Mother Tongue

from Visibly Choked by Visibly Choked

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about

“Mother Tongue” not only kicks off Visibly Choked’s upcoming self-titled EP, it will intellectually kick your teeth in with its profound lyrics and intricate chord changes, but also have you shuffling your feet at the local dive bar. This punky nugget features a vintage backbeat, mechanically repurposed into a post-punk anthem, that fluctuates until the very end, and by then, we are told that sometimes, mother tongues can go unsung.

lyrics

I might be putting words into your mouth
But you died before I could rationally think about this

You first married another Arabic woman
And fate would have it that she died
As soon as the marriage was consumed

You then married my grandmother
A white woman with supposed roots and social standing in the country
That birthed you but also hated who you were

You and your kids, the half-breeds with the arab noses

You all married white and got nose jobs
Your words of comfort were no longer whispered in Arabic but in French

You tried to hide all that the white hegemony hated in you
So your kids and grandkids could live a life free of prejudice

I will never know how to make kibbeh
Or sing those Maronite chants that your mother sang

I will never know how to say thank you
For all you endured and the love you gave us in your mother tongue
You died

Your mother tongue
Has gone unsung
Unable to carry on
An immigration paragon

credits

from Visibly Choked, track released September 14, 2021

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Visibly Choked Montreal, Québec

provocatively raw

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