
How small are our souls to feel the pain and sorrow so much?
Indeed very small
Are our souls
Small
Hiding, lying, ah! souls
So stop hearing what is not there, dance instead.
Control
There is none.
Burning
Is you hearth burning
Is your hearth burning
Do you need water?
So far so good
So far so good
Sex is still better than dying.
Abstract
One of the most startling aspects of musical culture in the post-Cold War United States is the systematic use of music as a weapon of war. First coming to mainstream attention in 1989, when US troops blared loud music in an effort to induce Panamanian president Manuel Norriega’s surrender, the use of “acoustic bombardment” has become standard practice on the battlefields of Iraq, and specifically musical bombardment has joined sensory deprivation and sexual humiliation as among the non-lethal means by which prisoners from Abu Ghraib to Guantanamo may be coerced to yield their secrets without violating US law.
The very idea that music could be an instrument of torture confronts us with a novel—and disturbing—perspective on contemporary musicality in the United States. What is it that we in the United States might know about ourselves by contemplating this perspective? What does our government’s use of music in the “war on terror” tell us (and our antagonists) about ourselves?
This paper is a first attempt to understand the military and cultural logics on which the contemporary use of music as a weapon in torture and war is based. After briefly tracing the development of acoustic weapons in the late 20th century, and their deployment at the second battle of Falluja in November, 2004, I summarize what can be known about the theory and practice of using music to torture detainees in Afghanistan, Iraq and Guantanamo. I contemplate some aspects of late 20th-century musical culture in the civilian US that resonate with the US security community’s conception of music as a weapon, and survey the way musical torture is discussed in the virtual world known as the blogosphere. Finally, I sketch some questions for further research and analysis.
