The Afrofluent Peace-Lovers Olympic Procession

1st VERSE
As Lennon is to Yoko and Ono is to John
As Idris is to Julia, Biel to Rahman
As Jo-ohn is to David, Furnish to Elton
Brothers love your lovers and your babies
WAR IS OVER! if when
We collaborate, are loving companions

As Lennon is to Julian and Cynthia and Sean
As Lennon is to McCartney, George, Ringo and May Pang,
As Lennon is to Bowie’s Fame, and sa-a-ang with Elton,
(Brothers love your ladies and your babies)
WAR IS OVER!
if when
These names are joined each combination’s enjoyed

CHORUS
Nothing lasts forever
No-one lives that long
Nothing lasts forever, but we can tell some
Real love life stories as we sing the songs

2nd VERSE (2a)
As Kuti is to Zombie, Zane, Bill T Jones and Fela
As Tracey Emin is to Margate, the Art Market and Nigella
As Irven is to Brothers in Jazz, Seymour, Hear More Afro IDJ, (Kola, Ade, Jerry, Perry, Gary, Rocky, Oscar, Sonya, Chris)(and MASUMI!)
(Brothers love your ladies love your babies love your bodies more) 
WAR IS OVER
if when
Fit and Afrofluent, dancers show the way

As Lennon is to Liverpool and Madison Square Gardens
As Manchester and Industry are to Goals and David Beckham
As Los Angeles is to Peckham, Training to Super Powers
(Brothers love your brothers love your babies love your bodies more)
WAR IS OVER
if when
This Olympic show grows Afro-fluence, trees and flowers

Nothing comes from nowhere
We’re fruit from tangled trees,
Earth. Traveller, Settler, Refugee, we all need
Stamina and strength and flexibility

VERSE 2b
As twenty-seven wives are to death-defying Kuti
27 names to learn – teach us to shake our booty
Proud Queens, where are they now? Happy? Healthy? Bitter? Better? Worse?
27 Queens to research and make one whole new separate verse

At Kalakuta, found a Republic, our own community
Yeni, Femi, Seun, Made, Dele, Sandra, carry carry-on the legacy
((Shh-awn, two syllables))
Now there’s a musical called Fela! backed by Jada n’ Will Smith and Jay Zee
That tells the story of the genre’s founder, the King of Afrobeat

Nothing lasts forever
Tho’ we make our songs extra long
The soundtrack to a stream of star-lit  all-night parties
From dusk to dawn, from dawn to dusk, carry, carry, carry, carry on …
with Tamar Osborn on horn…
Tony Allen on the drum
25 or 6 to four
27, 26 to one

3rd VERSE
Check out the football Beckham gals on North Korean TV, Technology
Has its uses, and in Shanghai Mika found Goldie
Bending the world to a tasty pulse, like Linda McCartney, Suga Mama,
Beyonce,    bounce, creative be        with Jay Z and your babyz

Anna the multi-skilled creative mother also dances
Another, Maki’s daughters’ playground the UK, Japan and France is
Spreading the word UBUNTU is Levene’s lovely Lizzie
More brothers, more brothers more brothers – David Graham makes us all Gillespie

Nothing comes from nowhere
‘xceptmaybe the big bang (is it one, is it two?)
Even test tube babies come from somewhere
Someone (is it one, is it two, is it?)
(is it one, is it two, is it?)

(The woman,
Dancing,
The woman)

4th VERSE
As Daddy is to Diddy, Paul and Puff and Sean,
As Harry is to Billy Big Rich Cliff Edge Iron Penny Man Pressed On
As Woodward (wood-wood wood) is to Paul, New Man to Joanne
Keep my on my toes, I promised you a Marathon

Be-friend me for a life-time, Love me for everyone I am
As Jones is to Bowie, Abdulmajid to Iman
As Clementina is to Dankworth, Wavendon to Laine
We can all be heroes, like Alice                 and John Coltrane

As Nonagenarian Brubeck is to Iola
Ravi Shankar to Sukanya, Airto Moreira to Flora,
Barney to Bjork, Gyomundodttir to Matthew
Real three-D  Deep Divine Adoring   LOVE will thrill me through

Nothing lasts forever
Use your time well
Take good care of the world we share and your whole self
Ev’ry nerve and ev’ry cell

5th VERSE
Was Danny Boyle    any good?   Was Slumdog good? For India?
Indians     We’ve got Indians
They’ve got Satyajit Ray, Tagore (HEY) and Wes
Anderson, we’ve got Pakistanis and Pochahontes

Iraqi Zaha Hadid, Cleveland Watkiss, tabla skatting
Shami Chakraba yoga tea Talvin Jason Singh
Let every body out, let every body in
Pray Mohammed Pray – Crowds can be self-monitoring

Nothing lasts forever
Our Empire has declined
My most precious commodity
Is my peace of mind

6th VERSE
As Pamela is to Billy, Connelly to Stephenson,
As Connie Booth is to John Cleese, counsel a comedian,
As Connie is to writing, Lahr, the cowardly lion’s son, John,
Don’t fall asleep, don’t lie exposed, basking in the Sun

As Factor is to X phenomenon,
As Strictly is to sex, Union and re-union,
Make up Robbie and Take That Matt, Cuddle, Kara, Artem,
Move us to the Max, surf-crowd-light-up-lift Heffernan

CHORUS
Nothing comes from nowhere
Where’s my chance to shine?
I know every word, and as I sing,
The song’s becoming mine

Verses 7 to 10 (published in May 2012)(with adaptations after)
7th VERSE
Crouch Master Chang Chen Round then fly  fly-on-kite-or-bike Like Like Like
E=co-conscious Pilgrims  Round  the Galaxy  Hitch Hike Like Like Like
Brothers   Making Marks gently, Ying Yang tiddle ay poh, Know
What Freud is to Marie Princess Bonaparte and Anna, OH
And Berth-a and Ma-a -a rtha and Em R I Memory Ekstein
And Sophie, Lou, Sabina, Loe, Helene Deutsch and mm Melanie Klein
Mm app concentric circles, c concentrate the rhyme,

CGGJung      in CGI
I dream of horses and I fly
Gee officer  
Put down that gun

LikeSteveLen   SondardBernheimstein
LikeSteveLen   SondardBernheimstein
LikeSteveLen   SondardBernheimstein

Be Alright

Alright

Be Alright

Like Cheng Julia Lula Ffion
Like Campbell-Davies Sass Key Horton  Alright
Ah Reader Faye * Mebrahtu
Ah Diva J Serena Two
Like People, The House of Absolute
(section added 14.2.2020)

YouuuuuuU lanova, Ulanova
Joni Mitchell,
Meshell Ndegeocello,
Rahel Debebe-Dessalegne
Ulanova
(2024 pending since 2010)

CHORUS
Nothing lasts forever
Let’s cross the borderlines
With travelogues, and push some boundaries
Take two _ _the expansion our minds

8th VERSE
Can you say my name? can you? Use my halo
Zhang Zihi, ToeKnee Leung, Jackie Chan, Jet Li, Bruce Lee, Michelle Yeoh
(Zhang Zihi = john-ng zzzeee) (zzz as in headz)
Catherine Deneuve, Bjork; at a party, met and kissed
Who put it up on You-Tube? Did they give their consent for this?
As Louis is to Welsh, and French to Icelandic,
There is no Babelfish, that’s the way God planned it,
But there are things we share, The-Laws-of-Physics, Human Bodies
Mister Ang Lee, Mr Ang Lee,
Mister, Mister, Mister Ang Lee,
Are you Are you Are you Ang Lee?

Can we talk about the wife?
Can we, Ang Lee, Can we?
Who?  What? How? The wife Who is she?
The working wife of Mr Ang Lee
She is She was Working Working
as a Micro           Biologist
Marvelous.  Jane Lin.  She is.
More than a calming influence.

CHORUS
Nothing comes from nowhere
The population grows (is it one, is it two, is it?)
Keep Calm, Together, Side by Side, number crunching
Know the seeds you sow

9th VERSE
COCK COCK COCK COCK COCK COCK COCK  COCK COCK COCK COCK COCK COCK
COQ COCK COCK COCK COCK ad oodle google pop-up COCK
Mind the gap beside John Lydon, Viv Slit Ari Up  Arise
On Memories and Parodies,
Jig Jog,
It’s Paradise,

On country roads that wind, give Winterbottom   Coogan’s melancholic hard-on
Orb and Arc, beckon beacon become, * Bright Winter Suns
D’you see, Mum?  So far (la ti)

How I write my own Story
Here abides a StanZa SurLi 
Silence is a Rhythm Too

CHORUS
Nothing comes from nowhere
We already know
Good food, rest and sex, fresh air and exercise
Give stars their healthy glow

10th VERSE
BEARlogiDISlogi LOGORRHEA logiblogi logilogilog   dislogia
FACE NOSE ARSE can I face face The exposure?
In bare feet, shoes and heels, IcanIcanIcan Can Can compete,
On platforms, with prosthetics, I am an athlete

Yoko is dropping pebbles in a pool
If she sees my friends on face-book, will she think I’m cool?
I am dropping pebbles in a stream
How many friends have I got? Who? What does that mean?

CHORUS
No one one one’s gonna change the world alone
Not one one one pebble in a stream )))
We all  love a little help from our friends
To Face the ocean of all our dreams

Verse 11 (published July 27th 2012/modified 2013/2023)
Aeroplanes light up the sky, the sound of them is roaring
Did Shamen Leonardo think flight ever might be boring?
Glyn glide across the Rivoli floor,  to New York then September
Improvise with Vini, make a first dance to remember

Down to earth, in London, the whole wide world is just outside my door
On the Aylesbury, near the Heygate, with an urban forest to explore
The chrome horse hoof head thundered, but could would would not take sides
Shake the walruses from their slumber, Judy’s Watchman roars ARISE!

CHORUS
We don’t need gates and fences
When we’re one winning team
With tiger, honey-bee, walrus, and arctic tern
Nest, nuzzle, jig-jog, go and come,
Come and go and jump and run
Swim and strut and sing a song of Love Supreme

(a Love Supreme a Love Supreme)

and then it’s the
12th AND FINAL VERSE (published in June 2011)
As kettling is to crowd control, and bail to Assange,
It’s hard to FOCUS (o-o) in this soupstickquickyweb melange
Train your mind divine, mob redefine, bounce beacon to a bubbling breakthrough,
Our brains work better
Get the critical flash together   with something  physical to do

Thank Willie Brandt and Joseph Beuys Germans are planting trees Meanwhile
Racism and fear and rage haunt Israelis
Imagine WAR IS OVER proclaimed on every wall
At peace, in love, five continents, linked (o-o) and standing tall

FINAL CHORUS
Nothing lasts forever
No one lives that long
Nothing lasts forever, but like the sun,
and the water, air and trees,
Renew themselves sustainably
When the infrastructure’s there maybe
All kinds of things like these could be

Like sun and water, air and trees
Self-renewing constantly
The infrastructures there to see and
All kinds of things like these could be

Green, pleasant land, homes, habitation,
Good, good, good, good, good, good, good, food cultivation
Healthcare, childcare, caring, caring, caring, education
Caring, caring Life-Long Education
Energy, good energy, transportation
Bicycles, rest, relaxation,
Mobile-free zones, but now and then we need communication,

The internet, A Basic Income and TV,
Like sun and water, air and trees
All kinds of things like these could be

FREE – or extremely cheap

renationalise BT

And restructure International DeBT

Nothing lasts forever
Use your time well
Nothing lasts forever but we can tell wecantell wecantell wecantell
Real lovelife stories like when
Yoko was Lennon’s Companion

(CODA/13th VERSE  (published 5.7.2013) (updated 2.6.2016)
Ranjana, Matana, Seb Rochford, Hello Louise, Skinny Tom
Oren Marshall Allen Ferraretto, Joseph, all the Julians, Say Hey S
Arah Dhillon, Marque Marque Gilmore, Courtney Pine, Steve Williamson, Om,
Idris, Zoe, Lola, Roland, Errolyn and Byron Wallen

Kin Ch Soweto, Wardell, Wilsons Alex and Abram (Sergeant)
Winston, Winstone, Churchill, Nikki Iles, Jhelisa Anderson
Nikki Yeoh, Carleen, The Traceys, Tina May, Rebecca
Hollwegg, Andy Hammill, Gill Manly and Shabaka

Kwabs, Eska, Alice, Tom and Matthew Herbert and Kit Downes,
Ruth, Ruth Goller, Moyler, Maddren, Orphy Robinson
Robin Hop LAND, Jacqui Beckford, the family of Fidel Lea T
Each, my brethren (Robert Mitchell) a micro-world of harmony
(Davide Mantovani, Tamayo Yamano, Bug Prentice Ali, Leigh, Kel-ly Watkiss)(Tori Hands-ley (updated 1.12.18))
Jonzi D (updated 24.6.16)

Mickey Jazzheadchronic Smith, Seckou Keita, Tony Kofi,
Omar Sosa, Jason Yarde, Chris Batchelor, McCormack, Sophie
Alloway, Dave Okumu, Rowdy Superstar (Zena Django Brian Eno)
Demonstrate what a team can be and all the things we are

Broadcast to the whole world
Start with some radio
and modest slots on Jules Holland’s Later
It’s the Making of the Greatest
Global Super Music Show
(Credit Gilles Peterson for his Afrofluent Flow [14.2.2020])
And Frankie J and Toyin Sogunro

OUTRO. (REPEATED AND LAYERED)      (And there’s an intro.)

Love more.          Fear less.
Fear less.             Love more…….

Brothers love your lovers love your lovers
WAR IS OVER
Brothers love your ladies and your babies and your bodies
more
WAR IS OVER

Sisters love your lovers love your lovers love your lovers
WAR IS OVER
Sisters love your sisters and our bodies and our bodies more
WAR IS OVER

Brothers love your brothers and your mothers and your fathers
WAR IS OVER
Brothers love your sisters and their babies and their bodies
more
WAR IS OVER

Imagine …
War is over
IMAGINE ..
PEACE

Imagine …
War is over
IMAGINE ..

PEACE