This song was co-written by Mermans Mosengo and my brother, Greg Johnson, a few years ago while we were on tour with the PFC Band.
The simple message and anthemic chorus made me really excited to record it as a PFC Song Around The World.
We started under the hot African sun in the village of Lukala in the Congo and we added musicians wherever we traveled for the past few years until we finally added the final piece with Grandpa Elliott playing the harmonica solo in New Orleans.
Someday we’ll all be free, until then, music is our ammunition.
One evening, a few years ago in Salvador da Bahia, Brazil, the PFC crew and I were waiting for an 80-year-old cuica player to perform on a Song Around The World.
I remember it seemed to take forever for him to make it down the hill, as he would stop off in every bar along the way for a drink and some conversation. As we waited I looked and saw a Rastaman walking across the street with his acoustic guitar in hand.
I waved to him and he came over to see what we were doing with all our equipment. I told him about Playing For Change and he agreed to play a song for us while we were waiting. The result was an incredible, spontaneous performance of Dennis Brown’s “Rasta Children.”
His voice reminded me of Peter Tosh and he sang with so much soul that we realized this could be an amazing Song Around The World. Just one man and his guitar playing on the street set the tone for this song and we added a worldwide band of roots musicians around him.
“I and I deal with humanity …”
~~Rasta Children featuring Nattali Rize~~
Playing For Change
~~Published on Jul 6, 2018~~
Song Around The World
Playing For Change (PFC) is a movement created to inspire and connect the world through music, born from the shared belief that music has the power to break down boundaries and overcome distances between people.
The primary focus of PFC is to record and film musicians performing in their natural environments and combine their talents and cultural power in innovative videos called Songs Around The World.
Creating these videos motivated PFC to form the Playing For Change Band – a tangible, traveling representation of its mission, featuring musicians met along their journey; and establish the Playing For Change Foundation – a separate 501(c)3 nonprofit organization dedicated to building music and art schools for children around the world. Through these efforts, Playing For Change aims to create hope and inspiration for the future of our planet.
“Before, our music had the reputation of rebellion, but now it’s the opposite.”
Bombino
The title of this song translates to “I greet my country” and it was written by the great guitar player, Bombino, about his home in Niger after he spent years in exile.
Extremists and the leaders of the country tried to ban the guitar as a symbol of the rebellion.
Bombino once said,
“I do not see my guitar as a gun but rather as a hammer with which to help build the house of the Tuareg people.”
The unity of musicians around the world playing on this song is a statement that music is part of the foundation from which we rebuild our humanity and our world together.
Filmed at the beautiful Kualoa Ranch in Oah’u, Hawai’i, this Live Outside video features Taimane performing her original composition, “The Moon,” alongside Windy Weather (violin) and Jasmine ‘Jazzy’ Skurtu (guitar).
“Being born and raised in Hawai’i, it’s hard not to be inspired by the nature around me,” shares Taimane.
“This song came to me one night when I was laying in my backyard with my dog, looking up at the moon wondering what she must be feeling. I did my best to personify her essence, who she is, and this song arose.”
Let this enchanting song carry you to the moon and beyond with a heart full of peace.
Taimane translates to diamond from Samoan and perfectly reflects the different facets of her nature Ukulele Dance CD music
Whether delicately finger-picking through Bach or radically ripping through Led Zeppelin, Taimane has the ability to morph genres – from classical to rock to flamenco – and stretch her instrument far beyond the familiar melodies of Hawai`i, where she grew up. In addition to performing her own distinctive versions of well-known pieces, Taimane weaves in original compositions that are as far ranging as her musical tastes Ukulele Dance buy CD music.
Her breakout CD, Ukulele Dance features Bach’s ‘Tocatta‘, Lalo Schifrin’s ‘Mission Impossible Theme‘, and pieces she wrote for the planet Neptune and the Moon, as part of her series on the solar system. With the fierceness of a rocker, the grace of a dancer, and the pageantry of a performance artist, Taimane and her music are wowing ever-larger audiences. She lights up rooms wherever she goes, sparkling like the diamond that she is.
We’re excited to share our new Song Around The World with you featuring musicians from the island of Jamaica to the islands of Hawaii and beyond.
The original idea for this Bob Marley Song Around The World was born back in 2013 when the PFC crew first visited the Congo.
Mark asked himself,
“How can we live in a world that allows people to live like this, with virtually no food, no money, and no hope?” The lyric, “Things are not the way they used to be … one and all got to face reality” came to mind as he looked out into the river of garbage running through the city.
“Natural Mystic always felt so deep in its groove and lyrics and it seemed as important and urgent as what I was seeing all around me,” says Mark.
We need to rise up and make the planet a better place right now for ourselves, our children, and all living things. “Just a Little Bit” written and performed by Paula Fuga was added as a medley to “Natural Mystic” to take the music from minor key to the major key – from the darkness to the light.
~~Natural Mystic/Just a Little Bit featuring Jack Johnson~~
Playing For Change
~~Published on Jun 1, 2018~~
We need to rise up and make the planet a better place right now for ourselves, our children, and all living things.
“Just a Little Bit” written and performed by Paula Fuga was added as a medley to “Natural Mystic” to take the music from minor key to the major key – from the darkness to the light.
Today is a very special day for us since we are releasing our new album “Listen to the Music” and a new Song Around The World!
100% of Playing For Change’s profits from this album will go to the Playing For Change Foundation
Listen to the Music, available April 20th, 2018, is Playing For Change‘s newest body of work comprising 12 new Songs Around The World and featuring over 200 musicians from 25 countries, including Buddy Guy, The Doobie Brothers, Warren Haynes, Dr. John, Jack Johnson and Preservation Hall Jazz Band. This new series of Songs Around The World also features some students and teachers from PFCF schools!
Take a musical journey with us and together let’s create a world where we care more about each other and find more positive solutions to the problems we all face as a human race. No matter how many things in life divide us, they are never as strong as the power of music to bring us together.
“All Along the Watchtower” is a song written and recorded by American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan. The song initially appeared on his 1967 album John Wesley Harding, and it has been included on most of Dylan’s subsequent greatest hits compilations.
~Wikipedia~
As Jimi Hendrix once said,
“If there is something to be changed in this world, then it can only happen through music.”
“I remember having a daydream about the opening acoustic guitar part of “All Along The Watchtower” ending with a Native American scream and a big native drum on the downbeat.
That was the spark to assemble one of our biggest and deepest Songs Around The World.
From Beirut to New Orleans to the Lakota Nation musicians play and sing like a musical army determined to stop suffering and greed all over the world. As a society we need to get back to our roots and connect deeper with our ancestors and native people in general so we can find the wisdom we need to move forward as a human race.
We are happy to announce that the newest Playing For Change album will be available on April 20th!
100% of Playing For Change’s profits from this album will go to the Playing For Change Foundation
Listen to the Music, available April 20th, 2018, is Playing For Change‘s newest body of work comprising 12 new Songs Around The World and featuring over 200 musicians from 25 countries, including Buddy Guy, The Doobie Brothers, Warren Haynes, Dr. John, Jack Johnson and Preservation Hall Jazz Band.
This new series of Songs Around The World also features some students and teachers from PFCF schools!
Take a musical journey with us and together let’s create a world where we care more about each other and find more positive solutions to the problems we all face as a human race. No matter how many things in life divide us, they are never as strong as the power of music to bring us together.
In music as in life, the things that make us different make us stronger. All the various instruments, tones, perspectives, and cultures in this recording combine to create a new version of this classic Songs Around The World.
The idea was born a few years ago during breakfast at the Byron Bay Bluesfest in Australia. Our friend and drummer, Peter Bunetta, introduced me to Tom Johnston of The Doobie Brothers and we talked about taking “Listen to the Music” around the world. We started the track with an acoustic guitar demo played to a click track and then added bass from Colombia, tablas and veena from India, and then headed to the Redwood Forest in Northern California to record and film Tom Johnston live outside. We then recorded and filmed Patrick Simmons and John McFee playing along to the track in a park in San Diego. The journey then continued throughout North and South America, Europe, The Middle East, Asia, and Africa. This final version features 30 musicians from 12 countries united through their love of music.
Playing for Change is a multimedia music project, created by the American producer and sound engineer Mark Johnson with his Timeless Media Group, that seeks to inspire, connect, and bring peace to the world through music. Playing For Change also created a separate non-profit organization called the Playing For Change Foundation, which builds music schools for children around the world.
Playing For Change was born in 2002 as a shared vision between co-founders, Mark Johnson and Whitney Kroenke, to hit the streets of America with a mobile recording studio and cameras in search of inspiration and the heartbeat of the people. Producers Mark Johnson and Enzo Buono, traveled around the world to places including New Orleans, Barcelona, South Africa, India, Nepal, the Middle East and Ireland.
Using mobile recording equipment, the duo recorded local musicians performing the same song, interpreted in their own style. Among the artists participating or openly involved in the project are Vusi Mahlasela, Louis Mhlanga, Clarence Bekker, David Guido Pietroni, Tal Ben Ari (Tula), Bono, Keb’ Mo’, David Broza, Manu Chao, Grandpa Elliott, Keith Richards, Toots Hibbert from Toots & the Maytals, Taj Mahal, Stephen Marley.
This musical journey resulted in the award-winning documentary, “A Cinematic Discovery of Street Musicians.”
Music is one the greatest mechanisms for soothing the soul of a restless man. This life may be confusing at times. We are taught to love by the people who teach us to hate. We are taught to believe in what we are told, except for when we are not supposed to believe in what we are told.
We are shown images that appear real but are really fake, and we are shown media that appears fake but is actually real.
We are told that things are the way they are, and we can’t change them, and at the same time are told if we want things to change all we must do is vote.
Music soothes my soul.
Online quote … source unknown
~~Trench Town Rock~~
Playing For Change
~~Published on Jun 12, 2015~~
Playing For Change Band Members Mermans Mosengo, Jason Tamba, Roberto Luti and Paulo Heman perform Bob Marley’s classic, live outside.
In this day and age, where technology is in every aspect of our lives, the possibility of feeling alone while in a group, is very likely.
We always need someone to stand by us.
“Stand By Me”
When the night has come
And the land is dark
And the moon is the only light we’ll see
No I won’t be afraid
Oh, I won’t be afraid
Just as long as you stand, stand by me
So darling, darling
Stand by me, oh stand by me
Oh stand, stand by me
Stand by me
If the sky that we look upon
Should tumble and fall
All the mountains should crumble to the sea
I won’t cry, I won’t cry
No, I won’t shed a tear
Just as long as you stand, stand by me
And darling, darling
Stand by me, oh stand by me
Oh stand now, stand by me
Stand by me
So darling, darling
Stand by me, oh stand by me
Oh stand now, stand by me, stand by me
Whenever you’re in trouble won’t you stand by me
Oh stand by me, oh won’t you stand now, stand
Stand by me
~~GALLERY~~
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~~Stand By Me~~
Playing For Change – Song Around the World
~~Uploaded on Nov 6, 2008~~
Playing For Change is a movement created to inspire and connect the world through music.
From the award-winning documentary, “Playing For Change: Peace Through Music“, comes “Stand By Me“, the first of many Songs Around The World produced by Playing For Change. This Ben E. King classic features musicians around the world recorded by the Playing For Change team during their travels.
This song continues to remind us that music has the power to break down boundaries and overcome distances between people.
Unless anyone has been hiding under a rock, we should all be aware that our world is in turmoil. There is conflict everywhere. There is open war between several countries. There is greed, divisiveness, persecution, hate, inequality, oppression and killing amongst the human race.
To cite a few:
1948 Israeli–Palestinian conflict 1978 War in Afghanistan Asia Afghanistan
1991 Somali Civil War 1999 Islamist insurgency in Nigeria 2004 War in North-West Pakistan
2006 Mexican Drug War 2011 Egyptian Crisis Africa Egypt 2011 Syrian Civil War 2011 Iraqi insurgency 2012 Central African Republic conflict 2013 South Sudanese Civil War 2014 War in Donbass Europe Ukraine
It seems to be that we, as a whole, have not learned a thing. We keep repeating the same thing over and over again and the results continue to be the same.
We are insane!
I know that this has been discussed many a’times before. Many people have tried to change. There are too many vested interests to really want to stop the insanity. I wonder, are we condemned to forever, permanent warfare?
Reminds me of a game at town fairs: there’s a line of objects that pop up and you have a hammer to push each one back down. You hit one, another pops up. I can’t recall the name. However, it’s like putting fires out all the time and it’s never ending.
Or the magician’s trick to keep a bunch on plates up on thin sticks and keep them from breaking.
Will there ever be an end to war?
“Sometimes in music we can find both forgiveness and hope at the exact same time.”
Playing For Change, the multimedia movement created to inspire, connect, and bring peace to the world through music. The project arose from a common belief that music has the power to break down boundaries and overcome distances between people. No matter whether people come from different geographic, political, economic, spiritual or ideological backgrounds, music has the universal power to transcend and unite us as one human race.
The newest edition to Playing For Change’s video episodes is ‘Music is my Ammunition.’ It was co-written by Greg Johnson and Mermans Kenkosenki, a South African-based reggae singer from the Congo who calls his musical style ‘Afro Fiesta’ – a combination of reggae, Latin rhythms and jazz.
This mostly acoustic track has a reggae feel, but brings in elements of Delta blues courtesy of Roberto Luti’s steel guitar and a hint of Cuba from Rigoberto Lopez’s bass. Stephen Marley sings back up and Roselyn Williams and Sherieta Lewis of Kingston Jamaica’s vocal improvisations are sung to the melody of ‘Jamaica Farewell,’ the classic Lord Burgess calypso made popular by Harry Belafonte.
~~Music Is My Ammunition~~
(Lyrics)
The songs of my ancestors still ricochet through the wind, And the smoke is rising through the words I and I sing. Music is my ammunition; I fire down Babylon!
(One more time) The songs of my ancestors still ricochet through the wind, And the smoke is rising through the words I and I sing. Music is my ammunition; fire down Babylon!
Imprisonment, poverty and Babylon’s system; We’ve been suffering all this time (all this time) I and I keep on chanting down ‘Till our children will face The front of that line
(I gotta say) The songs of my ancestors still ricochet through the wind (through the wind), And the smoke is rising through the words I and I sing. Music is my ammunition, lord; I fire down Babylon!
(One more time) The songs of my ancestors still ricochet through the wind, And the smoke is rising through the words I and I sing. Music is my ammunition, lord; I fire down Babylon!
Peace and dignity are not very far out of our reach It just comes down (just comes down) to what I and I choose to teach
Truth and honesty will free our hearts And free our minds (free our minds) So then our children can live together as one ‘Till the end of time
(I gotta say) The songs of my ancestors still ricochet through the wind, And the smoke is rising through the words I and I sing. Music is my ammunition, lord; I fire down Babylon!
The songs of my ancestors still ricochet through the wind (through the wind), And the smoke is rising through the words I and I sing. Music is my ammunition, lord; I fire down Babylon!
Music is my ammunition; I fire down Babylon! Music is my ammunition; I fire down Babylon!
(One more time) Music is my ammunition, lord; I fire down Babylon!
~~Music Is My Ammunition~~
~Playing For Change~
~~Uploaded on Aug 2, 2011~~
We are honored to announce the release of PFC3: Songs Around The World – available everywhere now! This CD/DVD set highlights the passion and talent of 185 musicians from 31 different countries.
Hello everyone, today we continue on our journey to connect the world through music with our Song Around The World, titled, “Music is my ammunition“. Check out this Playing For Change anthem, “Music is my ammunition” and spread the word about our new album, PFC 2.
Support Playing For Change by telling all your friends and family to join the movement at http://playingforchange.com.
It Is What It Is 