What Do You Know: A Snare Drum Stand Works for the Banjo

(Perfect for playing the long neck as if it were a baby grand.)

The Trial of Omar Khadr

The best context for this neglected Canadian comes from an American blog by Andrew Sullivan.

If the kid called Omar Khadr
Thought it would have made him richer
He’da thrown a grenade at any one of you.
But if that’s the Talibanny way
Making money how you can, hey,
Corporate thinking’s fundament’list too.

Because our Omar Khadr
Was indeed a child soldier
Who felt if he showed prowess he might live.
But if he thought there was money to be made
Then it’s like Blackwater’s militant aid
Cause freedom fighting can be so lucrative.

The wife of his victim at the trial
When shown the kid, she called him vile
Declared her husband should’ve seen his children grow.
But the child soldier should
Lose his missing childhood
And the freedom that the dead man’s children know.

After that our Omar Khadr
Said he wished to be a doctor
Though prob’ly not the expert witness kind:
(Who swore Omar had learned in prison
To hate, though how that was known to him’s
Not clear. This is common here, you’ll find.)

Then Omar Khadr really must have lost
His taste for mercenary business
When he met the prosecuting lawyer pro,
Who deals with torture, lies and facts
As if they’re loonies and greenbacks
And proves the law is a business dealing too,

Just like the child soldier Khadr
Who thought it just might make him richer
If he killed a soldier in the Afghan game.
But a soldier’s not a toy
Unless that soldier is a boy,
Then he’s dressed in straw for the US justice flame…

(And Canada won’t escape some blame
For leaving him to his Guantanamo rock star fame.)


image from here.

This song is part of a cycle being developed around the theme of exile for a show around the banjo for Crow's Theatre.

And this post officially reboots the long-neglected, once-retired, banjo banjar blog.

Nice

You know, when I started the blog, there was very little banjo presence on the internet. Now we have gold like this.