Ferguson, Missouri

This song addresses the situation in Ferguson and the frightening militarization and violence of today's police forces across America. I made a video for it, which you can view here.

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posted by flapjax at midnite (14 comments total)

Ferguson, Missouri

see that line of men that’s marching down the street
carrying automatic weapons,
combat boots on their feet
got to wonder what kind of enemy
they expect to meet
over in Ferguson,
Ferguson Missouri

tanks and armored cars roll down the way
see ‘em firing off that tear gas
all throughout the day
rubber bullets flying, man
gonna be hell to pay
over in Ferguson,
Ferguson Missouri

these police seem to be at war
their trigger fingers ready
snipers on the rooftop ready to fire
their aim is steady
over in Ferguson,
Ferguson Missouri

this ain’t protect and serve,
this is armed attack
these cops are all too ready to kill,
especially if you’re black
but we’re all of us in danger now,
we need to take our freedom back
over in Ferguson,
Ferguson Missouri

people are angry,
they got plenty of reasons to be
every day the police in some new atrocity
from the streets of Staten Island
to the sidewalks of Seattle
peaceful citizens victimized
by cops intent on battle
over in Ferguson,
over in Ferguson,
Ferguson Missouri

Words and music Copyright 2014 Samm Bennett - all rights reserved
posted by flapjax at midnite at 10:02 AM on August 19, 2014

This is so awesome it has floored all previous listeners beyond the point of posting about how awesome it is. But I am stronger than that. I can say it is awe... uh. Oh man. No. Too awesome. I have been overcome by awesome. Can't say it.

Seriously though. Awesome. Jealous even. I would like to try to cover this but I don't have the vocal range. I am, however, sharing it with friends elsewhere.

This paper-thin bluster provided in order to make a vague attempt at covering up how actually fucking furious I really am that such a song should have to even be written in 2014...

tl;dr Nice one.
posted by motty at 5:31 PM on August 19, 2014 [1 favorite]

I'm late too as the events put me in a serious daze. Pulling off such a song which avoids inane ramblings to provide some meaningful social commentary about such dramatic events is a feat in itself I guess. And your voice... well, it seems that it's well honed isn't it ? Great song !
posted by nicolin at 9:48 AM on August 21, 2014 [1 favorite]

Thanks, nicolin, I appreciate your comment very much.

And I'm glad you found the song, no thanks to one of the mods here who deleted my comment linking to it, which I posted in the last Ferguson thread on the blue. Seems that it was just too much "self promotion" to call attention to it there.

That deletion is why I won't be posting any more music here to MeFiMu. It was a low blow, really ill-considered, rude, insulting, and ultimately a self-inflicted wound by the moderation here.

I've enjoyed much of the music that you and so many others have posted here over the years, and I enjoyed running the MeFiMu Challenge back in the day, and I've enjoyed posting my own music here: getting feedback, feeling like part of a small but enthusiastic community, and so forth. But whatever mod deleted my comment linking to this song, on the site's own subsite, for chrissakes - that mod has no respect for what were trying to do here. No sense that our contributions here are not merely to promote ourselves, but to share music with other Metafilter members. To offer up something we've worked hard on, and to offer it up for free.

I'm so disgusted that my comment on the blue linking to this song would be considered, by that mod or ANYONE here, as "self promotion", that… well… I don't know what to say, really. It's a huge disappointment, and seeing this attitude, frankly, makes me regret that I ever shared any of my music here.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 7:17 PM on August 21, 2014 [1 favorite]

I hear you but please take it easy, your contribution [and your very presence] is extremely appreciated, I'm sure you know it.
posted by nicolin at 1:40 AM on August 22, 2014

Flapjax, no! Don't go. Seriously. I understand that you're frustrated, but I don't want that to drive you away from here. Nicolin's right. Sit on it for a bit before you decide, at least.
posted by umbú at 5:48 PM on August 22, 2014

Thanks for your encouragement, guys, but I really have become disenchanted with the idea of posting anything here anymore. There's never been any real commitment to this subsite by the moderation staff, and I think that's set a tone for it being largely and consistently ignored by the vast majority of the userbase at Metafilter. And to me, one of the points of having this subsite here at all seemed to be that there would be a genuine relationship to the main Metafilter site. That's never happened and I don't believe it ever will. *Especially* when mods go deleting comments linking to material here at MeFiMu. I mean, that pretty much says it all, doesn't it?

Got no use for this anymore: it's not what I hoped it would become.

I'll be checking out y'all's contributions, though! And mine will be available for listening and/or viewing at the usual spots: Soundcloud, YouTube, Vimeo and my own website.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 8:40 PM on August 22, 2014

Oh, and also, any of you friends here who do Facebook: if we're not already connected there, shoot me a friend request!
posted by flapjax at midnite at 8:42 PM on August 22, 2014

Yeah, you know, now that I think of it, what you just wrote makes total sense. It's amazing how for years we've wanted this subsite to be something it just hasn't turned out to be.

(not that I have the right to talk--I've been so busy that I haven't recorded much, so I've retreated to being just a listener and occasional commenter for a long time now.)
posted by umbú at 5:36 AM on August 24, 2014 [1 favorite]

Aw man, that's pants. But I can't blame you. Posting here has been kind of depressing in general for me, which is why I hardly ever do, but now to discover that linking here from a comment in the blue is verboten... that's a new thing by me and I don't like it or understand it. I'd always thought that relevant self-linkage in comments was ok provided it made contextual sense and no piss was taken. Evidently not. Or, it was once but is no longer. Huh.
posted by motty at 8:47 PM on August 27, 2014

Or, it was once but is no longer.

Yes, I've done a fair amount of linking to songs (my own as well as other Mefi musician's songs) on threads at the blue, but it seems that it's no longer kosher. Fuck 'em. They never knew what kind of resource they had here, or… they've forgotten. Whatever it is, it's sad, and a poor showing on their part. Still don't know which mod it was that deleted my comment (asked Matt in an email but that went unanswered, as I'd guessed it would), but I guess in the end it doesn't matter. It's site policy, I reckon.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 8:53 AM on August 29, 2014

And I thought about opening a MetaTalk thread about this, but… fuck that, too. It'd only get overwhelming scorn, I imagine, from the user base, who for the most part could give a flying rat's ass about this subsite.

And… about as much of a flying rat's ass as the mods give about it, maybe? About what we've contributed here? I've rarely felt as stabbed in the back as I have about this incident. The mod staff should be ashamed of this, and honestly, I would've thought by now that at least one mod (like, maybe the mod who deleted the comment?) might've come into this thread to say *something* about it. But the absence is just further proof of how off the radar this place is, I reckon.

Hell, I would've thought cortex, for example, being a musician himself, might've had something to say by this point. I guess he aint reading this shit, either, though, or… yeah… nothing to say about it. Fuck.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 9:05 AM on August 29, 2014

I wish they'd just let me take all my music off this site. Thats what I really want, and that'd be the honorable thing for them to do at this point.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 9:06 AM on August 29, 2014

Yeah, like I said, off the radar.

Maybe I'll post here once a day, and see if there's ever any moderator's input. So, this is today's post.

Anymoddy read the posts down here?
posted by flapjax at midnite at 9:38 AM on August 30, 2014