Songs of Humankind #3: Give It All

Every revolution needs songs of justice, joy, and friendship.

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To accompany our Humankind book salon, we will share seven songs by Nahko and Medicine for the People over the course of seven weeks, along with my commentary and lyrics for each song. If you want to contribute to our Songs of Humankind Spotify playlist, please share your song with us!

You can review:

• The intro to the playlist and Song of Humankind #1: Love Letters To God

• Song of Humankind #2: Great Spirit

⭐️ IMPORTANT: We have just moved all book conversations to this chat thread!

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Hello Friends,

Before we go into this song, a reminder: We are getting together this coming Friday, September 19, at 9 pm EST. Here’s the link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81378808258

Our third Nahko installment features some of his newest music, from the album Take Your Power Back, which dropped just before the Pandemic. The tour in support of the new album was cut short, so only recently has the tour been relaunched—and it’s ongoing right now. The New York stop takes place on October 17th (Racket NYC), so I expect to rally a good group to join me there and then. For those of you not within commuting distance, I’ve attached the tour schedule below.

The feature track for today, “Give It All” is for me a haunting tour of the world’s broken, suffering places from which emerges a melancholy, yet fierce perseverance in our collective journey toward love and justice. Give it a listen. . .

Give It All

Nahko & Medicine for the People (2019)

...It's made a fractured line
Looks like it's from god
Maybe god was my dog...

Time to pull out my paints
Brand new canvas, get things straight
There are no lines here

Double rainbows make Great Lakes
Koda spoke Anishinaabe
She is a keeper
Let her open
Everywhere I see is stress
Wonder what we gonna lose next?
Well, it won't be sweet love cuz
It's my lesson, it's my teacher
Malcolm X or Martin Luther
And I am neither

"Perfect world?" What is this?
Does it even exist and would I live there?

Mmmm, if I can learn to be alone
I will always have a home

(Chorus)
Give it all you got
Give it all you got
All you’ve gained and all you’ve lost
And that’s a lot, yeah, that’s a lot

Know the road like Dharma Bums
From the Catskills to Old San Juan
With just an atlas - well, it was magic
Thank you, Paul, for those directions
O'er the bridge or Indian Ocean
Those troubled waters, no longer silenced
In the dreaming Uluru, I heard brumbies singing to me
And casting lines, to Palestine

And Aotearoa, my Wailua
It's nice to know life like that
From the Mauna, Standing Rock
There were moments I got lost

Denominators, so fuck the haters

Pa’akai , down Ecuador
Standing room on the jungle floor
Can't take our language
Can't drink the oil

Lost a baby
Lost a friend
Some days my family's lost again
To the trauma, to the war

That's how I learned to be alone
Coming from a broken home
That's how I learned to be alone
Coming from a broken home

(Chorus)

Give me all you've got
Give me all you've got
We'll make stories, we'll make love
And that's enough, yeah that's enough