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The Great State of Nowhere

from FREE ALBUM: Songs of Common Ground by Talis Kimberley

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about

At the 2016 Conservative conference PM Teresa May said 'If you believe you’re a citizen of the world, you’re a citizen of nowhere. You don’t understand what the very word “citizenship” means.'

This is my response. (Studio-rough, ie scratch track)

lyrics

THE GREAT STATE OF NOWHERE

Citizens, friends, what’s a body to do
When you love your country, but it doesn’t love you?
When the shape of the noise round the flag you admire
Lights a bonfire of hate and throws fuel on fire?

Isn’t being one species enough common ground?
Here are old friends just met, here are lost cousins found
And the great arc of history joins me to you
Mitochondrial Eve was my grandmother too

Don’t I bleed just the same colour red that you do, friends and
Citizens all - I’m as Terran as you

If we haven’t the words we’ll find some other way
Nevermind what you eat, what you wear, how you pray
We’ll make shapes with our fingers if that’s what it takes
Use the language of music and the language of cakes

Some have travelled the world, others haven’t gone far;
Human rights for the humans whoever we are
In the great state of Nowhere no labels are worn -
Human rights for the humans wherever we’re born

Don’t I bleed just the same colour red that you do, friends and
Citizens all - I’m as Terran as you

Oh my dear friends, what’s a body to do
When you love your country, but it doesn’t love you?
Let the shape that we make with our hands be a heart
It won’t change the whole world... but it might make a start

credits

from FREE ALBUM: Songs of Common Ground, released February 23, 2012
Words & music by & © Talis Kimberley 5th October 2016. Recorded at Sidesaddle Studios by Simon Fairbourn.

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Talis Kimberley UK

"I'm a songwriter and singer; my songs are spun from folklore and history, stirred well with a hazel wand and served with cake. I'll sing you ravens and bones and the story behind the story, I'll sing you bread and apples, ghosts and knitting, and bring you home with a pocketful of feathers and hope"

Voice / guitar / English concertina

Festivals, folk clubs, libraries, museums, & protests... ... more

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