The Drum Is The Center Of My Life: ME WAYNJI BIMAHDIZIYAHN WA’OW DAYWAY I’GAN (Honoring Buck Barber)
From the Album The Drum Is The Center Of My Life
The drum is the center of my life
It’s the heartbeat
On a bus to Pipestone to boarding school far from home for three years
With my Grandparents we raised in Lac Courte Oreilles wild horses
The drum is the center of my life
It’s the heartbeat
Grandmother she was blind, kept working all the time, we listened
To Grandmother speak, each of to sleep, her eyes glistened
The drum is the center of my life
It’s the heartbeat
Grandfather knew how to trade the horses we all raised to make some money
With a rifle we shot deer, killing fish with a spear, Anishinabe
The drum is the center of my life
It’s the heartbeat
Straight from my Grandparent’s house, us boys we marched out to join the Army
Stationed in DC, some went overseas, Korea
The drum is the center of my life
It’s the heartbeat
Gitchie Manitou, when the war was through started dreaming
Time to make a drum for the veterans to start healing
The drum is the center of my life
It’s the heartbeat
When the drum it sounds we all gather round it’s the heartbeat
Friends and family sharing memories it’s the heartbeat
The drum is the center of my life
It’s the heartbeat
Words & music by Larry Long
Copyright Larry Long Publishing 2015 / BMI
*Lyrics collectively written with Youth & Elders from the Anishinaabe community of Lac Courte Oreille. Inspired by Buck Barber.
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