Friday, April 4, 2008

Politics and Music

It's been a while since my last post (sounds like confession, doesn't it?). This one is about politics and music. I wanted to break down the meaning of a couple of my songs.

"Tell Me" is about the alienation that most Black Americans (my opinion) feel toward the mother continent of Africa. I once read a comment from an African who said that American Blacks are a "lost people" because we have no knowledge of the countries that we originally came from. This song was also my attempt to explain slavery to my daughter. "Tell Me" is a conversation between me/us and the motherland.

"You & Me" is a plea for unity and peace. There have always been serious problems in the world and our time on earth is no exception. The wrong religion, the wrong skin color, greed and hatred. Like the man said: "When the power of love overcomes the love of power the world will know peace"
(Jimi Hendrix)

And last but not least, "A War Of The Few". I have had many people misunderstand this song. I wrote this song as an open letter from a soldier in Iraq to his family in the USA. All his/her thoughts, fears, rants and hopes. I'm just stating a simple fact. This is indeed a war of the few. The war is being fought by a small group of our countrymen & women who are doing what they were asked to do. They are sacrificing everything because they are soldiers. Just because you say "Support the troops" doesn't make you a patriot. Someone else is fighting and dying and it isn't you.