GTC EXCLSV: AWSDOTR’s ultimate feel-bad song, Winter Song
AWSDOTR Winter Song is available at Amazon Music, Spotify, Apple Music.
by Hardy Hum
The Holiday season of 2016 was approaching. 2016 was a good year for me and my family, we were with our second child that year and we lived in a safe, cozy flat and we even had a nice Christmas tree with lots of presents under it. One of them was containing my Guild x-175 Manhattan guitar, a gift from my woman.
But then…The Syrian refugee crisis was raging, echoing the photo of a little Alan Kurdi from the Holiday season of 2015. We are all haunted by that image of a three-year-old whose little body was found face down… lifeless… Thousands and thousands of civilians got slaughtered daily by Bashar al-Assad’s forces in what was recognized as the worst humanitarian catastrophe in a generation. The continued global threat of ISIS was bigger than ever, resulting in far too many attacks and lives lost. Trump was elected President of the USA. So I wrote a song!
Winter Song is the ultimate “feel bad song” calling for reflection and awareness in times of wealth and abundance that many of us are blessed with. My message was this: “Let’s not lose touch with our humanity! Let’s not replace empathy with efficiency! Let’s not confuse wealth with worth! This is a song for the wounded ones! For all the children on the run! For all the lost sisters, brothers, fathers… for all the parents burying their children due to famine or violence…For all the victims of war, persecution, genocide, torture! These people and their destinies are not a part of a fantasy story! Their suffering is real indeed – and it’s taking place right before our eyes no matter how hard we try to keep ’em shut!
Why?
Well during 2016 I saw the celebrated biopic “What Happened Miss Simone?” and I remember hearing Nina Simone talking about how she felt the need not to entertain but to reflect her times. And that’s it. I felt like that was my purpose too. For me, it’s a duty! Not a choice! Winter song, like many other songs that I’ve written, is bearing witness not only to the pain of the people afflicted by the horrors of war, genocide, and refuge but also to the responsibility each and every one of us has in not allowing ourselves and each other to remain passive in face of human suffering. This is a song of pain! Of dark! Of despair and loss! Of those who never managed to escape from a life they never wanted!
Of those who were forced to flee from a life they loved! And of all those others who never found a home… sweet children on the run… those whose lifeless tiny bodies are washed-up on faraway coasts… face down in the sand… their lungs filled with motorboat oil and night cold salty seawater… and drowned dreams about a life that never really began… Let someone else stand for entertaining! AWSDOTR! Must! Reflect! Our! Times!”
Love! /Hardy
And We Should Die of That Roar
Winter Song
Story, artist photo, artwork courtesy of AWSDOTR
Written, performed by HardyHum/And We Should Die of That Roar (2017)
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Under my wealthy Christmas tree
A pile of dead bodies starin’ at me
We had nothin’ but shame to leave behind
I got my bruised soul cut and pruned
Like a dead wood of a grape wine
But the hurt just wouldn’t go away
I was prayin’ for a prayer
Angel’s wings carry me home
Rest awaits when we’re all dead and gone
And once we’re all dead and gone
There’s no one to light the candles
It’s just the way the cookie crumbles, oh my oh my
I was longing for so long
For somebody to hear my song
But I always end up hummin’ to myself
And the snow was fallin’ white
But something just weren’t right
Even the Santa looked a little sad that year…