A singer/songwriter named Tony King and his band Beautifully Mad took me up on my public offer for any musicians so inclined to put my poem “Lao Sue” to music, and it’s so gorgeous I need to share it immediately. King won Australian Songwriter of the Year in 2020 and 2009, and I’m deeply honored that he chose to make something so beautiful with some lyrics that are really special to me for a whole host of reasons.
King also put the song to a music video which really brings out the wacky fun romantic feel of the whole thing, and… I dunno just watch it I’m so excited to share this with you.
King’s website is here and his Patreon is here.
I’m just so thrilled with how this turned out and how cool this open artistic collaboration model is. I should do it more often. Maybe I will.
God damn I love this job so much. Thank you all for making it possible.
__________________
__________________
__________________
My work is entirely reader-supported, so if you enjoyed this piece please consider sharing it around, following me on Facebook, Twitter, Soundcloud or YouTube, or throwing some money into my tip jar on Ko-fi, Patreon or Paypal. If you want to read more you can buy my books. The best way to make sure you see the stuff I publish is to subscribe to the mailing list for at my website or on Substack, which will get you an email notification for everything I publish. Everyone, racist platforms excluded, has my permission to republish, use or translate any part of this work (or anything else I’ve written) in any way they like free of charge. For more info on who I am, where I stand, and what I’m trying to do with this platform, click here. All works co-authored with my American husband Tim Foley.
Bitcoin donations:1Ac7PCQXoQoLA9Sh8fhAgiU3PHA2EX5Zm2
24 responses to “Lao Sue : New Song And Music Video By Tony King, Lyrics By Caitlin Johnstone”
Nice here
I am presently creating a minimum of an additional 37,000usd per month from work by doing terribly honest and no-fuss on-line housekeeping jobs. ~WQ%220} kind of media relating to coaching courses
on a particular web site …….. http://goforcash24.blogspot.com/
Secret message; how much will we resist the empire if we have nothing to eat? Most US farmlands have already been bought up or otherwise seized.
https://www.globalresearch.ca/whose-grain-being-shipped-from-ukraine/5790604
I hate being your enemy, but if those are percussion instruments in the background I thought they distracted from I thought was a folk tale, well not exactly a folk tale in the Guthrie sense of the word, but I personally would rather have heard the story, rather than whatever it was that kept drowning out the lyrics. But, otherwise yeah, you may become world famous, well sort of, not that many follow lyricists. I think, but then I don’t own anything that transmits music, so how would I know?
Wonderful! I had to wipe my eyes a bit. Thank you!
In the beginning, was the word….
Absolutely beautiful, Caitlan….Well done, lassie!
I love it! Thank you both, and all involved.
Incredible. Simply incredible.
I don’t have words for how that hits me; your lyrics and Tony’s vocals along with his band…it’s all just perfect for what I’ve gone through this past week. You can bet I’ll play it over and over.
Thanks Caitlin.
Brilliantly Fantastic!
What a powerful fun poem, perfect music, and great video.
Thank you.
Tubularsock can’t stop tapping his foot!
So beautiful.
Thank you.
The best part of this is all of it! Bravo!
Caitlin, that was wonderful. The level of artistry in every aspect of the production is superb. You couldn’t have found better people to translate your poem into music (and video).
P.S. Is there any way I can get a book to you that puts all the shit of the world (that you discuss with Chomsky’s keenness of vision but also with the emotion and language appropriate to this astonishing situation into which we’ve allowed ourselves to drift) in a positive context? You’re at the top of the list of the people that I wish could read this book (“The Choice”; you can check it out on Amazon) because you see so clearly what’s wrong but I also feel a deep yearning in you for what is right. Which, hidden though it may be at this extraordinary point in the human journey, is still there waiting for us to awaken to it. And it is wonderful.
I thought I was listening to a Dylan song. I hope the singer and Catlin are not at all upset by that – to me that is the highest compliment I can give!
Perfect! Beautiful words, beautiful music, beautiful voice, beautiful arrangement, beautiful movement, beautiful girl… What else do you want? Good luck for more!
Have watched/listened several times. Can’t get enough! This is so beautifully done it’s amazing. Really hope you and Tony King get together and do more…lots more! Thank you and Beautifully Mad for creating such an inspiring piece of music.
Beautiful Music for Beautiful lyrics
Lovely, soulful, great video, and awesome voice. Thank you!
Thank you for sharing this, Caitlin. Great production values; hard to believe this might be autobigraphical.
I LOVE this!
It is so original and good music too!
Good Job!
This is absolutely marvelous. I love the serendipity of 2 people almost accidentally collaborating to produce such a wonderful piece of art. Brilliant.
Lao Sue is a great song, great video, I love it.
Wonderful!
I am presently creating a minimum of an additional 37,000usd per month from work by doing terribly honest and no-fuss on-line housekeeping jobs. ~WQ%210} kind of media relating to coaching courses
on a particular web site …….. http://goforcash24.blogspot.com/