Sunday, March 23, 2008

"Waiting on the World to Change"

Me and all my friends
We're all misunderstood
They say we stand for nothing and
there's no way we ever could
Now we see everything that's going wrong
with the world and those who lead it
We just feel like we don't have the means
to rise above and beat it

So we keep waiting
waiting on the world to change
We keep on waiting
waiting on the world to change


These lyrics to the song by John Mayer make me very sad. The song itself is quite catchy--I find myself humming or singing it throughout the day. The lyrics, though, sound defeatist and apathetic. I can't help contrasting them with the lyrics to Marvin Gaye's "What's Going On?"

CHORUS #1:
Picket lines and picket signs
Don't punish me with brutality
Talk to me, so you can see
Oh what's going on, what's going on
Yeah, what's going on, ah, what's going on
Ahhh....

Mother, mother, everybody thinks we're wrong
Ah but who are they to judge us
Simply 'cos our hair is long
Ah you know we'ver got to find a way
To bring some understanding here today


I just keep thinking that you can't wait for the world to change, you need to change it yourself, and sending out a message that it's okay just to wait is doing the world a disservice.

*sigh*

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I've heard that song so many times in the last couple of years (not by choice) and have felt about it exactly the same way you did. Besides that the guy singing it sounds like he has swallowed a frog, the lyrics just resonate depression and acceptance of the norm.

Murphy Jacobs said...

The Mayers song irritates me. To me it doesn't sound defeatist -- it sounds apathetic and downright lazy, all about wanting to sit on one's ass and wait for someone ELSE to do something.

In fact, I was raging at the song just the other day in the car, right before switching the channel ;)