The Nutrients were supposed to record this song in 2020 for our 40th anniversary. Then the pandemic began, the recording sessions were canceled, I eventually returned to Madagascar, and Joe Biden won the 2020 election. I thought the song had become irrelevant. How I wish this song were irrelevant.
Play or Download “We All Scream – Demo (original song)” on SoundCloud >>
Correction: Can vs Still
I messed up the last verse. The line should be “I don’t even know whether the two of us still taste the same thing.”
I sing “can” instead of “still.”
It’s only one word, but it bugs me, and it makes a huge difference in my mind.
“Still” implies that there was a time when two political factions did taste the same thing. Not to put too fine a point on it: I mean a commitment to liberal constitutional democracy. There was as time when it could be broadly assumed that Americans were in favor of democracy. I haven’t stopped wondering whether we still taste the same thing. A sizable faction of Americans have been seduced away from the ideals and the practice of democracy. And since 2020, when I wanted to release this song, that faction has become even more anti-democratic. I’ll leave it at that.
The Nutrients did make a preliminary start at recording this — bass and guitar tracks only. And there’s always talk that we might actually get around to it before the song becomes – hopefully — irrelevant again.
In case that never happens, I wanted this song out there, even if it’s just the demo.