“Ben Zaidi’s Blues.” is poetry in motion. On his latest track, Brooklyn-based poet and songwriter Ben Zaidi has created a beautiful tension that pushes and pulls with grace between a warm, fluid groove and lyrical harsh realities. Cruelties and pain lead to questions that are all delivered gently in the steady, skipping cadence of Zaidi’s voice that interlocks perfectly with the piano riffs and textural percussion. They all slowly build together as the song progresses, ultimately releasing in a soft sort of chaos of wandering woodwinds and a playful bassline. The tune’s feeling of hopelessness wrapped in a golden sonic charm is a continuously fascinating dissonance.
Directed by Evers Pund, the video reflects the track’s lyrics well literally and metaphorically. There’s a real sense of maddening isolation as Zaidi performs in a softly lit house covered in plastic wrap. Drama builds as Zaidi gets entangled in and then breaks through the plastic.
“Ben Zaidi’s Blues.” is out now on Nettwerk. Listen to more from Ben Zaidi here and find the lyrics below:
my blood burns like diet soda
fizzing out on the ground
i wish it was my name on the hospital door
but that’s not the kinda thing you can say out loud
the bank’s foreclosing on grandpa’s house
while a stroke peels the last bit of life from his brain
so we go to florida, me & my dad
to load up the car with anything worth saving
a mug & a lamp & a childhood map
my grandma is crying as we pull away
then drive up the coast & halfway thru georgia
i remember that i left the the home video tapes
what will the bank do
with the camcorder-caught childhood that ain’t theirs
someone in a tie will look at it, say it’s worthless
then eat their dinner & say their prayers
but the truth is––
the longer you live, the harder it is to stay pure
i wish i wrote landslide by fleetwood mac
it scarcely left me with nothing to say
all i got here is this army of questions
leaving their bootprints all over my face
like, which war machine will i vote for ?
the one with the cross or the rainbow flag ?
which phone made by slave labor will i use
to call my manager & make sure i’m paid fair ?
we’re never paid fair…
which killer cops will i pay with my taxes ?
which prison will i pave riding the bus ?
which drone bomb will kill which parent’s child,
while bearing the names of all of us ?
& are there tides on our plastic island
will it someday wash on our shores ?
& when is it time to think about the sea ?
when it’s up to our necks, & not a moment before ?
& you told me––
the longer you live, the harder it is to stay pure
the longer you stay pure, the harder it is to live
two ben’s left home in 2011
one went to harvard, one went to heaven
first one got cold so he came inside
second one stayed true to his hill & died
i wanna throw my body into the river
i wanna build my house on an acre of salt
& hear no news, talk only religion
& forget that i’m human whenever i want
& i’ll say––
the longer you live, the harder it is to stay pure
the longer you stay pure, the harder it is to live
the longer you live, the harder it is to stay pure
the longer you stay pure, the harder it is to live
