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You Have Freedom Now

by Maria Quinn

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about

This song was written in 2016 and originally inspired by Spain's attempts to heal from the trauma of the Franco regime.

I reworked it in 2020 in response to the killing of George Floyd by police in Minnesota, and the subsequent global backlash which this provoked, and which has led to the toppling of statues of figures associated with the slave trade. In my home city of Glasgow, streets such as Buchanan Street and Glassford Street, named after prominent slave merchants have been symbolically renamed by anti-racism protesters.

Thanks to Chris Main for endless patience and skill.

lyrics

Lyrics

There are streets named after generals, assassins and their friends
In squares, the slavers stand aloft in bronze
In public parks, the ghosts abound, tyrants, executioners
Whose henchmen built the colleges our children now attend
With bricks and stone and concrete to revere
You have freedom now, you live in peace, I fear

So they’re setting up committees to unravel all the facts
They've started tearing statues from the plinths
Replacing every street sign at every intersection
Reframing cities’ monuments as bruises of the past
Fragments of a faded map lie scattered on the floor
You have freedom now, you live in peace, for sure

Oh, what have we done? What have we done?
Did we hide the past away?
What have we done?

The walls that hold my roof up are as heavy as a tomb
They hold a million years of history
I could take down all the photographs and paint the ceiling blue
Then go and put the tea on, just like other people do
We can hide the bitter memories in a box beneath the stair
You have freedom now, you live in peace, oh yeah

You have freedom now, you live in peace, oh yeah

credits

released June 27, 2020
Written, arranged and performed and recorded by Maria Quinn
Mixed and produced by Chris Main

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all rights reserved

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Maria Quinn Glasgow, UK

“The songs and arrangements are beautiful, like little jewelled boxes“ ~Findlay Napier

“challenges our perspectives about modern music and draws us in to some fascinating story telling“ ~Norrie Hunter

"A record that fizzes with invention" ~Boo Hewerdine

Inspired by jazz/ folk/classical music, and artists such as Joni Mitchell and Randy Newman ... more

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