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Stonewall Inn 1969
lyrics ©2019 Arthur Durkee Arts. All Rights Reserved.
I. Who We Were (Dance with Us)
SPOKEN:
In 1969, homosexual acts were illegal in every state except Illinois.
You get careless, next thing you know,
you have silver bracelets on both wrists.
You could be beaten.
You could lose memory from the beating.
You could end up in a wheelchair.
That happened.
We were called the twilight people.
We only came out at night.
We laughed to hide our pain, our frustration, our rage.
We came to realize all our feelings of oppression are real.
Eventually, something was bound to blow.
A hot night on the streets of Greenwich Village.
A scruffy little Mafia-run dive bar filled with the city’s rejects.
A shot glass heard ‘round the world.
A brick through the window of our hearts.
•
CHORUS:
The bar was a dump,
two dingy dark rooms,
but a safe place to hang
when the streets are your home.
When we couldn't show love
outside in the streets,
We could slow dance all night,
find love on our feet.
We could dance in the dark,
packed in like sardines,
It was our part of town,
our Mecca, our scene.
We had mostly lost souls,
but everybody was there.
We were all kinds of people
a real rainbow affair.
Dance with us at the Stonewall Inn,
dance with us for your life.
Dance with us in the midnight street,
we're gonna make a revolution!
Feeding coins in the jukebox,
homeless kids getting warm,
black and brown men wanting romance,
dancing like we were home.
The homeless and the hustlers,
the rent boys and the dregs,
The Puerto Rican macho
and the girls who show some leg.
They called all us 'drag queens',
there was no better name,
the nice one called us 'ladies',
it wasn't just a game.
Stand with us at the Stonewall Inn,
stand with us for your lives.
Fight with us in the midnight street,
we're gonna make a revolution!
We were street kids living poor,
white men from The South,
Pennsylvania Dutch,
museum people,
boxers, butch dykes, bikers, whores,
Wall St. bankers,
bakers, designers,
college kids with closets,
professors, punks,
a Medievalist,
hustlers, brokers,
party girls.
Everyone, Everyone was there!
•
DUO:
My name is Maria,
I'm a pre-op transsexual.
If I get arrested,
my father will see me
wearing my mother's dress.
I've heard what happens
to queens in jail.
Take it from there!
My name is Bobby,
I live deep in the closet.
If I get arrested, I'll die,
I'll lose everything,
my job, my home, my life.
•
CHORUS:
Dance with us at the Stonewall Inn,
dance with us for your life.
Dance with us in the midnight street,
we're gonna make a revolution!
We simmered all that summer,
until our hearts were smoke.
We had this deep down anger,
stuffed deep inside we broke.
We turned it on each other,
such bitter prayers we spoke.
One brick got thrown (a brick got thrown),
and suddenly we woke!
Dance with us at the Stonewall Inn,
stand with us for your lives!
Fight with us in the midnight street,
we're gonna make a revolution!
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2. |
II. One Hot Night
04:23
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Stonewall Inn 1969
lyrics ©2019 Arthur Durkee Arts. All Rights Reserved.
II. One Hot NIght
SPOKEN:
In the civil rights movement, we ran from the police.
In the Stonewall uprising, the police ran from us.
After the first raid, that hot summer night,
the 28th of June, night after night,
the cops kept raiding.
•
CHORUS:
The next night and the next,
harassment and shame,
Another night another raid,
they wrote down all our names.
The next night, and the next,
till one hot summer night,
We had had enough,
Enough!
We started to get tough,
get tough.
Cops thought w wouldn't fight,
Cops thought we were weak,
limp-wristed faeries,
too afraid to speak.
Imagine their surprise
when that first brick was thrown,
we trapped the cops inside the bar,
we took back our own!
There was tear gas on the sidewalk,
right in front of the bar,
there were cops trapped inside the bar,
they blockaded the door.
Broken glass like diamonds
sparkling on the ground,
when one of us got beaten down,
another stepped around.
The next night and the next,
cops blocked us in, we circled back around,
fire on the street, fire in the crowd,
our rage growing loud!
We all fought back till dawn,
a joyous feeling so strong,
more than anger or rebellion,
to ourselves we belong!
Freedom!
Sisters and brothers,
fighting for survival,
(Freedom!)
tand for each other,
fight for our lives!
(Freedom!)
How can there be freedom (Freedom!)
When you jail us in the closet? (Freedom!)
How can there be liberty
when you keep us in a panic?
Yes, and how can there be life
when your words just twist the knife?
How can there be happiness
when your hate denies us life?
•
SPOKEN:
The first brick thrown—
the window shatter
heard 'round the world!
•
CHORUS:
Who threw the first brick?
I did! I did! I did! We did!
the street kids, the wasted lives,
the no-accounts, the leftovers,
the hidden, the scared,
the unloved human trash.
Who threw the first brick?
I did! I did! I did!
We did! We did!
Uprising or riot,
who cares what it's called,
it was war on our people.
At last, we fought back,
we said No!
•
SPOKEN:
Let she who is blameless
cast the first stone!
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3. |
III. And Still We Rise
06:05
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Stonewall Inn 1969
lyrics ©2019 Arthur Durkee Arts. All Rights Reserved.
III. And Still We Rise
SPOKEN:
We knew we had to do some more
we couldn’t let it settle down
We needed to keep going
make a street march of our own
Our rising up could be forgotten
as though it never was
There were no TV cameras, no news reports
to give the people pause
•
CHORUS:
It started small, just a few of us,
but soon it started growing,
People lined the streets to watch,
then joined in, kept it going. kept it going.
We were scared, we were excited,
we marched so fast we almost ran,
but we were ourselves,
we were all out, we were all out
to do the good that we can.
•
SPOKEN:
You who live in fear,
we are your children, driven out
by you who fear and hate us.
We are your daughters and your sons.
You who fear what’s different, strange, and Other,
we know what it’s like to live in fear.
You who nurse a wounded heart,
we open our battered hearts to you.
•
CHORUS:
Despite everything, we love.
And still we rise.
Even when you hate, we love, we love.
And still we rise.
Where there is love, we love,
And still we rise.
There is no room for fear, only love.
And still we rise.
And still we rise,
still fighting for our lives,
and still we rise,
still waking up to revolution,
and still we rise,
still dancing through these times.
And still we rise, and still we rise.
Rise. Rise.
•
SPOKEN:
In every Pride parade,
In every town and city,
Year after year,
Stonewall lives!
•
CHORUS:
Remember us from the Stonewall Inn,
remember us when you dance,
Remember us when you love who you love.
We’re still rising up in revolution!
And still we rise!
And still we rise!
And still we rise!
Rise!
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4. |
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(see album booklet PDF for complete lyrics)
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Arthur Durkee Ann Arbor, Michigan
Arthur Durkee is a composer & songwriter who records & performs on Chapman Stick, bass, analog modular synths, bamboo & wood flutes, keys, frame drums, and voice. He has won awards for composed, notated music as well as for his recordings, & is a published poet, & designer & illustrator. ... more
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