Songs to Make You Think, Reminisce, Cry, Wonder, and So On...
Jul 28 '05 (Updated May 02 '06)
The Bottom Line Time for poetic to get a little sentimental. Hope you all enjoy this entry.
Yeah, I know my recent contributions to this site have been nothing but write-off entries but when one as heart-warming as alexdg1's current one comes around, I can't help but include myself in it. I figure that it wouldn't hurt giving you all a glimpse of my soul, seeing what songs cause certain emotions and/or memories to arise within me. So, let me get started with this emotional journey, opening with a selection that caused me to think about my "puppy love" stages in my younger years:
All I Do Is Think of You - Jackson 5
I'm sure many people here have been in school back in the day when they've seen somebody they thought was special at first glance; someone whom the light reflected of him or her just right and that they could not stop looking or thinking about that special someone so intensely that they wanted to beg that person to "please, please be mine!" In my case, there was this one really special girl "who I dreamed about all the time" and every waking moment at school had me thinking about being with her. I never told her how I felt until it was too late, so she never really knew that day and night, all I did was think of her....man, that sounds cheesy, I know, but it's the sad truth.
Because I Love You - Lenny Williams
When I first heard this song, I thought it was the work of a man who was pathetic because he was insistent on loving a girl who obviously passed him by ("girl, i-i-i-i-i-i-i love you, no matter what you do"). Then, I listened to this song again and realized how similar it was to my situation with another girl I met a couple years after the aforementioned girl. While I am sure that I wasn't in love with this girl, I felt some of the things Lenny expresses in this song: the friends telling me to move on, the loneliness after moving on, and remembrances of the good things that we shared ("I'm glad that I found you...I'm glad, baby.").
Honey - Ohio Players
When I listen to this song, it reminds me of the many materialistic girls out there who were only attracted to the fellas with the newest clothes and/or have the most money yet it shows also reminds me that there is still hope for those guys who aren't as blessed - if they can convince such women that money and jewelry aren't everything ("I love you because you're honey/Would you love me if I had no money?"). I believe that this song is for those women to show them that a man recognizing their smile like the rising sun and adoring them with genuine love and compassion should be enough for a relationship to succeed...in an idealistic world, maybe.
I'm A Mess - Anthony Hamilton
This song reminds me of the girl I talked about a couple selections earlier. Now, with several years of retrospect, I realize that my thing with her wasn't going to work, but back then, I felt like Hamilton in this song ("I'm so torn up now, can't believe I lost you/I lost my best friend, my soulmate"). When things ended between me and her, it was pathetic, really. I kept writing her letters, kept trying to keep the conversation lines open, kept thinking about her all the time. That's why I can feel Hamilton's tortured vocals as he sings "you coulda called, you coulda wrote, you coulda tried...you don't want me no more" - because that was me wondering why she didn't want me anymore.
Well, that's enough of me describing my different relationships and experiences with love, but there are a couple more songs I want to discuss in this entry. So, let's continue...
A Song For Assata - Common feat. Cee-Lo
If it wasn't for this song, I don't think many people would know who Assata Shakur is or the severe predicaments that the government placed her in. In fact, I don't think many people know about all of the troubling and shocking things (i.e. being tortured by prison guards, being shot at while her hands were up) she went through thanks to this government who tried to deny her freedom. It's even more shameful that the US government has raised her bounty to a million dollars (for escaping a prison that she didn't need to be in for six years). Even that's it's been virtually proven that she's innocent ("[she] had been convinced of a murder couldn't done/Medical evidence shown she couldn't shot the gun"), she's still being persecuted ("And even to this day they try to get to her/but she's free with political asylum in Cuba). That's why I'm more than glad that Common brought her story to light..."Your Power and Pride, so Beautiful...May God bless your Soul".
A Change Is Gonna Come - Sam Cooke
I end this with words about the greatest soul song ever sung and written. While I don't think change has totally come, yet (read the above paragraph), listening to this song makes me think that there is a definite possibility that it can happen...no, that it must happen. Now, I can't say that I've been through what my elders have been through and I can't say that I understand what they've experienced in their years, but listening to this song made me realize that they had no choice but to keep struggling, keep pushing in order to receive equality even as some of them just wanted to give up ("then I go to my brother and I say 'Brother, help me please'/But he winds up knocking me back down on my knees"). With Sam Cooke's painstakingly-hopeful deliverance of each word in this song that digs deep through layers of pretentiousness and makes us all realize this, he ends up creating a song that defined a generation and an consciousness - that we as black people cannot ever give up because change will eventually come even if "it's a long time coming."
Well, I hope that you all enjoyed reading this. Thanks for giving me your time. Peace.
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poeticone16
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