Tardust Liberated

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By Jim Shearer on 01/21/2009

Filed under: FREE SONGS

tardust liberated.jpg

Tardust Liberated.

That was the subject line of a mass e-mail Saul Williams sent out to his fans yesterday.

Niggy Tardust is the character/persona Williams embraced on his last album, The Inevitable Rise and Fall of Niggy Tardust. In the same way David Bowie's Ziggy Stardust character opened up dialogue about sexuality and gender, Williams hoped to do the same with race in society through his similarly named alter ego.

(left: "We are the government!")

Earlier in the election year, Williams wrote An Open Letter To History asking "history" and the American people to change its ways (and its voting habits).

Yesterday Williams showed his reaction to the inauguration of President of Barack Obama by writing the following letter and by giving his fans a free download of his track, "The Government":

The Government.mp3

We have overcome.

Except those of us now in Gaza. Except those of us whom police kill. Except those of us who are suspects. Except those of us whom the church hate. Except those of us damned to taste good. Except those of us held by fate. We are meeting in the capitol. Word is, freedom will not wait.

All that once was never shall be.
All they could do won't be done.
All we sang of is now happening.

[note to self:]
Must write
new songs
to become...

...And so it was. Through the collective imagination of the people, the force of will and human potential, and an unflinching ability to hold himself to task, Niggy Tardust was liberated. His ability to see beyond the boundaries and obstacles of 'genre', 'race', and suppression, allowed him to encompass a grace and sound that embodied the all. All that had stood against him, now stood with him. All that had claimed a lesser harmony, now craved voice and resonance. He stood with poets, painters, dancers, students, children of the night who had transformed themselves into a million bright ambassadors of morning, and proclaimed,

"We declare declaratives and deny the official. Based in the landmark of the G-spot, we have overtaken ourselves and overthrown our forefathers. Let there be light within the light and let it answer to the name of Darkness. We are forever risen from the deadly: the anti-virus and the All Stars. Granted power by forces unbeknownst to us. Made in the likeness of kindness. We offer anger to the angry and fear to the fearful. We dance at our own funerals to forsake the mourners...

...This is no time to cry! This is no time at all! Here is the moment of the overlooked and the unforeseeable. We are the elected officials of the people: poets and artists. We are the declarative statement of the inarticulate, the irreparably damaged goods of the bad meaning good. We are the government! We are the government! We are the government!"

Tags: Barack Obama, Inauguration, Niggy Tardust, Saul WIlliams, Tardust Liberated, The Government, We Have Overcome