How I Wrote $20 Bill (for George Floyd)
By Tom Prasada-Rao
“Writing about music is like dancing about architecture” (Zappa, Costello, or Martin Mull - take your pick).
I can’t dance, this will be short. Late spring 2020 I was in the middle of chemotherapy trying to recover from stage 4 cancer. I couldn’t eat and couldn’t sleep. I had a trembling hand, a quivering voice, a scar running from the end of my shoulder to the top of my head, and I hadn’t played my guitar in months.
So, I watched a lot of CNN which is where I first heard the news about George Floyd. Horrified/ mesmerized and contemplating the absurdity of a human being losing his life over a $20 bill, these lines started to come to me. I thought to myself, “Man, now is not the time!” But the muse has her ways, pleading with my inner chemo buddy to give it a freaking hour.
The lyrics tumbled over themselves as I struggled to keep up, writing them down as fast as I could. I knew I didn’t have the stamina to quibble, so I followed my songwriting mantras: 1) keep it simple stupid, and 2) when in doubt repeat.
Let’s be real. I have been pulled over on the New Jersey Turnpike for driving too slow. I have been denied jobs for which I was overqualified, and I was taken off a plane by the FBI (bearing automatic rifles) a month after 9/11. EVERY person of color has a story like this. Why? I don’t know for sure. But I got a feeling.
It would be easy to write a song from that perspective. But a subject like that is a minefield, opening a can of worms for the writer. Institutional racism, the vaunted blue line, Emmett Till and all those who came after him – you could write a book, that’s the problem. Songs aren’t novels, they’re snapshots.
So, I began imagining the ways that people pass on, starting each line with “some people” and ending each verse with “for a twenty-dollar bill”. Having a tagline like that means all you have to do is look for the line/rhyme that precedes it. It’s like being given the punchline to a riddle where you just have to write the set up. More importantly, that line became the picture that replaced the book.
I wrote the song in 45 minutes, then thought to myself “if I don’t record this right now, I will never remember it in the morning.” So, I opened up my laptop and made a quick video. I posted it that night (mistakes and all) on social media - thinking “nobody’s gonna hear it anyway”.
I woke up the next morning to thousands of views and an inbox of people asking if they could cover the song. I quickly posted the chords and lyrics to the song and decided to title it “$20 Bill (for George Floyd)” so his name would always appear - even though it’s not in the song. I offered it freely to anyone who wanted to sing or record or post a video of it – only asking of those who did to pay it forward by contributing to a local food bank of their choice.
Nothing like this ever happened to me before, and I don’t expect it again. I lost count after hundreds of thousands of views and 200 covers. It’s without a doubt the crowning achievement of my meager musical career, and maybe the reason I was put on this planet - to create a remembrance of a stranger/brother who surely didn’t deserve to die.
NPR Story on Tom Prasada-Rao About $20 Bill (for George Floyd)
$20 Bill (for George Floyd) original video
$20 Bill (for George Floyd) with Fox Run Five
$20 Bill (for George Floyd) -Tom Prasada-Rao with The Fox Run Five - YouTube
$20 Bill (for George Floyd with TPR Trio
Tom Prasada-Rao Website (outdated)
Tom’s Story (hopelessly outdated)
Lyrics for $20 Bill (for George Floyd)
- by Tom Prasada-Rao
Some people die for honor
Some people die for love
Some people die while singing
To the heavens above
Some people die believing
In the cross on Calvary hill
And some people die
In the blink of an eye
For a $20 bill
Some people go out in glory
Yeah with the wind at their back
Some get to tell their own story
Write their own epitaph
Sometimes you see it coming
Sometimes you don’t know until
You’re outa breath
With a knee on your neck
For a $20 bill
O brother, I never knew you
And now I never will
But I make this promise to you
I’ll remember you still
(Take eat, this is the body - alt 1st line)
So now, let this be our communion
It’s time to break the bread
Do this in remembrance
Just like the good book said
Sometimes the wine is a sacrament
Sometimes the blood is just spilled
Sometimes the law
Is the devil’s last straw
The future unfulfilled
Like the dream they killed
For a $20 bill
Un Billete de a Veinte
por Tom Prasada-Rao traduccion de Arturo Tello
Hay gente que muere por honor
Hay gente que muere por amor
Hay gente que muere cantando
Al cielo de nuestro Señor
Algunos mueren creyendo
En la cruz donde Cristo murió
Y otros mueren
Así de repente
Por un billete de a veinte
Hay gente que va a la gloria
Con alas que el viento les da
Con suerte cuentan su historia
Su propio epitafio nos dan
A veces lo ves venir
A veces no sabes hasta que
Te quitan el resuello
Su rodilla en tu cuello
Por un billete de a veinte
Hay hermano, nunca te conocí
Y ahora ya nunca lo haré
Pero te prometo
Que nunca te olvidaré
Cómete ésta hostia
El pan hay que partir
Haz esto en su memoria
Como suele la Biblia decir
Hay sacramento de vino
La sangre derraman nomas
A veces la ley
Es un diablo cruel
Destruye un destino
A un sueño le da muerte
Por un billete de a veinte
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Tom Prasada-Rao