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II. One Hot Night

from Stonewall Inn 1969 by Arthur Durkee

/

lyrics

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!

credits

from Stonewall Inn 1969, released July 4, 2020
Stonewall Inn 1969
Words & Music by Arthur Durkee
©2019 Arthur Durkee Arts. All Rights Reserved.

Commissioned & Premiered by:
Out Loud Chorus
Darin DeWeese, Artistic Director
with
Michele Papenfuss, Piano
Edie Herrold, Bass
Tamara Perkuhn, Drums & Percussion
Featuring the voices of: Catherine Archibald, Patricia Anderson, Erica Ashe, Deena Baty, Sara Box, Paul Clark, Arthur Durkee, Jon Hoffman, Margaret Loebe, Amy Skrent, Sarah Snay, Lorrel Sullivan, Tony Wamsley, Kevin Werner, Kay Willey

Recorded live in concert:
June 14 & 15, 2019
Towsley Auditorium, Washtenaw Community College, Ypsilanti, MI

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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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