Monday, May 17, 2004
Reaching out to those living on the edge of the night...
As many of you know, I am a bit of a music fanatic. I don’t spend nearly the money that I used to on CDs, but I still listen to my favorites whenever I get the chance. For me the appeal is the creativity and the ability to convey emotions through music.
Music itself can express feelings, but lyrics have even more power (for obvious reasons) to get a message across. In rare instances, melody and poetry are working together in perfect cooperation to make a moving and unforgettable song.
One song that I have always thought was very effective is a song that is also now very hard to take seriously. The song is “Under Pressure,” which is a duet between Queen and David Bowie (2 of my favorites). The song will forever be tainted thanks to Vanilla Ice ripping off the bass line for his big hit “Ice Ice Baby.” But if you can look past the similarity between the songs, you may hear a wonderful message that is important to us in today’s world.
The song is about how all of us are living under pressures that life provides, but some of us, even people very close to us, are being crushed under the weight. It is a call for us to be more aware of the lives around us. We need to widen our vision beyond ourselves so that we might be able to help someone out before they are entirely consumed by life’s pressure.
These last few months have been a hard time to be an American. Things are not as good as they once were, and we are also engaged in a very ugly war. With families split due to military responsibility, fear of terrorism, and with tightening financial strains, Americans are facing immense pressure. I myself have found these to be trying times because the stability in my life is absent. I have a hard time placing faith in people or things, and I hurt inside… needing other people more than other. I know that if I am in this sort of situation, there are probably others, most likely even worse off than I am. I hope we all take this in consideration, and try to reach out to those around us, even if it is in a small way.
Below are some of the lyrics that I find very poignant in the song, and I hope you listen to it sometime, and are affected by its message. Whether the pressure is caused by AIDS, poverty, broken hearts, loneliness, war, or spirituality, lets help relieve the burden of our brothers and sisters.
I would ask that you especially consider the part about trying to reach out in love to those living on the “edge of the night.” For these people, a small gesture would bring them into the “light,” but not if no one reaches out to them. Without our help, they will be forever lost in darkness, and as the song suggests, either crushed or finding a way out themselves (through suicide). It is our moral duty to try to help our fellow man.
See you tomorrow with a more cheery blog! See ya!
Excerpts from UNDER PRESSURE by Queen and David Bowie
These are the days it never rains but it pours
It's the terror of knowing what this world is about
Watching some good friends screaming “let me out”
Turned away from it all like a blind man, sat on a fence but it don't work
I keep coming up with love, but it's so slashed and torn…
Insanity laughs, under pressure we're cracking
Can't we give ourselves one more chance?
Why can't we give love just one more chance?
Because love's such an old fashioned word
And love dares you to care for
the people on the edge of the night
And love dares you to change our way of caring about ourselves
This is our last chance
This is our last dance
This is ourselves
Under pressure
Music itself can express feelings, but lyrics have even more power (for obvious reasons) to get a message across. In rare instances, melody and poetry are working together in perfect cooperation to make a moving and unforgettable song.
One song that I have always thought was very effective is a song that is also now very hard to take seriously. The song is “Under Pressure,” which is a duet between Queen and David Bowie (2 of my favorites). The song will forever be tainted thanks to Vanilla Ice ripping off the bass line for his big hit “Ice Ice Baby.” But if you can look past the similarity between the songs, you may hear a wonderful message that is important to us in today’s world.
The song is about how all of us are living under pressures that life provides, but some of us, even people very close to us, are being crushed under the weight. It is a call for us to be more aware of the lives around us. We need to widen our vision beyond ourselves so that we might be able to help someone out before they are entirely consumed by life’s pressure.
These last few months have been a hard time to be an American. Things are not as good as they once were, and we are also engaged in a very ugly war. With families split due to military responsibility, fear of terrorism, and with tightening financial strains, Americans are facing immense pressure. I myself have found these to be trying times because the stability in my life is absent. I have a hard time placing faith in people or things, and I hurt inside… needing other people more than other. I know that if I am in this sort of situation, there are probably others, most likely even worse off than I am. I hope we all take this in consideration, and try to reach out to those around us, even if it is in a small way.
Below are some of the lyrics that I find very poignant in the song, and I hope you listen to it sometime, and are affected by its message. Whether the pressure is caused by AIDS, poverty, broken hearts, loneliness, war, or spirituality, lets help relieve the burden of our brothers and sisters.
I would ask that you especially consider the part about trying to reach out in love to those living on the “edge of the night.” For these people, a small gesture would bring them into the “light,” but not if no one reaches out to them. Without our help, they will be forever lost in darkness, and as the song suggests, either crushed or finding a way out themselves (through suicide). It is our moral duty to try to help our fellow man.
See you tomorrow with a more cheery blog! See ya!
Excerpts from UNDER PRESSURE by Queen and David Bowie
These are the days it never rains but it pours
It's the terror of knowing what this world is about
Watching some good friends screaming “let me out”
Turned away from it all like a blind man, sat on a fence but it don't work
I keep coming up with love, but it's so slashed and torn…
Insanity laughs, under pressure we're cracking
Can't we give ourselves one more chance?
Why can't we give love just one more chance?
Because love's such an old fashioned word
And love dares you to care for
the people on the edge of the night
And love dares you to change our way of caring about ourselves
This is our last chance
This is our last dance
This is ourselves
Under pressure
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