"World Trade": writing music about 9/11 ten years later

Free song for August is "World Trade" (DOWNLOAD)


I had not really intended to write a song about the war on terror, but when I heard the news that we had killed Osama, what really sunk in was how much the world had changed as a result of 9/11. Airport scanners, the Patriot act, the Arab spring, Guantanamo Bay, unpaid wars in the Middle East, a rebirth of racism; the list goes on and on. How had this one act created such a deep, long lasting impact on our country and our planet?

AUG - World Trade by Cancer Killing Gemini

The news of Bin Laden's death, for me, brought back the images of the planes hitting the towers. The chorus lyrics of this song ("World Trade") came out days after I heard the news. I had intellectualized the events of that day and stored away the emotion for almost a decade.

The verses of the song were a different story. Eventually they would go through three versions as I found the message and the tone for what I wanted to say. The rest of the band (especially Frank) was a great sounding board as the song took shape. Everyone has some opinion, emotion or connection with the events of 9/11. Hearing input from the band (and later from others) helped me find the context for my experiences.

Engine Company 10

I visited Ground Zero after 9/11. Now it felt like time to go back. Back then it was a pile of rubble being loaded into dump trucks. The tone around the site was quiet and somber. There was a undeniable respect for what had transpired. But what I experienced this time was quite different. Hope. Progress. Pride. I didn't need a blueprint to see what was being created. There's the Memorial. There's the Freedom Tower. The walls and fences that obscured much of the view on my first visit couldn't hide the majesty that was underway. Everything was vertical now, with cranes bearing American flags dominating the sky.

construction at WTC August 2011

And people. Every age, every race. No hostility, no anti-anything signs, just people. Maybe America, at least around the WTC, was returning to its core values.
While in NYC, I visited with two friends I had not seen in a very long time. I asked about their experiences as New Yorkers during and after 9/11. I'm changing names but no other details of our conversations.

Amy worked for an investment firm in Tower 2 in 2001. At the beginning of September, she was on vacation in Europe. Her return ticket had her scheduled to be back in NY on Sunday the 9th. She would have been at work on Tuesday had she taken that flight, but her travel companion suggested they extend their vacation for a few more days and fly home on Wednesday the 12th. The flight on the 12th would be cancelled as flights across the world were disrupted in the aftermath. Amy eventually returned on the Sunday after 9/11. Of the thousands of employees of her company that were in the tower, all but 4 escaped. She knew and had worked with all 4. Returning to work, Amy described an environment of alienation. Her friends and coworkers avoided and ignored her. Having not been through the experience in the tower, she was an outsider.

Lynn was a musician who also did temp work. The week before 9/11, she was scheduled to temp in one of the towers, but over the weekend, a music gig materialized. She called a friend to cover and he went to work in her place for that week. He didn't make it out of the tower. Lynn still carries the guilt of "killing her friend" to this day. As soon as she started telling me about her experience, she was in tears. She can intellectualize that there is no fault in her actions but it doesn't do anything to make her feel better or to bring her friend back.

Lynn told me of an experience she had recently on a train. A tall dark-skinned man boarded in traditional Muslim clothing boarded the train and sat down near her. He put his backpack under the seat and sat quietly. She paid him little attention. But when, a few stops later, the man exited the train, leaving his backpack behind, Lynn immediately bolted off the train and ran as fast as she could. She knew which direction the train ran, and took off in a perpendicular direction so that the inevitable blast from the bomb she knew was in the backpack would not get her. After she was blocks away, she slowed down and started crying. Not because of fear, but because it was only at this moment that she realized the possibility that it was just a regular backpack. Her experience on 9/11 had scarred her in a way she was not aware of until that moment. Situational racism. There was no bomb.

Freedom Tower, roughly 50% complete, August 2011

After visiting the WTC, I went to see where the "proposed mosque" I had heard so much about about in the news was located. I remembered that it was north of the site, so I headed out in that direction. I asked a street vendor selling souvenirs where it was. "Warren St" he replied. I walked up to Warren St and asked someone working in a restaurant where the mosque site was. They didn't know. The people in the convenient store didn't know either. At a bar down the street, the bartender thought it was in "the old Burlington Coat Factory" building, but she didn't know where that was. I started walking back towards the WTC site. I stopped into another business. "It's near a bar called Dakota's, but I don't know what street that's on". Okay, more walking.  Then I came across the Christian Science Reading Room. They must know. Nope. Didn't even know what I was talking about, but they did have a computer and I was able to look it up on the internet. It was less than a block away. I went around the corner and there was Dakota's. I went in and asked the bartender where the mosque site was. He didn't know either. He asked his coworker who said "it's next door".

I left the bar and looked next door. No crowds. No banners. Just an old building in need of a paint job and some serious renovations. There was a police car parked at the curb. I knocked on the window and the officer rolled down the window. "Is this the 'proposed mosque' site?" I asked. Yes it was. "Is it always this quiet around here?" I asked. She said it was. Maybe there would be some yelling on the anniversary of 9/11, but for the most part New Yorkers just walked by.

not much happening at the mosque site

But the thing that was the most constant reminder of 9/11 is my cousin serving in the Marines, in both Iraq and Afghanistan. He has a young wife and young son. I am always impressed with his character, his conviction and his courage. Each time we get together, I hope for the news that his next assignment will be stateside: something mundane and safe. As long as the wars continue, there's no long term guarantee of that. Bin Laden's dead. It's time for him to be the amazing dad we all know he is.

"World Trade" will be a free download forever.

Lyrics:
You drop the towers

and then retreat

Our shock and awe will wreck the wrong country

Now we've both put on a big display

The Arab spring blooms anyway

Blue sky outside

Airplanes inside

In flames goodbye

World trade

To my cousin 

and your Marines

I want you safe far from the Middle East

While congress fights to see how long you stay

I think that you should see your son today

Throw some boots on the ground to confuse the outrage

Then to kill just one man we invade three countries

Call it terror or religion we all bleed the same way

Because all Muslims aren't Al Qaeda nor all Christians the KKK

Thanks again to Chuck Pukmel for some great mix consutation

SHOWS: 

9/15 live in studio performance on http://unregularradio.com/

10/2 Precinct in Somerville, MA 9pm - tix available here

We record and release one new song a month. The latest two are free to download, so stay in touch and get all our new music for free. facebook

Next month's free song: "University"


Eric Michael Cohen
Cancer Killing Gemini
http://www.cancerkillinggemini.com
@CancerKillingG