Feb 2015
Throughout the years many people who have got to know me, have asked me the same question. How can you not know the lyrics to that song, you must have heard it a “insert your own exaggeration here” times.
And my answer used to be always the same.
“I listen to music before I listen to lyrics, without music a song has no meaning.”
Then I listened to a guy called Marshall Mathers or you may know him better as Eminem or Slim Shady.
The first song I heard I really do not recall, but it was a while ago, at least over ten years ago. Strangely enough one of my long time favourite artists, Elton John whom I have liked since I was 15 years old has collaborated with a few Rap artists over the years, including Eminem.
In another strange twist, Marshal Mathers produced an album in 2006ish that included a song put together by Mathers, called Ghetto Gospel, which was a combination of a song from Tupac Shakur from the mid nineties, and a really obscure song from Elton John from the early 70’s. This song features one of the best lines I have heard;
“Before we find world peace, we gotta find peace in that war on the streets”.
The simplicity and accuracy of that phrase, I find astonishing and changed the way I think about music and life.
I often wonder if obtaining world peace is possible. I do know it’s a complex issue beyond my understanding, but then again humans fit in the same category for me.
When I see people work together in the face of adversity such as natural disasters and atrocities committed in the name of religion and racial difference, people risking their lives and dieing to save complete strangers during these times, I wonder why, when a lot of the same people think that the world is “safe” again, they go back to their ignorant and bigoted opinions.
I am sure if those same people would just open their eyes on a daily basis when they pick up their kids from school in Alice Springs, when they drive to the mosque in Decatur or when they just walk down a street in Khartoum, and look at what’s going on in their own lives maybe then the world can start to change.
Cause whether you are white person in a town full of aboriginal heritage or a catholic that lives in the same street as the most sacred Islamic building in your part of middle America or even if you are Hollywood movie star going for cruise on the Nile we all need to look at what is going on in your own life before you declare war on the rest of the world.
Isn’t it strange that a violent black man born in Harlem in the 70’s who ironically died from gunshot wounds in a street in Vegas in the 90’s, who was a amongst many other things a convicted ******, whose Mother was an active member of the Black Panther Party and once was charged with over 150 counts of conspiracy and whose grandfather was convicted of ******, should have the capability to write such a simplistic thought provoking line, that changed the way a white guy born in the 60’s in Australia thinks.
Inspiration can come from the strangest places.
So next time you go to “declare war” on something, look at your own lawn around your house, you may just find it needs tending to first. You may even find some roses you never knew where there and realise how good they smell.
I like roses they remind me of my mother.
And my answer used to be always the same.
“I listen to music before I listen to lyrics, without music a song has no meaning.”
Then I listened to a guy called Marshall Mathers or you may know him better as Eminem or Slim Shady.
The first song I heard I really do not recall, but it was a while ago, at least over ten years ago. Strangely enough one of my long time favourite artists, Elton John whom I have liked since I was 15 years old has collaborated with a few Rap artists over the years, including Eminem.
In another strange twist, Marshal Mathers produced an album in 2006ish that included a song put together by Mathers, called Ghetto Gospel, which was a combination of a song from Tupac Shakur from the mid nineties, and a really obscure song from Elton John from the early 70’s. This song features one of the best lines I have heard;
“Before we find world peace, we gotta find peace in that war on the streets”.
The simplicity and accuracy of that phrase, I find astonishing and changed the way I think about music and life.
I often wonder if obtaining world peace is possible. I do know it’s a complex issue beyond my understanding, but then again humans fit in the same category for me.
When I see people work together in the face of adversity such as natural disasters and atrocities committed in the name of religion and racial difference, people risking their lives and dieing to save complete strangers during these times, I wonder why, when a lot of the same people think that the world is “safe” again, they go back to their ignorant and bigoted opinions.
I am sure if those same people would just open their eyes on a daily basis when they pick up their kids from school in Alice Springs, when they drive to the mosque in Decatur or when they just walk down a street in Khartoum, and look at what’s going on in their own lives maybe then the world can start to change.
Cause whether you are white person in a town full of aboriginal heritage or a catholic that lives in the same street as the most sacred Islamic building in your part of middle America or even if you are Hollywood movie star going for cruise on the Nile we all need to look at what is going on in your own life before you declare war on the rest of the world.
Isn’t it strange that a violent black man born in Harlem in the 70’s who ironically died from gunshot wounds in a street in Vegas in the 90’s, who was a amongst many other things a convicted ******, whose Mother was an active member of the Black Panther Party and once was charged with over 150 counts of conspiracy and whose grandfather was convicted of ******, should have the capability to write such a simplistic thought provoking line, that changed the way a white guy born in the 60’s in Australia thinks.
Inspiration can come from the strangest places.
So next time you go to “declare war” on something, look at your own lawn around your house, you may just find it needs tending to first. You may even find some roses you never knew where there and realise how good they smell.
I like roses they remind me of my mother.
