Wake Me Up, Martha - A Song Seeking Sanity Offline
"Without the tug of us and them, then who the hell are we?"
As you likely know by now, I’ve long used music to buffer the challenges that emerge seeking online impact on wicked issues (along with family, dog walks, kayaking, cooking, woodworking and the rest). You can learn more in my post on my musical side below.
Songwriting offers its own challenges, and I hadn’t written a truly new tune in years, with our move to Maine also taking me away from musical collaborators I’d known for decades back in the Hudson Valley. So I signed up for a songcrafters workshop at Bagaduce Music down the road in Blue Hill. Bagaduce is a remarkable institution that was founded in 1983 as a lending library for printed sheet music (you know what that is, right?), but has recently also become a hub for lessons, workshops and performances across a host of genres, from clawhammer banjo to Kirtan chanting. You can even learn sea shanties the way they evolved, singing while you work - in this case rowing.
The instructors - including George Emlen and Bennett Konesni - and fellow students were great sounding boards. For me, one tune has emerged so far. It’s Wake Me Up, Martha - a playful look at one man’s escape from the black-hole pull of online discourse, which starts one strange morning as his routine gets disrupted.
Let me know what you think. I’m not quite done with the chords and melody. That part needs to kind of congeal over time, particularly through playing it with others.
Here’s “Wake Me Up Martha,” which I encourage you to share via this post or on YouTube here. You can download the song (and a lot of others) on my Bandcamp page.
Wake Me Up Martha © 2024 Andy Revkin
When I woke this morning, it seemed like any day. Downed my coffee, fed the dog, munched my PBJ.
Then things got weird in a hurry as I scrolled on through the news. The deeper that I dug and read the more I was confused.
Pundits weren’t yelling. Even swear that some agreed.
Armies weren’t bombing. All I saw was harmony.
Oceans weren’t boiling. Ripe fruit in every tree.
There’s just no way on planet Earth this was reality.
chorus
Wake me up, Martha, get me out of this dream. Wake me up Martha, this can’t be what it seems.
Wake me up Martha, this must be fake news. Please wake me up, you know good times give me the blues.
I need conflict with my caffeine to charge my battery. Without the tug of us and them, then who the hell are we?
The naked ape within us evolved to fight or flee. There’s just no way on planet Earth this is reality.
chorus
So wake me up, Martha, get me out of this dream. Wake me up Martha, this can’t be what it seems.
Wake me up Martha, this must be fake news. Please wake me up, you know good times give me the blues.
Woke up the next morning, it seemed like any day. Downed my coffee, fed the dog and munched my PBJ.
But I tossed my phone in a drawer as I walked out the front door. I figured maybe just this time I’d see what life is for.
I checked in on a neighbor. She thanked me for my time.
Debated with the barber. But we got along just fine.
Recycled some old bottles, I even got a dime.
I’ve got to say there’s something here, this real life is worth trying.
modified chorus
Don’t wake me up, Martha, this is not some dream. Don’t wake me up Martha, life can be what it seems.
Don’t wake me up Martha, this is not fake news. Don’t wake me up, you know each day is what we choose.
~ ~ ~
I’ve done quite a few webcasts on relevant subjects, including this conversation about the documentary “The Social Dilemma” with director Jeff Orlowski-Yang, Tristan Harris of the Center for Humane Technology and Renée Diresta of Stanford’s Internet Observatory:
Here’s my songwriting and performing side:
What do you do to stay productive, connected and creative when you’re away from screens?