Words by Prajna Pranab (1998 Gregorian)
Music and Arrangement by Litmus © Project Freeman Music 13517 UCC (2016 Gregorian)
Title Suggested by Kali Prajita
First Performance by Litmus live in Portugal on "Smeg End" (Gregorian New Year's Eve)11th of TEN-Capricorn♑ 13517 UCC (31/12/2016 Gregorian)
Get PDF of this song
(Chords and Lyrics)
(Arranged by Litmus from the poem On Being Normal by Prajna Pranab)
© Prajna Pranab - Tomboy Pink
So what is normal and what are its bounds?
A nominalisation on medical grounds
Decided by doctors doing their rounds
Determined by doctors who study the brain
Who say I’m not normal and drug me again
But I’m free, not to be normal
But anxiety’s normal so I would have guessed
If a copper turns up in a bullet-proof vest
It’s normal to argue when someone insists
Your behaviour is manic and mind’s in a twist
But you’re free, not to be normal
It’s normal to protest to plead and to pray
When an ambulance calls to take you away
It’s normal to mind when they fail to explain
Quite what it is has gone wrong with your brain
But you’re free, not to be normal
It’s normal for doctors to err on the side
Of professional judgement and arrogant pride
Assuming you’re guilty before you’ve been tried
And flatter themselves as they put you inside
That they were the ones who had to decide
If you were disordered or others had lied
But you’re free, not to be normal
It’s hard to accept and it’s painful to see
What is normal for them isn’t normal for me
I’d like to listen to what someone said
Before I committed a hospital bed
But we’re free, not to be normal
See 'On Being Normal' and find more of Prajna's poems by clicking on the image
Having been presented with a book of original poems by my good friend (and now fellow 'TRUEbadour') Prajna Pranab, I was inspired to put a couple of them to music. The first was this one and the second 'Yes I Do!'
I had a tune knocking around, just a chord sequence really, and thought it would work with the words of Prajna's poem, which I'd always liked.
Our Kali, his partner, suggested the title (which I also really liked) when I was experimenting with arrangements in the van one night and then I tried it out for the first time at a gig in the village the following evening
What you hear on this page is an edit of that first live take, which still has a few mistakes in it due to its newness (I was trying things out as I went along really) but I thought I'd put it here on the site because it has a really good message
We're all free not to be normal, because afterall, what the hell is normal anyway?!?
- o X o -
© Project Freeman Music - Sagittarius♐ & Capricorn♑ 13517 UCC (2016 Gregorian)