Trains, feet, guns and chains carried Caribbean men and women across the word to work and fight for Empires they were not fully part of…Their memories and music lead from konbit worksongs to blues, spirituals into jazz and gospel, calypso, reggae, funk, rock and roll and the beginning of rap. Diamond Mind tells this story both in words and music.
lyrics
DIAMOND MIND
Written and Composed by Chanzo Osei Greenidge (SOCAN/COTT)
(for Sylvia Bryce-Moseley)
Diamond Mind, a diamond mind
Diamond Mind, a diamond mind
Diamond Mind, a diamond mind (2x)
The hexagon bars (sung)
of those teak cabinets
propose the ultimate wealth:
Immortality.
Ghosts curl from the parquet floor,
A thin carpet floating
under eight table settings
And one more….
Re-diffusion boxes
Running in circles ‘tween black and tinsmiths,
Panama barrels,
Pews and kneelers
Swinging promises
Over enamel
Pots and graters
In the boudoir, blotches
In the grey-cream marble
[Be]tray the waters
Slipping
into caves
And narrow corridors;
Little, did we know that
There were prisons calling
From below
Poisons flowing
Under those bed-posts.
There were we,
Raised impressions in frames,
Looking out from crystal arcs
Into filament bulbs
There were we,
Marching on Pales’,
Stained red in Egypt
Crossing Aswan (as one)
As Father Clock
Stood still...
There were we,
Now we were back,
And still we believed
the promise, rewards
would indeed be…. (sound of clock/metronome ticking)
delivered….
A diamond mind, a diamond mind
A diamond mind, a diamond mind
A diamond mind, a diamond mind (2x)
The face of Barbados is
ALL the faces of Blackness:
The quiet yellows, the open blues...
The seeping reds
and holy-rolling pews… [this line is sung]
The ancient tramcars drumming over
Passages,
Sunscreen dreams and silk cotton bridges.
The I-obsessed land sighs
what-could-have-been;
its memories dredged to plaster the skin
Of souvenirs.
The spirits still create maps
In old cane and the same
Stale smoke,
Planting sweet hearts and
Dripping forth pennies and hard ‘wuk’
But this is New York,
The new canoes are plodding away
from scratchy trails and foolish talk.
But still there is time to walk
in dark embrace
Time to absorb,
Direct the resistance
Of ultramar waves…
Time to find…
Veins of gold
and black oil…
In a diamond mind (4x).
credits
from Manila Sunrise - Part 1: Digable Planets,
track released November 20, 2013
3) Diamond Mind
Lead Vocals; Acoustic Guitar; Berimbau; Backing Vocals: Twylight Seven
Drums: Makesi Jawara Joseph
Backing Vocals: Rochelle Dalrymple; Kendel Haynes
Percussive Bass Pan: Delesse Francis
Dyímbe: Tinika Davis
All Songs Written, Composed and Arranged by: Twylight Seven
All Songs Produced, Engineered and Mixed by: Lamar “Beebo” Pollard
Recording, Production and Mixing: Lion’s Den Studios, Mt. Lambert, Trinidad and Tobago
Mastering: Phillip Klum Mastering, New York City, USA
Publishing: 50 Stories Publishing
Photograph: Playing for Change- Canada (CGreenidge-2008)
These sweet, sad indie pop tunes accompany Ian Coss's podcast of the same name, in which he interviews his family about their divorces. Bandcamp New & Notable Aug 17, 2021
