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Last Stand

Native American Flute / Wurlitzer electric piano

Alert
This piece is now available on the Nature Suite CD and also can be found online (YouTube, Apple Music ,etc.). FYI: In the Tidbits section below, a direct link to listen on YouTube is available.

"We will probably be judged not by the monuments we build but by those we have destroyed."
- Ada Louise Huxtable

"A nation that destroys its soils destroys itself."
- Franklin D. Roosevelt

Last Stand
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Prepare for our last stand
It's time, we understand
The sky is falling, the world is turned around
We'll heed the calling and fight 'til truth is found.


(click to expand/collapse)

Last Stand

There’s a poignant sadness yet dark defiance to this song. It’s melancholy speaks of deep sorrow when recognizing an inevitable tragedy that lies ahead. Sadly, there are many tragedies to chose from:

  1. The seldom acknowledged history of Native Americans determined yet hopeless fight to hold on to the land they love.
  2. Modern day outdoor and history enthusiasts witnessing the gradual destructive creep against wilderness and historic preservation.
  3. The holistic worldview of mankind’s shortsightedness as evil regimes—supported by blissfully ignorant masses—reek havoc on both democratic ideals AND our environment.
  4. and too many others...

The trees, our oceans and streams, the poverty stricken refugees of political oppression all cry out in anguish against this onslaught but is anyone listening?

Listen (YouTube) - link opens on a separate tab/window to allow simultaneous online listening: Last Stand

Music:
This tune was inspired by the sound of a Wurlitzer electric piano! I recently revisited a lovely patch on my D-50 and a 2-bar lick I started playing on that patch birthed this tune.

Although I am admittedly enamored with the lush sound of the Fender Rhodes electric piano, my first “electric keyboard” was a Wurly console and of course it was the signature sound on many tunes from the 60s (Supertramp - The Logical Song, etc...). If interested (great read): Rhodes vs Wurlitzer: Comparing Classic Electric Pianos.

While I was a world traveler ages ago, I bought a clay drum in Morocco and two darbukas while in Turkey. I finally got around to recording them and the clay drum is used in the percussion track

The flutes tracks are—of course—an actual Native American flute.

Fair Use Notice

"Without your language or your land, you are not who you say you are."
- Loretta Afraid of Bear, Oglala Lakota
"Is it not cruel to let our city die by degrees, stripped of all her proud monuments, until there will be nothing left of all her history and beauty to inspire our children? If they are not inspired by the past of our city, where will they find the strength to fight for her future?."
- First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis
"With so much evidence of depleting natural resources, toxic waste, climate change, irreparable harm to our food chain and rapidly increasing instances of natural disasters, why do we keep perpetuating the problem? Why do we continue marching at the same alarming beat?"
- Yehuda Berg
"Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable"
- John F. Kennedy