"Forgive them, even if they are not sorry"

Yesterday I was checking some Shabazz videos on youtube, surprised to read every comment underneath saying something like "THUMBS UP IF JULIAN SENT YOU :)"... "thanx jules" "haha Julian sent me here The power that man has haha :) Good song tho, he has awesome taste in music ♥" etc etc etc. Reading on a bit it turns out this Julian was none other than Julian Casablancas (singer and songwriter known for The Strokes) who tweeted in November that Digable were his favourite band growing up and that Lazaro's last verse on Chuch was the "best ever". Being the same age as Jules, I see how it was to strike such a deep vein at that age of 13 or 14 when DP were big... it changed my life. So anyway naturally thousands of adoring fans were introduced to SP through these few words. I then got curious, finding out that he had recorded a solo album. I liked Stroke's first album and purchased Room on Fire when it came out but it had limited shelf-life to me. After playing it non-stop for 2 weeks, I never felt like hearing it again!

So he's made this song 11th Dimension, which is not only excellent pop but has one of the best videos I've ever seen. It takes Bruce Lee's Game of Death idea with a pagoda and having to rise through the levels, but applies it the spiritual struggle. So his first task is to conquer his anger, provoked by being ripped-off by a fat theatre owner who personifies "America" as Julian sings, "America, I looked up to you, but you thought I'd look the other way." He then learns the lesson and scrawls it on a wall: "anger is weakness, patience is strength" and then ascends to the next level, where he has to learn to defeat 'desire', and on it goes until... self-realization/nirvana/enlightenment whatever you want to call it. There are so many momentous sides to this magical 4 and a half minutes. The bottom line: This older and wiser Julian Casablanca can write serious music from the heart. Inspired by Shabazz, and inspiring to this blogger for one. Did I mention I read an interview with him where he was saying how much he loves Rumi?



Lyrics:

I'll just nod, I've never been so good at shaking hands
I live on the frozen surface of a fireball
Where cities come together to hate each other in the name of sport
America, nothing is ever just anything
I looked up to you, but you thought I would look the other way

And you hear what you want to hear
And they take what they want to take...

Don't be sad, won't ever happen like this anymore
So whens it coming, this last new great movement that I can join?
It won't end here, your faith has got to be greater than your fear

Forgive them, even if they are not sorry
All the vultures, bootleggers at the door waiting
You are looking for your own voice but in others
While it hears you, trapped in another dimension

Drop your guard, you don't have to be smart all of the time
I've got a mind full of blanks, I need to go somewhere new fast
And don't be shy, oh no, at least deliberately - cause no one really cares or wonders why anymore
Oh, I got music, coming out of my hands and feet and kisses...

That is how it once was done
All the dreamers on the run

Forgive them, even if they are not sorry
All the vultures, bootleggers at the door waiting
We're so quick to point out our own flaws in others
Complicated mammals on the wings of robots

If you believe in this world then no one has died in vain
But don't you dare get to the top and not know what to do