NO MORE
 

Following the 9/11 attacks, Junoon helped to organise a concert at the General Assembly on UN Day with Junoon and an Indian group performing at the Assembly Hall, a first of its kind. They also released their first English language single, "No more" - an anti-violence song which deals directly with the events of that day.


Junoon, South Asia's biggest rock band, has returned to America with a message of peace and their first English-language single "No More". Standing alongside 9/11 tributes from a host of American musicians, "No More" is the only song denouncing terrorism to come from the region of the world where terrorism has thrived, a unique expression of empathy and solidarity from the other side of the globe.

Junoon was the subject of a VH1 News Special which aired last fall entitled "Islamabad: Rock City". They have been welcomed by audiences around the world from China to England to the US to South Africa and are the first rock band to have performed in the General Assembly of the United Nations. The nucleus of Junoon are the Pakistani-American Muslim Salman Ahmad, the New Yorker - and devout Christian -- Brian O'Connell, and lead singer Pakistani Ali Azmat.



After September 11, Polar wrote a poem called PULVERIZED: I'M BREATHING. He sent a copy to his friend Salman Ahmad of Junoon. Salman wrote NO MORE, the lyrics based on Polar's poem. The song is the first of what, hopefully, will be many collaborations.


Band leader Salman Ahmad explains how the band came to record their first English language song: "Junoon performed a couple of peace concerts in the States right after 9/11. I needed to do something to heal my own wounds and the show we gave near Ground Zero was one of the most deeply moving concerts I've ever experienced. After the show I met Polar Levine, a New Yorker who'd brought his nine year old son to the show. I told him that this Junoon concert had shown to me what America was really all about: unity in adversity."

Ahmad continues, "A few days later, Polar presented me with a poem that he had written right after the 9/11 attacks and said, 'you're free to do whatever you want with it'. Until that moment, Pakistan's long history of terrorism, violence and poverty had focused me on writing only in Urdu and Punjabi. 9/11 brought a huge paradigm shift to my consciousness. I now have a reason to write English songs. I want to comment on the flood of paranoia, grief, and crisis of identity that the world is collectively experiencing and "No More" is like a first painting." Ahmad used Levine's poem as the basis for "No More."




NO MORE
Lyrics by Salman Ahmad & Polar Levine
Music by Salman Ahmad


In my lungs through my windows
on my head on the floor
ashes of falling hope
choking me inside these doors
stormy winds seduce the night
over new york and karachi skies
sinking in a sea of time
mourning since 11/9

No more, I'm breathing you no more, I'm missing you no more, No more

God and money take the blame
for suicidal video games
if all that lives is born to die
love remains I wonder why

on black and white tv
red is all I see
I'm sick of spying eyes
wearing suits and secret ties

(Repeat) No More

the dream is not yet over
keep yourself alive
hold on
we may survive

(Repeat) No More




PULVERIZED/I'M BREATHING - 9/11/01
by Polar Levine

Pulverized
The innocent
The magnificent
To a cloud of dust
And I breathe it in
I’m here
I’m still breathing
But we’ll never be the same
This utopian game
Gods and markets
But later for blame

We've been pulverized
Steel and stone
Gypsum and bone
Now dust
Drifting homeward
Over New York skies
The dead
Alive
In the dust
In my lungs
Ash on my head
Through my windows
On my floor
They say you're missing
You’re missing no more
No more

I'm Breathing
Breathing you in
I’m here
Still breathing
Breathing you in
I can't believe this
I'm breathing you in