“10,000 Years (Peace is Now)” by Live

Mental Jewelry
Radioactive Records
1991

This song is a cry for peace after all of human history has been a story of war, oppression, and injustice.

The world is burning down

Can't you smell the smoke in the air?

War, disease, and famine

This demon, she is everywhere

Poets and preachers and politicians

They've all had their say

And we got 10,000 years

Devoted to nothing

But tomorrow and yesterday

If all of the ignorance in the world

Passes a second ago

What would you say?

Who would you obey?

I am here to say that

Peace is now

Mr. President

I hereby pardon you of

All your crimes

For they are just as much mine

Selfishness and separation

Have led me

To believe that the

World is not my problem

The world is not my problem

I am the world, you are the world

If all of the ignorance in the world

Passes a second ago

What would you say?

Who would you obey?

I am here to say that

Peace is now

Interpretation

The world is burning down

Can't you smell the smoke in the air?

War, disease, and famine

This demon, she is everywhere

The opening stanza sets the stage for the song. It evokes an image of a burning building, riot, or war. The line, “war, disease, and famine” continues this dismal image. The singer attributes these evils to a “demon” who is everywhere. This “demon” is described as a female possibly referencing the idea (a remnant of a patriarchal world) that Eve is responsible for evil coming into the world

Poets and preachers and politicians

They've all had their say

And we got 10,000 years

Devoted to nothing

But tomorrow and yesterday

This stanza describes the failure of three groups in dealing with evil in the world. “Poets” have glorified violence and war throughout history in their literature, music, and other art forms. “Preachers” have “had their say” in that there has been numerous opportunities for religious leaders to speak out against nationalized violence and war and have remained silent. Likewise, “politicians” have failed to make use of their power to bring about peace and instead increased worldwide violence and war. As a whole, these groups have given up on peace and instead focus on keeping people’s minds on the past (“yesterday”—angry about past wrongs or preoccupied with the good old days) and the future (“tomorrow”—anxious for personal gain).

If all of the ignorance in the world

Passes a second ago

What would you say?

Who would you obey?

I am here to say that

A question is put to us in this stanza. If the thoughts and actions that have led us to this place of “war, disease, and famine” went away, would we be able to open our eyes and act to make peace a reality? The singer answers that question with a battle cry in the upcoming chorus.

Peace is now

“Peace is now” is not an observation about the current state of things but instead a demand that we create it now.

Mr. President

I hereby pardon you of

All your crimes

For they are just as much mine

In this stanza the narrator equates the sins of the president (regarding the three evils in the first stanza, “war, disease, and famine”) with his own. This is an important distinction to normal protest songs. The narrator is not calling down government leaders as ignorant elitists that don’t represent the populace. Instead the narrator accepts that he is just as culpable for the evils existing in the world. Leaders are only in power as long as the populace wills them to be. Because of this, the narrator asserts that any “crimes” committed by his government are “just as much” his.

Selfishness and separation

Have led me

To believe that the

World is not my problem

The world is not my problem

I am the world, you are the world

The singer expands on the thought from the previous stanza. “Selfishness and separation” are the conditions that have “led” him to insulate himself from the pervasive evil around him. He has lived as if his neighbor’s welfare is not his concern (“the world is not my problem”). The stanza ends by rejecting that notion by saying that we are interconnected; “I am the world” and “you are the world”.

If all of the ignorance in the world

Passes a second ago

What would you say?

Who would you obey?

I am here to say that

Peace is now

“Exodus” by Bob Marley and the Wailers

Exodus
Island Records
1977




This is a song that equates the Biblical story of the exodus of the people of Israel with modern-day conflicts. Bob Marley sees the liberation of any people anywhere from tyranny as a movement of God that has parallels to the Bible story.

Exodus, movement of Jah people, oh yeah

Open your eyes and let me tell you this

Men and people will fight ya down

When ya see Jah light

Let me tell you, if you're not wrong

Ev'rything is alright

So we gonna walk

Alright, through the roads of creation

We're the generation

Trod through great tribulation

Exodus, movement of Jah people

Open your eyes and look within

Are you satisfied with the life you're living?

We know where we're going

We know where we're from

We're leaving Babylon

We're going to our fatherland

Exodus, movement of Jah people

Send us another Brother Moses

Gonna cross the Red Sea

Exodus, movement of Jah people

Open your eyes and look within

Are you satisfied with the life you're living?

We know where we're going

We know where we're from

We're leaving Babylon

We're going to the fatherland

Exodus, movement of Jah people

Jah come to break down

'pression, rule equality

Wipe away transgression

Set the captives free

Exodus, movement of Jah people

Interpretation

Exodus, movement of Jah people, oh yeah

Open your eyes and let me tell you this

This stanza introduces the central idea behind the song: the Biblical story of the exodus, which involves a “movement” of people from one reality to another. In the Biblical story it is the people of Isreal from Egypt to the Promised Land. Today that “movement” involves oppressed people finding deliverance from the forces that subjugate them. The narrator implores listeners to “open your eyes” to the truth.

Men and people will fight ya down

When ya see Jah light

Let me tell you, if you're not wrong

Ev'rything is alright

So we gonna walk

Alright, through the roads of creation

We're the generation

Trod through great tribulation

In this stanza the narrator promises that if we do wake up and stand up for the oppressed, people will resist us; they’ll “fight ya down”. However, the narrator says that if we are right then we don’t need to worry about those who tear us down. We will walk through this fight (“through the roads of creation”) with God’s power leading us. The narrator envisions the “tribulation” as the ongoing problem of oppression in our world.

Exodus, movement of Jah people

This stanza repeats the central idea, coupling modern liberation struggles with the Hebrew exodus.

Open your eyes and look within

Are you satisfied with the life you're living?

We know where we're going

We know where we're from

We're leaving Babylon

We're going to our fatherland

In this stanza the narrator again appeals to us to analyze our lives to determine if we are really on the side of good. He claims assurance in their struggle and again uses Biblical imagery to describe their movement out of “Babylon”, which is a pseudonym for modern empires. In our world today these empires are in fact opposing God by opposing those whom God is for.

Exodus, movement of Jah people

Send us another Brother Moses

Gonna cross the Red Sea

This stanza again refers to the Bible story. The singer asks God to send us a prophet (“another Brother Moses”) who will part the seas in their struggle just like the first Moses led the Isrealites to “cross the Red Sea”.

Exodus, movement of Jah people

Open your eyes and look within

Are you satisfied with the life you're living?

We know where we're going

We know where we're from

We're leaving Babylon

We're going to the fatherland

Exodus, movement of Jah people

Jah come to break down

'pression, rule equality

Wipe away transgression

Set the captives free

This stanza is sung directly to Jesus. Jesus came to “break down” oppression, to institute the seeds to a just kingdom, to wipe away our sin or “transgression”, and to set “the captives free”. This refers to Jesus’ statement of his own purpose in Luke 4.

Exodus, movement of Jah people

“Hunger Strike” by Temple of the Dog

Temple of the Dog
A&M Records
1991

This song describes how wealth is earned on the backs of the powerless. The narrator knows this and yet struggles to fight against this reality because his easy life is dependent on it.

I don't mind stealing bread

From the mouths of decadence

But I can't feed on the powerless

When my cup's already overfilled

But it's on the table

The fire is cooking

And their farming babies

While the slaves are working

The blood is on the table

And their mouths are choking

But I'm growing hungry

I don't mind stealing bread

From the mouths of decadence

But I can't feed on the powerless

When my cup's already overfilled

But it's on the table

The fire is cooking

And their farming babies

While the slaves are working

And it's on the table

Their mouths are choking

But I'm growing hungry

I'm growing hungry

I'm growing hungry

I don't mind stealing bread

But I'm going hungry

I'm going hungry

I'm going hungry

Interpretation

I don't mind stealing bread

From the mouths of decadence

But I can't feed on the powerless

When my cup's already overfilled

This stanza presents a Robin Hood theme. The narrator admits that he has no problem stealing “bread” from the rich (“the mouths of decadence”) to feed those in need. However, he recognizes that we who are already affluent (our “cup’s already overfilled”) are stealing from the poor or “powerless” instead. We have all we need and yet look to benefit further from oppressing the poor.

But it's on the table

The fire is cooking

And their farming babies

While the slaves are working

The blood is on the table

And their mouths are choking

In this stanza the narrator’s conscience prods him to change and yet the bounty from this arrangement still finds its way into his home. The result of economic oppression is represented by the food “on the table” and the fuel for the “fire” that warms his house. “Farming babies” paints a picture of the slave practice of breeding their slaves so as to naturally increase their human capital. The final two lines parallel the first two lines that describe abundance. These two lines however, convey the violence associated with slavery and in turn the economic oppression present today.

But I'm growing hungry

The chorus describes the narrator’s struggle with personal comfort and moral obligation. He would like the world to be different but this arrangement allows him to buy cheap products—in this case food. “Growing hungry” implies that the narrator sees one possible form of protest to be not eating. This protest can last only so long since he’s getting really hungry. This means that buying food somehow ties him to injustices.

I don't mind stealing bread

From the mouths of decadence

But I can't feed on the powerless

When my cup's already overfilled

But it's on the table

The fire is cooking

And their farming babies

While the slaves are working

And it's on the table

Their mouths are choking

But I'm growing hungry

I'm growing hungry

I'm growing hungry

In this stanza two voices alternate between “growing hungry” and “going hungry”. This illustrates the struggle going on. Sometimes it means fighting against this injustice on behalf of and in unity with those being wronged in the form of a hunger strike (or altering purchasing habits). Other times it means compromising that struggle because the hunger pangs are becoming too great.

I don't mind stealing bread

The repetition of this line echoes the struggle evident in the choruses. The narrator has already said he doesn’t mind stealing from the wealthy, but now, since the other lines do not accompany this one, it leaves us to wonder whether or not the narrator is also settling for stealing from the poor.

But I'm going hungry

I'm going hungry

I'm going hungry

“Sweet Surrender” by Sarah McLachlan

Surfacing
Arista
1997

This song describes the narrator’s total surrender to God as she leaves behind her former attempts at spirituality and embraces a more radical path.

It doesn't mean much

It doesn't mean anything at all

The life I've left behind me is a cold room

I've crossed the last line

From where I can't return

Where every step I took in faith betrayed me

And led me from my home

And sweet surrender

Is all that I have to give

You take me in

No questions asked

You strip away the ugliness that surrounds me

Are you an angel?

Am I already that gone?

I only hope that I won't disappoint you

When I'm down here on my knees

And sweet surrender

Is all that I have to give

And I don't understand

By the touch of your hand

I would be the one to fall

I miss the little things

I miss everything about you

It doesn't mean much

It doesn't mean anything at all

The life I left behind me is a cold room

And sweet surrender

Is all that I have to give

Interpretation

It doesn't mean much

It doesn't mean anything at all

The life I've left behind me is a cold room

In this stanza the narrator describes her journey out of a meaningless life (one that “doesn’t mean much” or “anything at all”). This futile life is “behind [her]”; it’s gone and now seems empty and lifeless like a “cold room”.

I've crossed the last line

From where I can't return

Where every step I took in faith betrayed me

And led me from my home

The narrator continues to convey her path. She “crossed the last line”; she has gone past the point of no return as she heads away from a life to which she “can’t return”. That old life was spiritual but “betrayed [her]” at every turn and led her “from [her] home”. Now the narrator is finally going to her real “home”.

And sweet surrender

Is all that I have to give

The chorus is the narrator’s promise to God. All she can offer is to “surrender”, to end her striving and fall in love.

You take me in

No questions asked

You strip away the ugliness that surrounds me

This is a straightforward stanza describing the unconditional love God offers the narrator. God accepts her with “no questions asked”. In addition, God “strip[s] away the ugliness that surrounds [her]” meaning her old life melts away as her new existence begins.

Are you an angel?

Am I already that gone?

I only hope that I won't disappoint you

When I'm down here on my knees

The narrator is now experiencing ecstasy in relationship with God to the extent that she wonders if she is in heaven. She wonders if she is seeing “an angel” or maybe she’s gone crazy (she’s “already that gone”). While her old life is behind her, the narrator continues to live like she has to earn God’s approval. This is evident from the sexual imagery used in the final two lines. The narrator is not sure how to not disappoint God. Praying (“down here on my knees”) seems like not enough and so the double meaning of this phrase emerges. “Down here on my knees” evokes oral sex as a way to please a lover. The narrator struggles with trying to give God satisfaction like a lover when that is not necessary. The upcoming chorus reveals that the narrator realizes that surrender does not mean slavery but freedom.

And sweet surrender

Is all that I have to give

And I don't understand

By the touch of your hand

I would be the one to fall

I miss the little things

I miss everything about you

This stanza finds the narrator speaking of her amazement that God could save her (“by the touch of your hand I would be the one to fall”). This implies that the narrator was antagonistic towards God but as she is revived in God’s presence she realizes how much she missed “everything about [God]”.

It doesn't mean much

It doesn't mean anything at all

The life I left behind me is a cold room

Revisiting the first stanza, the narrator reiterates that the place she left is meaningless and lifeless.

And sweet surrender

Is all that I have to give