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YouTube Link)
When I was a kid, growing up in Los Altos, my dad was the head of the Life Sciences Division of Stanford Research Institute. He would occasionally have a cocktail party for the employees at our house. My brother and I always helped serve the hors d’oeuvres to the guests. My father had hired scientists from all over the world; a Japanese woman, a Sikh, a Black, or a person of Arab decent, and of course, Caucasians too! They were all brilliant, delightful, highly educated people. This experience was in stark contrast to the racist language and attitudes that were prevalent at our junior high school, or high school. At the same time, my mother was an English teacher at Mt. View High School, which had a large percentage of Latino students, (whom she adored.) She would get very defensive and even angry when anyone tried to put them down. Thus, my parents formed my attitudes and beliefs of equality, the value of diversity, and most of all, that each and every human should be judged on their character, and not on their genetic classification. This song is an expression of the wisdom given to me by my parents. PS. This song is dedicated to Harry Belafonte.
This song was originally written in English, "All the Different Tribes", with my friend Mark Travis Fuller, in Los Angeles. I paraphrased the lyric ideas into German, and I think the concepts translated quite well, (maybe in a few places even better than English). The instruments are acoustic guitar, bass, baritone electric guitar, acoustic piano, lots of keyboard sounds (especially vibes), keyboard drums, percussion, background vocals and 5 seconds of my harmonica. I got the pictures from Wikimedia Commons. Thanks. Some of the video cutting was done with Kdenlive, an open source video program. Thanks to them too! A recording of the English lyrics is on the bucket list.
