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Lord, The Things I've Seen

from The Pulvinar Movements by GioSafari

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about

This song was very much in a conceptual stage when I recorded it at my apartment in NYC. It just was a few days before I was to head to Burlington for the Heliotropism sessions.

If you listen carefully, you can hear me put down and pick up my guitar pick between verses and choruses.

lyrics

Rocky and smoky and snow-capped mountains
And desert as far as my eyes could see,
I’ve seen men without homes living in houses
While those with most riches make their home on the street.
I’ve seen tall redwood forests and Japanese gardens
And thumbed my way across the nation.
I’ve played songs of protest on the road to Brooklyn
As friends were arrested for revolution.

Lord, the things I’ve seen.

I’ve seen endless rows of wheat and cotton,
I’ve slept on a stiff field of corn.
I’ve seen families desperate to slave these same fields
Just to live in the place I was born.
I’ve seen monkeys and sharks and rhinoceros beetles,
Diners and brothels in Thailand.
I’ve heard heart-breaking fireside stories
As occupied hearts were pried open.

Lord, the things I’ve seen.
Lord, lord, the things I’ve seen.

I’ve plumbed the depths and I’ve scraped the skies,
Hiked over mountain and canyon and stream,
I’ve traveled the earth with open eyes,
By the seat of my pants and the limits of dreams.

I’ve seen seven countries and twenty two states,
I’ve surfed both the west and the east
I’ve seen many a subsistence garden
And a farm whose main crop was peace.
I’ve seen Bangkok slums and Tijuana beaches
And explosions at the Eiffel Tower.
I awoke before dawn at a park in Manhattan
To show police who has the real power.

Lord, the things I’ve seen.
Lord, lord, the things I’ve seen.

I’ve skied and snorkeled and walked on water
Paralyzed by the cold.
And I’ve walked among a people more frozen still,
Apathetic and under control.
But I’ve also seen a rare breed of wild geese,
And a treehouse hostel on fire -
Singing and dancing and occupying,
Subverting and resisting empire.

Lord, the things I’ve seen.
Lord, lord, the things I’ve seen.

I’ve plumbed the depths and I’ve scraped the skies,
Hiked over mountain and canyon and stream,
I’ve traveled the earth with open eyes,
By the seat of my pants and the limits of dreams.

credits

from The Pulvinar Movements, released June 16, 2013

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all rights reserved

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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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