Helen asked us to use lyrics and music to express ourselves, how we create, how we get through for this Song Lyric Sunday.
I’ve already highlighted one song, Hallelujah, due to the death, this week, of it’s writer, Leonard Cohen.
I fall back on the same standards, the same anthems to get me by, to express what I can not put into words. Poetry set to music. Tears of joy, frustration, pain, grief, sadness, remorse, regret.
There are political songs from the 1970s and 80s that you only need substitute a name here and there, and the relevancy isn’t lost. Perhaps more potent for having marinated for 40 to 50 years. The same goes for the 1990s, some of which I’ve featured on my blog.
The world is changing – in ways we cannot stop or appear to have no control over. There are small ways we can take back control. Not give it all over to someone else. So, I’ve chosen to go with the Indigo Girls’ Let It Be Me, written by Emily Saliers in 1992. She is referring to George Bush #1. I made an editorial comment. (PS: I can’t get the title to edit. It should read: song lyric sunday: getting back the power)
let it be me
sticks and stones, battle zones
a single light bulb on a single thread for the black
sirens wail, history fails
rose-colored glass begins to age and crack
while the politicians shadowbox the power ring
in an endless split decision, never solve anything
from a neighbor’s distant land, I heard
the strain of the common [wo]man – how they sing it now
let it be me (this is not a fighting song)
let it be me (not a wrong for a wrong)
if the world is night, shine my life like a light
well the world seems spent and the president [elect] – my editorial editorial comment
has no good idea who the masses are
well I’m one of them and I’m among friends
trying to see beyond the fences of our own backyard
I’ve seen kingdoms blow like ashes in the winds of change
but the power of truth is the fuel for the flame
so the darker the ages get, there’s a stronger beacon yet
let it be me (this is not a fighting song)
let it be me (not a wrong for a wrong)
if the world is night, shine my life like a light
in the kind word you speak, in the turn of the cheek
when your vision stays clear in the face of your fear
then you see turning off a light switch is their only power
when we stand like spotlights in a mighty tower
all for one and one for all, then we sing the common song
let it be me (this is not a fighting song)
let it be me (not a wrong for a wrong)
if the world is night, shine my life like a light
Emily Saliers, 1992
November 14, 2016 at 11:35 am
I have always loved this song but to apply it like you have to our current times, well, I think it’s perfect! Thanks for the reminder. Have to go find that old Indigo Girls CD now and re-listen!
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November 15, 2016 at 8:30 am
For a while on Wednesdays, I would post a song from the 70s to 90s that still had political or social relevance. The number I had to chose from was staggering — including the Indigo Girls, of course.
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November 13, 2016 at 12:24 pm
“Shine my life like a light” is such a beautiful lyric. I love the hope in this song. It’s strange that this could have been written for this election… I’m starting to realize that lyrics are so universal. I guess I’ve always known that, but it was never so startlingly clear. Thanks so much for sharing this!
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November 13, 2016 at 3:39 am
Interesting song. New one to me. Thanks for sharing. Some messages are applicable at most all points, be it past, present, or what’s to come in the future. I often feel those sorts of lines, using the words about how I may be literally blind, but I see so much, so much more clearly, it often feels like, than those who can see just fine. It all depends on where we’re looking.
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November 15, 2016 at 8:36 am
Seeing is both visual (as you know), but sensing and feeling — we sense the light as well as see it and be it.
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