The first song that came to mind when thinking about what song’s lyrics talk about our world today and progress toward a better, more just world was Mother Father by Dave Matthews Band. The song talks about negative aspects of the world, including “how a man who rocks his child to sleep pulls the trigger on his brother’s heart”, “a precious balance in between such cruelty and such kindness”, “why one man’s belly overflows another sleeps in hunger’s bed”. As the song goes on the artists says “we got the freedom” meaning that we have the ability to make this world a better place if everyone would join as one and change all of the bad aspects into good things, because as of right now the world is just “a little blue planet”.
Another song that came to mind as I was searching through my iTunes was Dancing In Circles by Love And Theft. The song is about how since the beginning of time multiple groups of people have tried to make peace with each other so that the whole world can be one large community filled with love. For some reason, though, we get so close and then instead of going one step forward we end up two steps back. The artist gives hope and says that one day the world will come together as one community and everyone will be “loving each other like sisters and brothers”.
I asked both of my parents about what songs they remember from their past that would be classified as songs thinking about a new, just world. My father said Peace Train by Cat Stevens. He explained to me that he thought of this song because when it was popular (in the 1960s) the political climate was ripe for change, especially protests over the Vietnam War. He did not have to fight in the war and said that he felt very lucky. He said that the artist was able to turn the cry’s for change at that time into a song and by doing so put the feelings of a lot of people into music. The lyrics are very direct and leave no question as to the subject matter and the reasons for protest. A lot of times, and especially during the 60s, the popular music reflects the mood of society and Cat Stevens had no problem getting his point across.
When my dad told me this song it reminded me of the movie “Remember The Titans”. The song plays towards the end of the movie, after the blacks and whites have combined into one school and there is no longer segregation.
When I turned to my mother, the first song that came to mind was Heal The World by Michael Jackson. She began to tell me about how it is a song that was intended to teach children how to help others. She remembers seeing a video about children living in countries of “unrest” and it reminded her about what is happening in the middle east right now – people are saying that they have had enough of dictatorships and of living as oppressed people, and they are standing up for themselves. She believes we are seeing something remarkable happening on our planet: it is a healing, we are healing, and we are all making the world a better place.