On my first visit to Berlin in 1999, I found myself sitting in the ‘Raum der Stille’ (Room of Silence), a thirty square-metre space at the renowned Brandenburger Tor (Brandenburg Gate). The room was created for people to peacefully sit and contemplate, a sanctuary for fostering an attitude of tolerance and remembrance.
I sat in the space with this in mind, but it was difficult to focus. There was a massive protest outside—farmers protesting government actions that would make their already-difficult work and lives that much trickier. There were several thousand people there and I remember hearing the angry shouting of the farmers as they pled their case to the public, the media, and the powers that be.
An image came to my mind. It was of a lone man—a farmer—standing in front of the Brandenburg Gate as an army faced him. The man is not alone for he has next to him his cow. The farmer holds a rope as he and his cow face the tanks and guns of the soldiers who want to march through the gate. But the farmer says, “Not through this gate. Not while I still have my cow!”
The idea of the farmer and his cow—somewhat reminiscent of the young Chinese student standing defiantly in front of a row of tanks in Tiananmen Square—also made me think of Hexagram 30 in the Yijing which speaks of ‘clarity,’ and contains the line, “Care of the cow brings good fortune.”
䷝ 30 Li 离—Clarity. ☲ Fire over ☲ Fire.
These images inspired the song Cow! which I later recorded in México with an incredible band of Cuban, Mexican, Canadian, and American musicians.
Brandenburger Tor has witnessed the likes of Napoleon, Hitler, and Kennedy and today, twenty-five years after writing Cow!, the gate echos with voices of farmers again—and as well some 30,000 protesters supporting Europe’s food producers who battle to save their farms, their homes, their livelihoods, their freedom, and their traditions from would-be globalist overlords.
I am reminded again of Cow! and that moment of reflection at the great gate. The song says everything I want to say about the forces pressing down into virtually every area of our lives, seemingly aiming for complete dominance, as we all face the inevitable consequences of their policies and ambitions.
Cow!
I sat up all night with you and talked about the world
Again… we found no solution
Everything I try to do goes funny in the end
Again I can’t break through
‘Cause the bad guys won the war somehow
but I still fight them anyhow
They say “Hey mister, get that cow out of the way”
I’ve got a friend in the former East Berlin who says things were better then
Again… we found no solution
I try to make a loon with every tune
But I try to make myself swoon too
Again I can’t break through
‘Cause the bad guys won the war somehow
but I still fight them anyhow
They say “Hey mister, get that cow out of the way”
We’re coming through”
Again… there can be no solution
If we’re all encyclopedia salesmen
ringing on the bell of heaven’s door
with no more dignity than that
Then the bad guys win the war again
and everybody just caves in
They say “Hey mister, get that cow up on the scale”
Bad guys won the war somehow
but I still fight them anyhow
They say “Hey people, get that cow out of the way
We’re marching through”
You’re not marching through. Oh no you don’t
Not through this gate. Not while I still have my cow
No. Oh no. Not through this gate
Not while we still have our dignity
Community. Family. Privacy.
Democracy. Children. Freedom.
Cow!
No, no, no, no te la lleves. Cow! Cow!
Yo quiero mi vacita.
No, no, no, no te la lleves. Cow! Cow!
I love you cow. I love you cow
Lyrics & Music © Sam Masich (Nov.7/99)
Piano: Gabriel Hernandez
Dutch review of Cow! the album
Cow! The Aldous Orwell Project
Music and Lyrics —Sam Masich
"Very outspoken. ‘Cow!’ is for the advanced listeners, who will put the disc in heavy rotation—mooo!
Everybody & everything is present: Richard Nixon, JFK, the CIA, God and the Devil, Baghdad, the American Dream, World War 3, Hitler, Stalin, Ghandi. But it all makes sense and never ends up ranting,"
—Johanna J. Bodde, New Insurgent Country, Holland
The Cow! band: Bobby Kapp (percussion), Gabriel Hernandez (piano), Victor Monterrubio (drums), Antonio Lozoya (bass), Sam Masich (guitar, voice) Nov. 2004
Nice playing, great effort toward conveying so much. Enjoyed that.
Lot going on here as professional reviewer noted however, whats central to me is not only family farms fighting to maintain their way of life and the tools and ways passed down, doing the work of bringing boys to men and girls to women as all ways of making a living were passed, with presence. Those farms and crafts, knowing how to do things, gone with the Industrial Revolution, family's broken, brutal wars. Absent role models physically and otherwise and civilizations descent with much too much of the savage man rather than the Wildman (Robert Bly taught)leading. I admire your'e retreat to the countryside, all of us to take care of our 'little acre' best we can.
well, "man gave names to all the animals, long time ago"