This first version of In Their Minds was the product of a virtual ‘collaboration’ over on the WikiLoops site. There is also an extended later version (see About section below). The ‘collaboration’ has single quote marks because none of us ever actually met or communicated. The WikiLoops model is based on someone initiating a template track which is then uploaded to the site. Others are then free to add their contributions and then upload their musical or vocal dub. With In Their Minds the US based drummer Simmerdown created the original template track with the working title Ambient Dub. Next came the UK based Chris B with his bass layer and then France based Darkamon with the keys calling what was now an instrumental titled Stranger in the Dark ; finally came me with my celtic vocal dub and processing (see below). There are several other works based on the orginal Simmerdown beat template also available on WikiLoops but, to date, In Their Minds is the only dub poetry. There are some similarities here with the reggae/dub model where a ‘riddim’ provides a template upon which many artists can build end results that are incredibly different from each other. When the COVID-19 pandemic restrictions of 2020-2021 were at their tightest a lot of musical creatives found that such virtual collaboration was the only option. WikiLoops has been facilitating this way of collaborative creating since 2011.
(Press play above to listen to ‘In Their Minds’ track direct from WikiLoops source)
Lyrics/Verse
In their minds they are warriors
Lions for the cause
In their minds they are patriots
No guilt can give them pause.
In their minds
In their minds ...
In their minds they are believers
Pray judgement day has come
A vengeful God will smite them
Saving only some.
In their minds ...
In their minds he's Messiah
To defeat satanic plot
Grand Wizard of their tribe
With spells to stop the rot.
In their minds ...
In their minds they hear only echoes
Of their frozen point of view
A fortress for their deafness
Defence against the new.
In their minds ...
In their minds they are warlords
Thought leaders of the Left
Champions of the people
But freedom is their theft.
In their minds they are warlords
Thought leaders of the Right
Their world viewed in monochrome
Where kings must be white.
In their minds ...
In their minds is conspiracy
Gives meaning for their life
Don mantle of the victim
Easier wielding of the knife.
In their minds ...
His mind feeds conspiracy
Cultivating receptive souls
Reaping now the harvest
More fuel for glowing coals.
In his mind
In his mind ...
In his mind they are an army
Battalions of the fooled
His digital puppets
With strings to be pulled.
In his mind
In his mind
In his mind ...
About
In Their Minds was intended to be performance poem. It also provided an interesting vehicle for experimenting with how spoken words and music, that may have started life separately, could enhance each other and take on different identities in the process. A year or so after the WikiLoops collaboration Dada de Dada composed/produced a new extended version where, although the lyrics are very similar, the underlying music and beat changes the production completely. The new version is now available to read and listen in my post In Their Minds V2. The lyrics themselves could apply to many contexts and countries at this turbulent time. Leaders and would-be leaders focus only on ‘their’ constituencies, the people they believe will keep them in, or enable them to assume, power. Such leaders don’t lead. Sowing division serves power and so they feed the turbulence, discontent and insecurity. All the time claiming enemies exist within and without and that only they, ‘the strong man’, can save the country and make it great — again. And the believers believe because they desperately want to feel happy and secure and so are receptive to the deceptive, who are invariably articulating a myth relating to a return to some idealised past. So choose whatever figurehead of recent or past history most closely fits with the lyrics. There are a lot of them around currently.