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EZ in CZ

from PROGRAMMED by Justin Lavash

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Recorded in Sub Studios Prague in June-July 2016 for the album PROGRAMMED. Mixed/Mastered/Produced by Ian Kelosky, Words/Music: Justin Lavash

lyrics

EZ in CZ (Lavash)

Ain't easy in CZ, well the forgotten heart of Europe has a very weird history - Hapsburgs and Prussians and Russians. Everybody wants a piece including yours truly. Ain't easy in CZ - 40 years of Stalinism, couldn't get a visa to leave, repression of expression, show trials, subjugation, collaboration and FEAR of the secret police. Ain't EZ in CZ, no. It ain't easy in A,B,CZ. It ain't easy in CZ - you just try saying "Tři sta třicet tři stříbrných stříkaček" Ain't easy in CZ, vím, víš, ví, víme, víte, rozumíte? Ano my rozumíme and yes is no, but you know. Don't you know - I love this country. Ain't easy, you know it ain't easy. It ain't easy but I'm holding on for you. It ain't easy, since when was it easy? It ain't easy but I'm holding on for you. Ain't easy in CZ, none of this did much as such for dignity or self esteem. Connivance and collusion and compliance with authority, The Nazis murdered millions. Bolsheviks just picked it clean. Forgetting was necessity, a hole in the memory. Ain't easy in CZ, well the cold war saw a thaw, a sort of momentary grip-release and Havel and the hopefuls had the country going west not east. He said"Pravda a láska zvítězí nad lží a nenávistí". Ain't easy in CZ - good people working hard trying to make ends meet, lucky with 3000 a week. trying to dodge the pokuty. Nechcí nechcí exekucí! Gets sleazy in CZ, palms get greasy in CZ, we've got cartels, bordels, píko and monopolies, Zeman's brand of bigotry, ex-Commie bosses and police, but don't you know - I LOVE this country. I was trying to keep my head in CZ, got, wed, was trying to stay ahead, got misled, got bled, underfed, now I can't get out of bed. They put kmín in their bread, but I liked my chleba tekutí - in CZ. Feeling like a modern day John Dee in CZ, and Kafka crowed that this might happen. He said, "Prag lässt nicht los. Dieses Mütterchen hat Krallen". Ain't easy in CZ. Just go and ask the Sinti. Try and find a refugee. Look at Hlavní Nádraží. What is it here with memory? Have we lost our sense of history? Čechio! Čechio! I repeat, I repeat: Pravda a láska zvítězí nad lží a nenávistí. There's a magic in CZ that runs deeper than a well, deeper than the water that courses underneath your feet. And there's a beauty in CZ - the pride of a culture that survived the worst of recent history, and this country's been good to me, but it ain't easy in CZ.

credits

from PROGRAMMED, released November 30, 2016
JL - Mandoguitar/vox/programming
David Landštof - drums
Beata Hlavenková - keys
Kristína Zakuciová, Štěpán Janoušek, Ian Kelosky, James Motherdale, Karl Kwashivie, Joe Cook - backing vocals

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Justin Lavash Hlavní město Praha, Czech Republic

Justin Lavash (born London 1968) has been based in Prague for 18 years and during that time has established himself as a must-see act on the Czech music scene and abroad. His music crosses borders - somewhere between blues, folk and jazz. His phenomenal guitar playing has left many audiences wondering how so much polyphony can be made by one man on one instrument. ... more

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