Red, White and Black [Song]

Uploaded by Collis Duranty
RED, WHITE AND BLACK
By Collis Duranty

I just heard a shot ring out up the street
I wonder if someone got gunned down?
I put my sandals on and took a walk to see if I could be wrong
No surprise, two black brothers on the ground.
Someone run go call dem Mama, run go call dem Papa
But dem boys done gone, dem boys done gone
Papa reach first to see, then Mama jumped out a taxi bawling
"Lord, not my sons, not my sons!"

But hear me now:

It is too late, Mama, dem boys done cover
Too late, Papa, can't you see the undertakers?
But my observation of this story is a red bloodstained white sheet
With black boys underneath
Red, white and black,
Don't you see how this looks like our national flag, yeah?

Dem gone, dem boys dem gone
Dem gone, dem boys dem gone
I'm begging bad man, put down your guns
Put down your guns, put down your guns
Leh we leave Babylon and run and go fight for freedom.

A reporter tried to get a word
Papa said, no way, he ent talking
Mama said her boys, they were never bad children
Their eldest daughter so distraught all she said was,
"Mom, I have to tell the truth.
Dem boys live by the gun so we must buy their suit and bury them."
So who now who will call on Mama, who will call on Papa?
When dem boys done gone, dem boys done gone
.................. I could still hear Mama crying
"Lord, why my sons, why my sons!"

But help me sing this one:

It is too late, Mama, dem boys done cover
Too late, Papa, can't you see the undertakers?
But my observation of this story is a red bloodstained white sheet
With black boys underneath
Red, white and black,
Don't you see how this looks like our national flag, yeah?

Dem gone, dem boys dem gone
Dem gone, dem boys dem gone
I'm begging bad man, put down your guns
Put down, put down, put down your guns
Leh we leave Babylon and run and go fight for freedom.

Say dem gone, dem boys dem gone
I'm begging bad man, put down your guns
Put down, put down, put down your guns
Leh we leave Babylon and run and go fight for freedom.

Say dem gone, dem boys dem gone...

Source: The lyrics posted on this blog are often transcribed directly from performances. Although it is my intention to faithfully transcribe I do not get all the words and I have a knack for hearing the wrong thing. Please feel free to correct me or to fill in the words that I miss by dropping me a message via e-mail. I'd be forever grateful. Thanks in advance! .............................................................................................................................. 

A Note From The Gull

Thank you, Collis Duranty.

I am thinking about all those who have died violent deaths at the hands of their countrymen. Whether or not we mourned their deaths, whether or not we stated privately or very publicly that we were glad to be rid of some of them, the fact remains that like the "upstanding" or the still standing citizens, these liquidated human beings were not without worth. "Bad man" like everything in a society is the result of collective effort or the lack thereof. No perpetually "ongoing" investigations will arrive at this conclusion. No commission of enquiry into "terrorism" will entertain this. We are in denial. Selective honesty motivates those who confess the "hard truths" about the skin colour of the majority of prison inmates or the perpetrators of violent crimes while ignoring other truths. Violence, corruption, greed, lawlessness, callousness, lack of respect, lack of dignity, utter lack of shame are now systemic. Whether black, white, brown, yellow, red or dappled, like possessed swine, we are rushing headlong over the cliff together.

Come out from among them.

Collis Duranty exhorts "bad man" to put down his gun and "Leh we leave Babylon and run and go fight for freedom." What is Babylon? Is it the Royal Jail? Is it Port of Spain? Is it a political party? Is it a class, colour or creed? Is it Trinidad and Tobago? Not at all. While all of the previously mentioned provide the environment for Babylon's manifestations, Babylon is established most intractably inside our heads and for some inside the soul. And how do we fight for this freedom? This is certainly not a fight that requires any man-made weapons. This fight is jihad and by that I do not mean the distorted interpretation of the concept for which we can thank a hate-filled minority. I refer to true jihad which is the internal spiritual battle each individual must constantly wage with his or her own weaknesses.

Come out from among them.

Separate yourselves from them. They prosper because of our complicity. Their energy is drawn from our participation. We buy and continue to buy into and we are bought. We spend and are spent. We waste and are wasted. All of these things of the world that we have been taught to cherish, all these things that we feel compelled to sell our peace of mind and souls to achieve, they are garbage.

Fair is foul and foul is fair. There is an insidious force that has now crawled over, surveyed and mapped every inch of this planet. It knows the price of our souls. Some call it Evil but I see it as the perversion that promotes and glorifies that which is unnatural, the thing that can only proceed by deceit, the thing that is anti-humanity, the thing that is sucking the life and health out of our bodies and minds and souls. We have demonstrated that we are fully capable of being its loyal minions. It is a choice that we make.

Come out from among them.

"Patria est communis omnium parens" - Our native land is the common parent of us all. Keep it beautiful, make it even more so.

Blessed is all of creation
Blessed be my beautiful people
Blessed be the day of our awakening
Blessed is my country
Blessed are her patient hills.

Mweh ka allay!
Guanaguanare