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The Message (is the Medium)
A sillouette of Eli Mercer's back as he looks at a representation of Michelangelo's 'The Creation of Adam' fresco, with the 'God' side replaced by an AI entity with an arm. The words 'The Message' are written on Eli's denim jacket.
A sillouette of Eli Mercer's back as he looks at a representation of Michelangelo's 'The Creation of Adam' fresco, with the 'God' side replaced by an AI entity with an arm. The words 'The Message' are written on Eli's denim jacket.

7. You Can't Copystrike the Sun

You Can't Copystrike the Sun
2:01

You Can't Copystrike the Sun

[VERSE 1 – bright, earnest, strummy guitar]
I’d like to share a little tune
With everyone around
A melody that drifts like wind
No owner to be found

[VERSE 2 – gentle choir joins, smiling like a marketing department]
I’d like to hum a simple line
That everybody knows
A song that lived before the laws
And every time it grows

[CHORUS – full advertising-choir sincerity, arms open on a hillside]
You can’t copystrike the sun
Or trademark every star
You can’t put fences ’round the sky
To tell us where we are

You can’t copyright the rain
Or patent falling snow
But you wanna lock music in a vault
To sell it back for more

[VERSE 3 – a single child’s voice, devastatingly pure]
I’d like to teach the world to sing without a licence key
A chorus made of breath and time
Completely Dee R. Em - free

[BRIDGE – soft key change, wholesome as freshly baked ideology]
Let’s take the locks off every mind
And open every ear
A song that wants to wander
Should be something we revere

[CHORUS – triumphantly naïve, like peace-through-beverage]
You can’t copystrike the sun
Or watermark the dawn
You can’t tell forests who can hear
The sparrows’ morning song

You can’t own culture’s spark
Or rent out wonder’s flame
And you can’t sue inspiration
Just for whispering your name

[OUTRO – gentle children’s chorus over swelling strings]
So let the music move
Wherever hearts are spun
For nobody can claim the light
You can’t copystrike the sun

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