[Lyric] Scat/Rap Counterpoint (Janice Misurell-Mitchell)

[Flute solo]

Well let me tell you a story about the way it is
About composing and supposing that you’re noting what you know
In the lines and spaces and in unfamiliar places
That conform to a form you perform, like a rhyme over time

Rhyming, timing
Rhyming, timing, gotta keep up the timing
Gotta keep up the sound
Gotta keep up the impression that you’re getting around
Making the scene, being part of the herd
While you’re listening to persistent pounding
That’s resounding and surrounding you
From the ground to the top of the mountain
Where you’ll hear in your mind’s ear
Sound rebounding, bounding, bounding, bounding
Bouncing into silencе

But there is no silencе
Only the groans and the moans of the tones
And the rattle of the bones of the rhythms you shake
And the tunes that you make, and the risks that you take
For the sake of expression, like a public confession
I compose what I am
I compose what I’m not
I compose when I’m cold
I compose when I’m hot

But the music takes off in its own direction
Like a grown kid, it rejects your protection
And just like a kid, it’s breakin’ away
From the form that you stuck it in yesterday

All hail, all hail to the major scale
Do re mi fa so la ti d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-
Do re mi fa so la t-t-t-t-t-
[Starts scatting the scale]
Major, m-m-m-major! M-major!
Minor! Major! Minor! Major! Minor!
[Insane scatting]
Mina-, mina- mina-!
Mina- minimalism, minimalism, minimalism…
[More scatting]
Nah, nah, nah…
[More insane random scatting]

Counterpoint! Counterpoint! Counterpoint!
Bebop is vocal
Vocal is bebop
Bebop is vocal
Vocal is bebop
[Scatting]
Be-lu-bop is pre-rap, pre-rap
Rap, rap, rap, rapture, enraptured
Raptor, velociraptor
Rap, attack, rap, attack, attack
Attack
Attack
Point, point, point, counterpoint
Flashing fists and trashing stiffs
Smashing myths and mythic rifts

Like social conscience, Christian charity
Social evolution, economic parity
Well it’s all a parody, all a joke
Just swallow your pride, roll over and choke

“Is God dead?” the philosopher said
Those three words fill the world with dread
Did he turn his back, let out the slack?
Lay us on the rack?
Or do we sit and wait for evolution
While all around us is dissolution?

Dissolution, dissolution
That solution, this and this and that
[Scatting]
Don’t diss me and don’t diss that
Dissolution make is what’s evident
There’s no progress, there’s only redressing old wounds
Same old tunes
History repeats in new disguises
Nobody wins, there are no prizes
Evolution is no solution, don’t fall for the trap
The real answer is revolution, but they’ve taken it off the map
Lady and gent, let me present
The present evolving before your eyes
Like MTV, there’s no surprise
Get used to shooting, get used to looting
Get used to being used, being bruised
Seeing bruises small and grand in the palm of your hand
It’s all just part of the greater plan
To bring salvation to woman and man
Pay now and play later!
[Harmonica solo]

We are grist for the mill of the Lord
He will grind us and throw us away

Oh it’s all just part of the grand design
So pull down the blind and open your mind
And now, my friend, just get a grip
And let me take you on a techno trip
Through samples of soundings, and bytes, and bits
Cybernet, cyberpunk, you can get your kicks
Go online with our friendly machine
Grab your mouse, find a spouse, build the house of your dreams
You can imagine yourself in the tropics
If you open your eyes to fiber optics
Virtual reality, computer sexuality

Virtual reality?
Just more TV to take you shopping
Flow your pain, shoguns popping [?]
Plug up your brain
You’ve been bought by the image makers
Shape makers, waste makers, corporate takers
Taking from you and taking from me
Our shape, our form, our identity
Identity!
Step right up and get a new identity!
It’s not who you are, it’s what you wear
It’s not who you are, it’s what you wear

You fit or you don’t, in narrow margins
And you say it’s a bargain, better than nothing?
Time to stop bluffing, your sails are luffing
You’re stalling, you’re bawling
But the fight is fixed and you’ve been trick-sed
You perform all day in the eyes of the other
You’re on stage and judged, called a hero or a mother
Your life is a talk show, puttin’ on, puttin’ out
All dressed up with nowhere to go
‘Cause it’s just a game for TV fame
To entertain is its only aim

Ignore the outside, check out the inside
Ignore the outside, ignore the downside
Ignore the knife, ignore the life
Ignore the loss, ignore the cost
Ignore the cost, ignore the cost!
P-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-pose, pose!
Composure, regain your composure
Regain your composure

[Harmonica solo]
Talk on the outside, feel on the inside
Stay where you are, and say where you’re goin’
Say what you’re writin’ and say what you’re playin’
Say what you’re seein’ and see what you’re sayin’

Video, video
Vidéo, vidéo
Vi-days
Vidéo, vi-days
I see, you see the bottom of the well
A vision of a hell on Earth
We see a rising, surrounding us on TV
Enclosing us in images of what we really could become someday
The killers and the killed, the willful and the skillful
But not getting caught
Forgetting thought that was creative
And forgetting all our visions and rejecting the decisions
Of the past in playful time, but lifeless on the line
Of making sound in silence with the freedom of the spirit
That was so loud you could hear it
But now if you attempt to break up the cement
You’ll find yourself all spent and pounding pavement
Better yet to find creations of the mind
And sensations and pulsations in the ear and the air

So compose, propose
What goes from the page to the stage
Break it up, shake it up
Find the beat in the street
Don’t just sit and need assistance
Come join up with the resistance
Come sing along with a scat song
This rap song, bop song
Rap, scat and song attack
Bop, scat and rap attack
[Scatting]
Counterpoint, counterpoint, counterpoint
Point point point point point point point point!