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Everyman Awakened (Live At Uncommon Ground)

from GioSafari Does NYC by GioSafari

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about

Everyman Awakened is a song detailing the events that led up to Occupy Wall Street until the narrator awoke at Zuccotti Park on September 18th, 2011. This performance was recorded at Chicago's Uncommon Ground while "on the road" in 2012.

lyrics

I awoke in a cell, silent and dark,
a plate was slipped through a crack in the door.
I didn’t belong here, I knew it too well,
so I stripped the striped uniform that I wore.
When a wrecking ball crashed through the fourth concrete wall
I stood naked, alone, and ashamed.
The audience roared in laughter and applause
as I curled on the floor of the stage.

Then a script was passed from behind the curtains,
highlighted to stand to my feet.
As I read through my lines and rehearsed the blocking
it occurred to me I was the lead.
All my co-workers, family and friends
made a noteworthy supporting cast
and the folks riding the train or walking the street
were just extras with B-roll soundtrack.

Shakened, awakened, I’ve come to my senses -
roused from nightmarish subconscious pretenses,
like Russian dolls, my dreams incepted
in layers of reality.

Now I found myself bound by my own ambition,
a straight-jacket pure and white.
Like a cubicle office or suburban family:
2.3 kids and a dog and a wife.
I sought freedom in privacy, asylum in debt,
my own snowflake amidst static white sound;
plugged in and tuned out, on automatic,
”normal” by every postmodern account.

Shakened, awakened...

It’s a soggy morn in this concrete jungle,
I’m up with this ragged war-weary platoon.
We’ve marched and fought days and days on end
Trusting our victory, delivery’s come soon.
Against no human enemy have we lift our swords;
but we’ve ravaged these labyrinthine walls between us,
revealing the world was never a stage at all
but a combat arena of bread and circuses.


Shakened, awakened, I’ve come to my senses -
roused from nightmarish subconscious pretenses,
like Russian dolls, my dreams incepted –
But now I’m certain these solipsist episodes have ended
As I lay in bed with my eyes wide open,
piercing the heart of Manhattan,
With vision for community.

credits

from GioSafari Does NYC, released September 5, 2014

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about

GioSafari New York, New York

GioSafari was the pseudonym for singer-songwriter and peace activator Gio Andollo. He lives in NYC, where he has committed to music - songwriting, recording, busking, performing, promoting - and activism. He speaks truth to power in the heart of Empire, recalling the subversive musical traditions of American folk & punk, singing for peace & justice, and advocating the use of bicycle helmets. ... more

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