raul midon plays "tembererana"
(Applause)
It's really quite an honor to be here tonight, and I'm really glad that I stayed here and listened because I've really been inspired. And I'm going to play some songs for you tonight that are, literally, world premieres. I've been working on my new record and I've never played these songs for anybody except the microphone.
This is a song that I wrote about the meaning of technology, which goes perfectly with this gathering. I started thinking about—when I was in college, especially as a blind person, doing a research paper was a major undertaking. You had to go to the library, see if you could get them to find the books for you, you know, footnotes and all that. Now you can just go on Google. Just look it up. I wish I had that when I was in college. Anyway, this is a song about: we have all this, but what are we going to do with it? It's called "All the Answers."
What is the weather in Cincinnati?
What is the time in Tokyo?
Who is this little child's daddy?
And who the hell needs to know?
Why do memories of you linger
when I'm trying to reach my goal?
And why must I move my fingers
to the music in my soul?
I don't know.
I don't have to know.
'Cause here I go ...
and I got all the answers
right here in my hand.
And I got all the answers
and I don't have to understand
'cause I got all the answers.
Think I'll rummage through the century
while I listen to the sea.
Oh, it's good to be so free,
so free.
Who was mayor of Chicago
back in 1964?
And why did Shakespeare create Iago
to tear apart a love so pure?
How can my dreams be so vivid
in a psychosonic way?
Why must I become so livid
about the news I hear today?
I don't know.
I don't have to know.
And here I go ...
'cause I got all the answers
right here in my hand.
And I got all the answers.
See, I don't have to understand
'cause I got all the answers.
I think I'll browse on through
the tabloid news
while I sip my tea.
Mm, it's good to be so free.
(Trumpet sounds)
I never ever have to be alone.
I can do it all right here in my home.
Yeah, mm-hmm ...
Everything that's ever been known,
I can punch it up right here on my phone.
Freedom train, coming soon
right here in my living room
from Baton Rouge to Saskatoon
and all points in between.
'Cause I got all the answers
right here on my screen.
And I got all the answers, yeah.
I got every book and magazine.
I got all, I got all, I got all ...
I got all the answers,
all the answers, oh yeah.
Uh-huh ...
But I tell you what I'm going to do:
I'm going to find the capitol of Peru
or the latitude of Kathmandu.
I'm gonna Google it
'cause everybody's doing it.
And then I'll rummage through the century.
I got all, I got all, I got all ...
I got all the answers.
Yeah, yeah
I got all the answers.
(Applause)
Thank you. Whew! It's a miracle I didn't make any mistakes on that song. That's the first time I've ever played it. (Applause) It's a "feel the fear and do it anyway" kind of thing. This next song is a song
that started out as a dream—a childhood dream. It was one of the titles that I was sort of thinking about calling my record, except there's a couple of problems. One thing is, it's unpronounceable. And it's a made-up word. It's called "Tembererana." And the song is based on what I think was my first childhood attempts to think about invisible forces. So "tembererana" was these dreams, in which I would be running away from bad feelings—is the only way I can put it. So this is called "Tembererana." It's based on an Argentinian rhythm called "carnivalito."
A dream within a dream,
a world within a world,
the sound of a primal scream
travels out across the land.
Images flickering,
the sound of the war machine,
a procession of limousines
travels slowly across the land.
Another child could use a hand.
Reaching out from within
tembererana, hey, tembererana ...
Annihilation moves.
The earth is an open tomb.
The sound of the final boom
rumbles fiercely across the land.
Fear, you're the enemy.
Obliterating all but thee.
You see what you want to see.
Before I'm blinded, I will toast
the shade of power that I love most,
the power of creation.
Tembererana, hey, tembererana ...
Da, da, da, da
Da, da, da, da, da, da, da
As a child, alone and afraid,
escaping the impressions every feeling made,
I would run, run away
into a world where the good was the aim of the game
and the sum of invisible power
had a name.
It's the same name.
Tembererana, hey, tembererana ...
Da, da, da, da, da, da, da
Tembere, tembere, tembere, tembererana
Tembere, tembere, tembere, tembererana, hey
Tembererana, hey
Tembererana ...
(Applause)