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I Can't Breathe

from Arrivederci 2020 by Tom Smith

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about

Unfortunately, this track is about exactly what you think it's about. The country is on fire right now, and it's only going to get worse, and it has to stop.

lyrics

It happened on the street,
It happened in the park,
It happened in daylight,
It happened in the dark.
It happened in the yard,
In somebody's home,
We wouldn't know it happened
At all without a phone

The videos show it
again and again,
The beating and torture
And killing of men
Whose crime was being black
In front of white police,
Whose last words are some
Variation of “Please,

I can't breathe
I can't breathe
I can't breathe....

They’re told, keep it down
They’re told, show respect,
They end up on the ground
With a knee on their neck
They’re walking, or shopping,
Or staying inside,
And all of that justified
Homicide

I can't breathe....

Emmett Till, Tanisha Anderson, Ezell Ford,
Michael Brown, Dontre Hamilton, so many more
Emantic Fitzgerald Bradford Jr,
Phillando Castille, don’t you see what they're doin’ here,
Trayvon Martin, Sandra Bland, Ronald Madison,
Tamir Rice, Botham Jean, we’re not close to done,
John Crawford the Third, and Alton Sterling
Walter Scott, Stephon Clark, and Akai Gurley,
Sean Bell, Eric Garner, and Kendra James,
Walter Scott, Breonna Taylor, so many names,
George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, on and on,
How many more lives’ll be *snap* gone? (reverse cymbal)

They tried being nice,
They tried being calm,
They tried through the system,
Got spat upon,
They were told they were doing
Their protests wrong,
Is it any damn wonder
It went off like a bomb?

Now there's old men harrumphing
With their videos and tweets,
There's people on the barricades,
There’s fire in the streets,
They've tried to find justice,
And the justice said no,
It’s clawing at their throats
And there's nowhere they can go

There’s a knee on their necks
And their backs’ against the wall,
Will they have to die
For this system to fall?
So much anger and hate,
are we gonna wait
To hear their last gasp
as they suffocate?

I can't breathe

credits

from Arrivederci 2020, released August 28, 2021

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Tom Smith Ann Arbor

Weird Al with more books, JoCo with more jokes, Carlin with more Cthulhu. Since 1985, Tom Smith has been breaking hearts, minds, and laws of propriety and physics with his insane blend of sf/fantasy, Life With Computers, pop culture, politics, and puns. More than twenty albums later, he maintains the best is yet to come. ... more

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