somebody

"Somebody" is a very condensed history of civilization—from a primal perspective.

Around 10,000 years ago, in the Tigris-Euphrates valleys of western Asia, something went wrong. People turned away from tribal cooperation, equality, earth appreciation, and sustainable living. War lords, tyrants, and kings arose with armies, weapons, walled cities, taxation, poverty, slavery, prisons, and dogmatic religions. Like a cancer, these dysfunctional civilizations devoured everything in their path—forests, rivers, soil, and wildlife. They also oppressed and/or destroyed the wild native tribes that lived nearby—humans who had lived close to nature for almost a million years without ever upsetting the ecological balance.

From there, civilization spread across the entire planet, destroying aboriginal cultures and wildlife in continent after continent. The North American native people experienced this genocidal madness only a century ago, and the few aboriginal cultures that remain are in constant danger. The results of this rampant social/emotional illness now threaten the air, water, and food that all living things depend on.

The problem is a lack of feeling. When people are traumatized by extreme injury, abuse, and and/or neglect, their ability to feel is repressed. With hidden anger, pain and hurt, they are capable of abusing and mistreating themselves, others—and the entire environment around them. The first tyrants were such people. For various reasons (to be explored in a future book!) this state of emotional damage took hold in the people of western Asia, and the first civilization, Mesopotamia, was formed. From this beginning, the ancient empires of Babylonia, Egypt, Persia, and Rome grew. Eventually we had big religion, big science, and the big, blind, corporate, military complex that weighs upon us now.

The African natives who became slaves under this unfeeling wave of oppression sang out their pain and created a musical form called the blues. This song is in honour of them. It begins with acoustic slide guitar as a simple delta blues song. Then the guitar is joined by Jesse's acoustic upright bass and some down-home, "front-porch" percussion by Peter. Then the full band kicks in to illustrate civilization on the move—with pounding drums, punchy electric bass, growling Hammond organ and distorted slide guitar. The rhythm guitar is open tuned to E and capoed up to G. The lead guitar is open tuned to G with the low string removed.

Whatever the cause of our problems, we are the ones presently responsible for them. That original "somebody" is now you and I.

Sam Turton: vocals, acoustic rhythm slide guitar, acoustic lead slide guitar (through vintage tube amp)
Jesse Turton: upright acoustic bass, bass guitar
Peter Grimmer: drums, percussion
Drew McIvor: Hammond organ