No Place to Breathe Lyrics
I saw you stumble out from the social slaughterhouse
Oppression's progeny, you lift your head and plead for mercy
Rocks began as building blocks until they turned to throwing stones
A monolith of dominance we set atop your plinth of bones [01]
This privilege [02] is a prism, reflecting our indecision
The iniquities of inhibition, our indifference gave way to a prison [03]
Classes at war, [04] castes are born, criminals are sworn in [05]
[Chorus: Garrett Russell]
Place your hands to the pulse of this city [06]
Keep your ear to the ground, hear her gasp
"I can’t breathe, I can’t breathe" [07]
Are we so blind to believe that violence could give birth to peace? [08]
[Verse 2: Garrett Russell]
Lay down our weapons and raise our arms [09]
Make every breath a protest
In a world where your neighbors cannot breathe
Every second in the shadows [10], lives are stolen in the sun
Slowly waking from our apathy to see the fascists have won
They already won
Just ask the child in front of the smoking gun [11]
Are we so blind to believe that violence could give birth to peace?
[Chorus: Garrett Russell]
Place your hands to the pulse of this city
Keep your ear to the ground, hear him gasp
"I can't breathe, I can't breathe" [12]
We shout at fascist [13] hands, fixed on asphyxiating those in need
Place your hands to the pulse of this city
Keep your ear to the ground, hear them gasp
"I can't breathe, I can't breathe" [14]
Are we so blind to believe that violence could give birth to peace?
I've seen the end
The tyrant on his knees [15]
Will we starve our need for retribution
Or take his eye and all go blind? [16][17]
About
“No Place To Breathe” is the eleventh track on Silent Planet’s Everything Was Sound album.
Everything Was Sound includes thirteen tracks. The artwork for the album includes a colour wheel with thirteen corresponding colours, and twelve archetypes along with their corresponding homes across the colour wheel met by nine-fold, dual dimensional roles upon the Enneagram, and held together by the three-in-one, numinous.
Enneagram 5: Challenger
Archetype: The Rebel
Topic: Fascism
Colour: Magenta
The official footnotes from Silent Planet for this track are found below, as well as annotated on the lines itself.
Footnotes:
01 — Michel Foulcault, Discipline and Punish
02 — Allan G. Johnson, Privilege, Power, and Difference
03 — Michelle Alexander, The New Jim Crow
04 — Noam Chomsky, Class Warfare
05 — Several past and near-future presidents of the United States of America
06 — Blackstar, Respiration ft. Common
07 — Eric Garner in Staten Island, NYC on July 17, 2014
08 — Matthew 26:52
09 — Isaiah 2:4
10 — Walter Brueggemann, Out of Babylon
11 — Countless children who have been victims of both gang and police shootings, who have been disproportionately ethnic minorities and in lower socioeconomic areas of USA
12 — Hernan Jaramillo in Oakland, CA on July 8, 2013
13 — Donald J. Trump
14 — Kelly Thomas in Fullerton, CA on July 5, 2011
15 — Sic Semper Tyrannis
16 — “An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind” – commonly attributed to Mahatma Gandhi
17 — For more information on social inequality and systemic incarceration please visit: Equal Justice Initiative at: eji.org. An excellent community resource for inner-city African American families: aapci.org
Q&A
Find answers to frequently asked questions about the song and explore its deeper meaning
- 2.Psychescape
- 6.Panic Room
- 7.REDIVIDEЯ
- 8.Nervosa
- 10.Orphan
- 11.No Place to Breathe
- 12.First Father
