Protest Song Of The Week: ‘Babys In A Thundercloud’ By Godspeed You! Black Emperor
Massacres in Gaza occur at least every other day. Just in the past week, thirty Palestinians, including women and children, were killed in the Nuseirat refugee camp. The following day schools and homes were bombed. These attacks, and the United States government’s support for this genocidal violence, are now as common as the cold in the bleak midwinter.
Hundreds of thousands of people may die because of the ethnic cleansing campaign launched by the U.S. and Israeli governments in response to an attack by Hamas militants on October 7, 2023. The livestreamed grisly images of babies torn apart or buried in the rubble have left an indelible mark on so many of us, especially as those of conscience despair at the fact that Western elites who have said, “Never again!” to this type of extermination have stood by as it happens again.
A number of bands or solo artists over the past 14 months have turned their attention to the U.S.-Israel’s war on Gaza. “Hind’s Hall,” which was released on May 6, was a viral hit for American rapper Macklemore. (He collaborated with several Palestinian artists for a sequel track that was put out in September.)
But for this week’s song, let’s turn to the post-rock band Godspeed You! Black Emperor—particularly, “BABYS IN A THUNDERCLOUD” off their album, “NO TITLE AS OF 13 FEBRUARY 2024 28,340 DEAD.”
Any of the drone ambient tracks could be selected. GY!BE’s soundscapes put one in the mindset of surveying the flattened and hollowed out areas of Gaza that have been made entirely unlivable. And yet after five minutes, the band audaciously shifts the tone of their composition to one that seeks to rouse us from our paralysis and despair.
Spaces in the music allow for reflection on the immense loss. Nothing will ever be the same. Grief shall grip a population for a generation, and the trauma will be life-sapping. However, Palestinians that bear the brunt do not give up. They stay put and fight to withstand their occupiers.
The Palestinian diaspora throughout the world stands up and fights for their families and friends, and solidarity groups take action day in and day out, regardless of crackdowns from elites that wish that this global resistance would disappear.
On GY!BE’s Bandcamp, the creative process that led to this album is described as follows:
we drifted through it, arguing.
every day a new war crime, every day a flower bloom.
we sat down together and wrote it in one room,
and then sat down in a different room, recording.
NO TITLE= what gestures make sense while tiny bodies fall? what context? what broken melody?
and then a tally and a date to mark a point on the line, the negative process, the growing pile.
the sun setting above beds of ash
while we sat together, arguing.
the old world order barely pretended to care.
this new century will be crueler still.
war is coming.
don’t give up.
pick a side.
hang on.
love.
GY!BE
A quarter of the way through this century, how do we reclaim principles of justice, human rights, and the rule of law that have been rendered meaningless by the cruelty that has been witnessed by us all? Or the savagery shown to those fleeing this cruelty?
It’s 16 December 2024. The incomplete and undercounted yet widely shared official death toll has doubled. Living through a genocide documented in real-time by its victims via social media ought to leave us feeling devastated and worn down. Plus, it’s not just Gaza. It’s southern Lebanon. It’s Yemen. It’s Syria. Where does it stop?
However the sonic grandeur of GY!BE is a kind of tonic for the fatigue and numbness that to a certain extent the powers that be must be counting on so that nothing interferes with their diabolical agenda.
Listen to “BABYS IN A THUNDERCLOUD” by Godspeed You! Black Emperor. Purchase this album on Bandcamp:
Thank You Kevin