“Cost of livin' gets so high
The rich and poor they start to cry
And now the weak must get strong, they say
Oh, what a tribulation, saying
My belly full but me hungry
A hungry mob is an angry mob
A rain a-fall but the dirt it tough
A pot a-cook but the food no 'nough”
“This morning I woke up in a curfew
O God, I was a prisoner, too - yeah!
Could not recognize the faces standing over me
They were all dressed in uniforms of brutality. Eh!
How many rivers do we have to cross
Before we can talk to the boss? Eh!
All that we got, it seems we have lost
We must have really paid the cost
Burnin' and a-lootin' tonight
(Say we gonna burn and loot)
Burnin' and a-lootin' tonight
(One more thing)
Burnin' all pollution tonight
(Oh, yeah, yeah)
Burnin' all illusion tonight
Oh, stop them!
Give me the food and let me grow
Let the Roots Man take a blow
All them drugs gonna make you slow now
It's not the music of the ghetto. Eh!
Weepin' and a-wailin' tonight
(Ooh, can't stop the tears!)
Weepin' and a-wailin' tonight
(We've been suffering these long, long-a years)
Weepin' and a-wailin' tonight
(Will you say cheer?)
Weepin' and a-wailin' tonight
(But where?)
Give me the food and let me grow
Let the roots man take a blow
All them drugs gonna make you slow
It's not the music of the ghetto
We gonna be burnin' and a-lootin' tonight
(To survive, yeah!)
Burnin' and a-lootin' tonight
(Save your babies' lives)
Burning all pollution tonight
(Pollution ...)
Burning all illusion tonight
(Lord-a, Lord-a, Lord-a, Lord!)
Burning and a-looting tonight
Burning and a-looting tonight
Burning all pollution tonight”
“Yeah, and pride she's a pit of many snakes
And reason, well, she's still the devil's whore
Though the cannonball may fly
And the sabers baptize
Well, turn the eyes of faith upon the Lord”
As the Musical Worldview Project (finding wisdom in lyrics) hits 100 entries, what better way to celebrate than an hour-long playlist of hand-picked Holiday At The Sea Musical Worldview Project family favorites.
Sit back, relax, and let the music take your mind (and encourage you to think about what kind of world you’d like to see and what kind of person you’d like to become to make that world a reality).
We’re all in this together.
Keep on keepin’ on.
Playlist (with links to each song’s original appearance in the Musical Worldview Project, including the lyrics that prompted the song’s inclusion):
Bob Marley and the Wailers: “War” // “Trouble No More”
De La Soul: “Pain”
As the Musical Worldview Project (finding wisdom in lyrics) hits 100 entries, what better way to celebrate than an hour-long playlist of hand-picked Holiday At The Sea Musical Worldview Project family favorites.
Sit back, relax, and let the music take your mind (and encourage you to think about what kind of world you’d like to see and what kind of person you’d like to become to make that world a reality).
We’re all in this together.
Keep on keepin’ on.
Playlist (with links to each song’s original appearance in the Musical Worldview Project, including the lyrics that prompted the song’s inclusion):
“No gain without tears and sweat
They claim blue skies with white clouds, steady drifting
When pain come to get ya (it hit ya like flu)
Better times will pick ya (do what you gotta do)
To earn focus in the stormy weather
Come out the tunnel to the light saying”
“Got a skeleton closet
we've got a dreaded disease
I been looking high and low
for my skeleton key
And they say that pride
well it is the chief of sins
Well I know all of his deputies
I'm well acquainted with them”
“We are made of our longest days
We are falling but not alone
We will take the best parts of ourselves
And make them gold
We are made of our smallest thoughts
We are breathing and letting go
We will take the best parts of ourselves
And make them gold”
“Why do I say that, 'cause I gotta speak the truth man
Doing what we feel for the music is the proof and
Planted on the ground, the act is so together
Bonafied strong, you need leverage to sever”
“Love, love is a verb
Love is a doing word”
“Could tell a lie but my heart would know”
“Southern leaves, southern trees we hung from
Barren souls, heroic songs unsung
Forgive them father they know this knot is undone
Tied with the rope that my grandmother died
Pride of the pilgrims affect lives of millions
Since slave days separating, fathers from children
Institution ain't just a building
But a method, of having black and brown bodies fill them
We ain't seen as human beings with feelings
Will the U.S. Ever be us? Lord willing!
For now we know, the new Jim Crow
They stop, search and arrest our souls
Police and policies patrol philosophies of control
A cruel hand taking hold
We let go to free them so we can free us
America's moment to come to Jesus
Freedom (freedom)
Freedom come (freedom come)
Hold on (hold on)
Won't be long (won't be long)
Freedom (freedom)
Freedom come (freedom come)
Hold on (hold on)
Won't be long (won't be long)
The caged birds sings for freedom to bring
Black bodies being lost in the american dream
Blood of black being, a pastoral scene
Slavery's still alive, check amendment 13
Not whips and chains, all subliminal
Instead of 'nigga' they use the word 'criminal'
Sweet land of liberty, incarcerated country
Shot me with your ray-gun
And now you want to trump me
Prison is a business, America's the company
Investing in injustice, fear and long suffering
We staring in the face of hate again
The same hate they say will make america great again
No consolation prize for the dehumanized
For america to rise it's a matter of black lives
And we gonna free them, so we can free us
America's moment to come to Jesus”
“I feel like I've been living in
A city with no children in it
A garden left for ruin by a millionaire inside
Of a private prison
You never trust a millionaire
Quoting the sermon on the mount
I used to think I was not like them
But I'm beginning to have my doubts
My doubts about it”
“Good times gone, and you missed them
What's gone wrong in your system?
Things they bounce like a Spaulding
What'd you think, did you miss your calling?
It's so free, this kind of feeling
It's like life, it's so appealing
When you've got so much to say it's called gratitude
And that's right
Good times gone but you feed it
Hate's grown strong, you feel you need it
Just one thing, do you know you?
What you think, that the world owes you?
What's gonna set you free?
Look inside and you'll see
When you've got so much to say it's called gratitude
And that's right”
“Everyone is crying out for peace, yes,
None is crying out for justice.
I don't want no peace,
I need equal rights and justice.”
“Through this world of trouble
We gotta love one another
Let us take our fellow man by the hand
Try to help him to understand
We can all be together, forever and ever
When we make it to the promised land”
“Make love and not war!
'Cause we don't need no trouble
What we need is love (love)
To guide and protect us on (on)
If you hope good down from above (love)
Help the weak if you are strong now (strong)
We don't need no trouble
What we need is love, oh, no!
We don't need, we don't need, no more trouble!
Lord knows, we don't need no trouble!”
“America is waiting for a message of some sort or another.
Takin' it again. Again! Again! Takin' it again.
Well now... no, no... now, we ought to be mad at the government not mad at the people.”
Visit Brian Eno’s official website.
Follow Brian Eno on Twitter.
Visit David Byrne’s official website.
Follow David Byrne on Twitter.
Purchase Brian Eno and David Byrne’s music at Amazon.
Browse all the installments in the Musical Worldview Project.
Browse the master list of all the Musical Worldview Project posts.
“Until the philosophy
Which hold one race superior and another
Inferior
Is finally
And permanently
Discredited
And abandoned
Everywhere is war
Me say war
That until there no longer
First class and second class citizens of any nation
Until the color of a man's skin
Is of no more significance than the color of his eyes
Me say war
That until the basic human rights
Are equally guaranteed to all
Without regard to race
Dis a war
That until that day
The dream of lasting peace,
World citizenship
Rule of international morality
Will remain in but a fleeting illusion to be pursued,
But never attained
Now everywhere is war
War
And until the ignoble and unhappy regimes
That hold our brothers in Angola
In Mozambique
South Africa
Sub-human bondage
Have been toppled
Utterly destroyed
Well, everywhere is war
Me say war
War in the east
War in the west
War up north
War down south
War war
Rumors of war
And until that day,
The African continent
Will not know peace,
We Africans will fight we find it necessary
And we know we shall win
As we are confident
In the victory
Of good over evil
Good over evil, yeah
Good over evil
Good over evil, yeah
Good over evil”
“And I am faith
I am belief
Except for when I’m not”