For Song Fu 2012, Neil Gaiman posted the following prompt: “Write the National Anthem for a new country. A country made up of, well, people like us. You are free to write your song in any style that you choose.” So Blue did. And here it is.
We claim the internet as a sovereign nation
We are not run by Google
Google is a corporation
We built the internet from the inside of our brains
And made it manifest
And we will do it again if you tear us down
We have a protocol
And we live by our codes
And if you censor us we will reroute them
We take what exists
And then we fork it and remix it
And if people say that’s wrong, then we will doubt them
We operate as a unified whole
With one belief
Which is that everybody’s voice should have a chance to be heard
And everybody’s words should have a chance to be read
And everyone’s experience becomes a part of the whole human story
The human melody
The symphony of consciousness
[Modem chorus]
We claim the internet as a sovereign nation
We are not run by Facebook
Facebook is a degradation
We built the internet from the whole of human thought
And made it manifest
And made it manifest
And created a space that has no borders and no land
And yet it is where we live our lives
And so we claim this nation as our own
Beautiful composition, just beautiful. It’s my favourite piece of yours so far.
That said, it’s painful enough listening to the punters trying to sing the big leaps in the American anthem, some of this would be a LOL-fest should it ever be attempted by a group of untrained singers. Which, to be clear, doesn’t take away from how much I like it.
Thank you! Very glad you like it.
And agreed re: Star Spangled Banner. I was part of a women’s choir in HS that sang it at nearly every major local event. The alto part is way harder than the soprano, btw. 🙂