NITIN SAWHNEY

NITIN SAWHNEY

BEYOND SKIN (1999)

  1. Broken Skin
  2. Letting Go
  3. Homelands
  4. The Pilgrim
  5. Tides
  6. Nadia
  7. Immigrant
  8. Serpents
  9. Anthem Without A Nation
10. Nostalgia
11. The Conference
12. Beyond Skin

NITIN SAWHNEY

BEYOND SKIN

1. BROKEN SKIN

Today at 15.45 hours India conducted 3 underground nuclear tests in the Bogram range.

Hope falls softly from your hands
Dreams burn deep beneath the land
Time casts shadows overall
Sweating fever, rain or river
Brushing winds beneath your call

Broken skin, distant fear
Shattered worlds of endless tears
Hidden fires, distant lies
Buried hopes beneath the cries
Broken skin, distant fears
Silent lips, so far, so near

Silence, it is every hope apart
Two flames burn deep beneath one heart
Teardrops flow faster with the tide
Raging over calmer waters
As the timeless land divides

Broken skin, distant fear
Shattered worlds of endless tears
Hidden fires, distant lies
Buried hopes beneath the cries
Broken skin, distant fears
Silent lips, so far, so near

Broken, distant, shattered
Hidden, distant, buried
Broken, distant, silent

Cold games repeat on eastern shores
Strong winds blow over colder wars
Proud lips stay silent in the rain
There are half a million voices in the song without a name

Broken, distant, shattered
Hidden, distant, buried
Broken, distant, silent

Shattered
Hidden, distant, buried
Broken, distant, silent
So far
Shattered
There are half a million voices
Distant
Shattered
Distant
Shattered
There are half a million voices.

Just 5 miles from India’s nuclear test site children play in the shade of the village water tank. Here in the Rajahstan desert people say they’re proud their country showed their nuclear capability.

2. LETTING GO

Now I often talk of my heart
How can I turn to the dark
And the swaying silence
I see
There’s nothing I can hold on to
You can’t breathe
If I hold you tight
You can’t breathe
If I hold you tight

Don’t be afraid of letting go
Don’t be afraid of letting go

Not of anything, not of anyone
All alone here with my demons
Am I ready to move on
To a person or place
Alone
Away from here
And I miss you
And I’m losing you
And I found you
I choose to
Follow my heart

Don’t be afraid of letting go
Don’t be afraid of letting go

Not of anything, not of anyone
Not of anything, not of anyone
Don’t be afraid of letting go
Don’t be afraid of letting go
Don’t be afraid of letting go
Don’t be afraid of letting go
Don’t be afraid of letting go
Don’t be afraid of... go.

3. HOMELANDS
No lyrics available

4. THE PILGRIM

Woke up in the morning in a temple
Kinda lucky on my feet for it was central
So I walk across the village
Saw a group of kids pillage
And I thought to myself I might be mental
You see
Pilgrims in the town
All seem to hold a frown
Say all they wanna be is diggy down
You know Speck thought he'd ask
But figured it's just a mask
This guy's on something else that's profound
I'm not the stool or the fool or the leader here to rule
Not the lover or the fighter who came here to duel
But I thought I looked into, but I walked into
So I can understand all the rules, cool?

Life is like a puzzle not pieced yet
Might take a village ever long to see that
Don't break your ties with my pal compromise
And the kid you wanna be you can be that

Who's ever watched the world that's my motto
Don't ever wanna play the head honcho, dig it up
If you try to push I won't beat around the bush
Straight up you're getting dissed on the pronto

Life is like a puzzle not pieced yet
Might take a village ever long to see that
Don't break your ties with my pal compromise
And the kid you wanna be you can be that

If I could, I'd solve the problems of the world that exist
If I could always chill, I would without resist
If you weren't so literal, brother you might get it
Pack my bags, tambourines and jeans, so don't sweat it

Life is like a puzzle not pieced yet
Might take a village ever long to see that
Don't break your ties with my pal compromise
And the kid you wanna be you can be that

Life is like a puzzle not pieced yet
Might take a village ever long to see that
Don't break your ties with my pal compromise
And the kid you wanna be you can be that

Life is like a puzzle not pieced yet

As the journey continues I gain current instincts
I feel I know what they must be thinking, for instance
When they speak in riddles I'm left with the question
But won't stop arguments to kill attention
They all got a sixth sense to be one another
So pilgrims seek refuge undercover
Where it's fly like birds to live a lot is absurd
Try telling that to this kid named Unver

Life is like a puzzle not pieced yet
Might take a village ever long to see that
Don't break your ties with my pal compromise
And the kid you wanna be you can be that

Life is like a puzzle not pieced yet
Might take a village ever long to see that
Don't break your ties with my pal compromise
And the kid you wanna be you can be that

I met him on tour a week on for twenty four
He was born in the village, but left in ninety four
Now he's still got probs he doesn't know how to solve
I said, "Unver, I've been there before"
In the light of understanding I forgot it
Sometimes the boat shakes when you rock it
I told him we are like family, a part of humanity
Don't overdo, and don't toss it

Life is like a puzzle not pieced yet
Might take a village ever long to see that
Don't break your ties with my pal compromise
And the kid you wanna be you can be that

Life is like a puzzle not pieced yet
Might take a village ever long to see that
Don't break your ties with my pal compromise
And the kid you wanna be you can be that

He dug and moved on with his life
'Cause he digs and it gets real dark at night
Don't want a collar that's blue or a reflection of you
Just wants us to get his plight
Myself I'd like the years just to take me away
It might leave a part of this world in dismay
But the village calls the pilgrim in Negroes
After all I'm just one needle in the hay
Now what I'm speaking in is symbolics
But you can call it what you want to call it
See all that I do is throw words, and I hope that you caught it
Only got one arrow but I aim for two targets

Life is like a puzzle not pieced yet
Might take a village ever long to see that
Don't break your ties with my pal compromise
And the kid you wanna be you can be that

Life is like a puzzle not pieced yet
Might take a village ever long to see that
Don't break your ties with my pal compromise
And the kid you wanna be you can be that

You can be that
You can be that.

5. TIDES

France has carried out the first of a planned series of underground nuclear tests at Modoroah Isle in the South Pacific. The French Defence Ministry said the magnitude of the explosion was approximately the same as the bomb dropped on Hiroshima.

6. NADIA
No lyrics available

7. IMMIGRANT

... also heavily advertised in local newspapers and dailies. That they are encouraging for people to come down here and work. And then we went to the embassy and they showed us Kew Garden pictures and pictures of the various parts of England. That it is all that beautiful and everything is just right. And that’s why we just applied for the voucher.

You burn my flame within your hands
You know when my destiny falls
This time has insecurity
I feel, makes me restless inside

Will you take me there
To a distant place I’ve never been before
I could leave this world
I could follow you like oceans to the shore
You could take me there
Make the rivers of my mind flow to my dreams

You hold your secrets from my eyes
You see where the furthest rain falls
The day breaks over in the streams
You know where my rivers will flow

Will you take me there
To a distant place I’ve never been before
I could leave this world
I could follow you like oceans to the shore
You could take me there
Make the rivers of my mind flow to my dreams

And I dream of places far from here
And I call your name to the wind
And I wish the night would take me to another world
Where no one knows your face or asked your name

Will you take me there
To a distant place I’ve never been before
I could leave this world
I could follow you like oceans to the shore
You could take me there
Make the rivers of my mind flow to my dreams

Make the rivers flow

Will you take me there
Will you take me there
Oh yeah

Take me there
Take me there
Take me there, yeah
Take me there, yeah yeah

Take me there
Will you take
Will you take
Me there

Take me there
Take me there
Take me there, yeah
Take me there, yeah yeah

Take me there
Take me there
Take me there, yeah
Take me there, yeah yeah

Make the rivers flow
Take me there
Take me there
Take me there, yeah
Make the rivers flow
Take me there, yeah yeah

Make the rivers flow
Take me there
Take me there
Take me there, yeah
Make the rivers flow
Take me there, yeah yeah

Make the rivers flow
Take me there
Take me there
Take me there, yeah
Make the rivers flow
Take me there, yeah yeah

Make the rivers flow
Take me there
Take me there
Take me there, yeah
Make the rivers flow
Take me there, yeah yeah.

8. SERPENTS
No lyrics available

9. ANTHEM WITHOUT A NATION

Villagers say they’re already suffering side effects. The government scientists say there was no radiation leak.

10. NOSTALGIA

....One day perhaps we will come back to this country and bring our children to show them, you know. And what we had to sacrifice to be in that country, you know. But I think in the initial state that we had a lot of struggle. But with god’s grace and his kindness we are okay now and our children are okay as well.

Dreams, dreams, dreams, dreams

I can feel your dreams
Dreams
I can see you
I can touch your memories
But I can’t hear you
I can feel your dreams
Dreams
I can see you
I can touch your memories
But I can’t hear you
Words that fall like dust and rain
Words that, words that
Worlds that echo in your eyes
Worlds that, worlds that

I can’t taste
I can’t taste
I can’t feel
I can’t feel
I can’t reach across a thousand years

I can almost touch the soil beneath your whisper
I can almost feel the hopes you left behind
I can almost touch the soil beneath your whisper
I can almost feel the hopes you left behind

Words that fall like tears from trees
Words that, words that
Worlds that echo in your eyes

I can’t taste
I can’t feel
Thousand years
I can’t hear you
I can’t see you
I can’t taste
I can’t touch you
I can’t feel
I can’t reach you
I can’t hear you
I can’t see you
Thousand years

I can’t taste
I can’t feel
Thousand years

I can’t taste
I can’t feel
I can’t reach you ‘cross a thousand years

I can’t taste
I can’t feel
I can’t reach you ‘cross a thousand years
I can’t taste
Dreams
I can’t feel
Dreams
Thousand years.

11. THE CONFERENCE
No lyrics available

12. BEYOND SKIN

On July 29th at 5:29 AM the gadget turned the pre-dawn sky as bright as the sun as the first atomic mushroom cloud rose above the horizon.

We knew the world would not be the same... A few people laughed, a few people cried, most people were silent. I remembered the lines from the Hindu scripture, the Bhagavad Gita. Vishnu was trying to persuade the prince that he should do his duty and to impress him takes on his multi-armed form and says, "Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds." I suppose we all thought that, one way or another.

A few people laughed, a few people cried, most people were silent. I remembered the lines from the Hindu scripture, the Bhagavad Gita. "Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds."

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