So now, here we are with our new film and our new album, about to show it to all of you, play you the tunes, share with you the magic of all our encounters with old friends like Michael Stipe and Maxi Jazz, but also new heroes like Daniel Lanois, Lila Downs and Kd Lang. We're hoping that when you experience the new stuff it will speak to you personally, that it will be a mirror for whoever checks it out. We hope you'll learn something deeper about us and have deepening conversations with whoever you watch it with. So thanks for coming this far with us, truly.
Looking to the future; as we travel around with the new 'What About Me?' project, I'm also fascinated and inspired by my new creative and anarchic activism work with Sam Roddick, Anita's daughter. When Sam and I decided to team up and combine all our ideas and resources to make Activism the driving Art Movement of this era, the first issue she opened my eyes to was the unimaginable plight of the Angola 3; perhaps the most dramatic and barefaced example of the unrestrained racism and corruption within America's backward justice 'system'. She told me the A3 held the world record for solitary confinement, 38 years. She told me how, when she had inherited the visitation rights from Anita when she died last year, and had visited them in Prison in Louisiana soon after, how she left the Maximum Security facility vomiting, riddled with astonished despair. These guys had been framed and caged for 38 years as a revenge tactic from an establishment and government so trapped in it's own Pathology, it meted out savage torture to mask and anaesthatise it's own inability to feel. 38 years without touch. 38 years without sky. 38 years without love.
Sam and I got to talking about what on earth we were doing and what on earth could we possibly achieve, and we learnt a little about the root of this passion that drives us to Act, to Support, to scream from the rooftops and sabotage the barefaced and ruthless ruling elite of Planet Earth. And as we opened our eyes and hearts to how we really felt, one song kept playing over and over in my mind. It was 'None Of Us Are Free' by Solomon Burke. The chorus defines why we do this so clearly, and the raw truth of that realization sealed the song as the Bondage For Freedom National Anthem.
None Of Us Are Free
None Of Us Are Free
None Of Us Are Free
While One of Us Are Chained
None Of Us Are Free
How can we enjoy all this luxury while there is such unjust suffering in the world, especially suffering which is being directly perpetrated by the very Systems that we ourselves enjoy the benefits from every day. The truth in our hearts is that none of us are free while one of us are chained. I felt that song sang for every Cause on Earth and was at the heart of why we try and help.
A month or so later, I received an email from a film-maker in California who was making a documentary about yet another unfairly incarcerated soul in America. This time a woman named Deborah Peagler. His letter informed me that she'd been framed by the cops for her boyfriend's murder. This guy had abused her, beaten her and forced her into prostitution, and when he was murdered by gangland hoods, the cops had told her that if she didn't confess to his murder they'd prosecute and seek the death penalty. She's been in Chowchilla Maximum Security Prison for 25 years. How many of these cases are there? They asked me, as Deborah runs the prison's gospel choir, if I'd bring in some musicians or singers and do something musical with her and her ladies to bring attention to her case. At once, Solomon's gravely voice was in my ears:
None Of Us Are Free
None Of Us Are Free
None Of Us Are Free
While One of Us Are Chained
None Of Us Are Free
I called up Speech from Arrested Development who�s a deeply compassionate and intelligent soul�oh and he�s a Pastor now too�to ask if he and his band might be close to California anytime soon and if he knew this great Solomon Burke song. Maybe we could record �None Of Us Are Free� with Deborah�s choir in the California prison as a message of solidarity to the A3 in prison in Louisiana � a rallying call of courage from the unfairly incarcerated souls on one side of America to the unfairly incarcerated souls on the other. A triumphant affirmation of unbreakable spirit from these inmates who have over a century of stolen years between them.
A date was set. We didn't tell the Prison authorities exactly what we were doing of course 'just some music'cheer everybody up for a day, that's all.
When we arrived at the Maximum Security Facility in Chowchilla, California, to record and film the song with a little mobile set up, it was a daunting sight. Boiling hot sky, stark, flat concrete, geometry, nothing natural. High fences with the obligatory razor wire, vicious in the hard sunlight. And yet, all around the prison grounds, fluffy bunny rabbits hopped, unperturbed by the humans all around them, safe from the wolves and oblivious to the murderers and heavily armed guards.
It was a joyful and painful day. When the backing track kicked in through the headphones and the choir began to sing 'the lyrics' none of us are free while one of us are chained' echoing off the concrete walls and jingling the high fences, we stayed very still and exhaled deeply. When it was time to record, Deborah Peagler, stepped up to the mic and said plainly 'this one goes out to our brothers the Angola 3 in Louisiana. None of us are free while one of us are chained, none of us are free.' The choir, Deborah, Speech and his backing vocalists, all of us sang our hearts out that day. These ladies in the choir, you couldn't believe they were convicts doing hard time in a maximum security prison. It just didn't add up. I got the feeling that each one of them was there, at least in part, because of some stupid fucking man.
Listen to the way she sings it. Listen to us all clapping and hollering. Listen to the words.
When it was time to leave, the day's euphoria made way for deep gratitude and sorrow in all our hearts. We were going to a restaurant. These new friends were going back to their cells. With optimistic smiles and hugs we all parted and in the bus back from Chowchilla we all reflected on our new concepts of innocence. Our new gratitude for our own petty problems, and renewed resolve to wage a devastating war of inspiration on the demons and ruiners of lives, the culture of selfish individualism and false morality that we all live so lavishly within without blinking.
Look out for more Bondage For Freedom antics and please make some art which adds to the movement if you are so inclined. As we said in our Manifesto, we want to make introspection and self-reflection hip for just a moment. Just long enough to save us. Please join in, there is enough love and inspiration between us all to create the World we want let's join forces and create a loving and conscious future together.