Miles Davis Lays It Down

Michael Neal Morris

...for example when I was layin´ down
Bitches Brew, I was stirring a pot,
makin´ a stew, those good cats
makin´ it organic live and growing.
Always growing. You don´t grow things
you die. And it was time o´ Nam
too much dying o´ brothers
too much music too flat to blow up.

I was past those days
when we got paid next to nothing
to play tired versions of Birth of the Cool
or Kind of Blue, it was like stealing
from myself, but more than my pocket.
My heart was out of it. The coke
helped. John quit cold, but I had to...

Never mind. Lemme get back
to Bitches. Those dudes didn´t need
much direction. Sure some were scared
of me, ha ha, but they weren´t women.
Let´s not get into that, you dig.

What I did was expose the hypocrites.
Jazz is not just about freedom, It is freedom,
even when you´re in chains. Sometimes, a slave
has to bust out, get away, not just for hisself,
but to make the world see master´s lash.