This is a cover of one of my favourite Bob Dylan songs, released specially in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement. I wanted to come up with a version that spoke directly to our current situation so hopefully my arrangement reflects this. Whilst reviewing some of the lyrics I was struck, not for the first time, by how pertinent the song is all these years later, Dylan has a masterful way of looking at the world and reflecting it back to us. Renee Ater’s wonderful website is the source for the full list of US citizens murdered by the police. What a sobering and horrifying task it must have been to compile this list. If you can watch through to the end of the video it contains the list of names. I allowed the music to end and for the list to continue in silence, which it does for an uncomfortably long time, I ask you to embrace that discomfort, compared to the unimaginable pain and violence suffered by so many people, it is something small we can do, to dwell in the darkness. This video is focussed on the police and black lives in the US, but is also dedicated to all those who have lost their lives due to state violence or because they have been singled out as different in some way. Remember it is okay so ask a question or to challenge injustice but you may be regarded as a dissident, or be labelled an anarchist. The structures that govern us like it when we are suspicious of each other, it distracts us from looking at what they are really up to, it distracts us from asking why power is always held by the wealthy few. But it is more important than ever to raise our voices, to celebrate good investigative journalism, to march and to sing. Please do that if you can, and please do it safely and peacefully, for that is the only road we have to peace and a fairer more just world.
I wish everyone, including my friends and family in the US, safety and peace in such fragile times.
The World Outside the Window 