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Chris Giorgi feat. Drew McNaughton - Lament for Detroit and Damascus (Soul Lament Version)

from Anima Mundi by Drew McNaughton

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about

The music for this track was produced by my friend Chris Giorgi who provided me and my friends with many hours of music listening to his mix tapes. He is a phenomenal DJ and also a talented music producer. I uploaded one of the spoken word only versions of my poem "Lament for Detroit and Damascus" to Soundcloud which he used in the track. The words are all spliced up and heavily effected so I won't attempt to recreate that but the original poem is in the lyrics section.

One of my few published poems it was originally included in an issue of The Angry Manifesto, a Bristol based poetry magazine. Thanks to both Chris for this version and Matt Duggan who published the poem and invited me to Bristol for a reading.

lyrics

Lament for Detroit and Damascus

Music and culture have their roots
In the land and in the shifting sand.
Places once hallowed for their artistic role
Now stand merely a shattered husk of a whole.

Neglect, sore neglect of even young Detroit
Whose fame sprang once from the Motown Sound,
Holland, Dozier and Holland, Diana Ross,
Smokey, the Four Tops now at a loss
To see how the city has crumbled from within,
And the likes of Ritchie Hawtin, Juan Atkins,
All those pioneers who infused the electronic
With soul, brought to tears.

And if the forgetfulness of those so
Great of late can happen with such haste
Then a tragedy of much greater magnitude is
The fate of that well-spring of world renown:
Damascus.
It seems no wonder that the world
Has barely heard the cries and
Pitiable screams of terror from the
Once magnificent crucible of the
West’s arts, letters and music.
Another place tearing itself apart from within
While society stands by with blinkered eye
Conveniently forgetting the immense debt of
Gratitude we owe to them.

credits

from Anima Mundi, released July 21, 2023
Music and spoken word audio composed, arranged and produced by Chris Giorgi
Words written and performed in original audio by Drew McNaughton

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Drew McNaughton Scotland, UK

Drew McNaughton is a musician and poet who was born in Concord, Massachusetts and has greatly admired the writing of Emerson and Thoreau for many years. At an early age he also found that he was particularly drawn to the poetry of W. B. Yeats which has continued to be a major influence. Now living in Scotland he has recently been listening to Gaelic musicians and singers such as Julie Fowlis. ... more

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