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Give Me Back My Name Lyrics
There's a word for it
And words don't mean a thing
There's name for it
And names make all the difference in the world
Some things can never be spoken
Some things cannot be pronounced
That word does not exist in any language
It will never be uttered by a human mouth
Let X make a statement
Let breath pass through those cracked lips
That man was my hero
And now that word has been taken from us
Some things can never be spoken
Some things cannot be pronounced
That word does not exist in any language
It will never be uttered by a human mouth
Give me back my name
Give me back my name
Something has been changed in my life
Something has been changed in my life
Something must be returned to us
Something must me returned to us
And words don't mean a thing
There's name for it
And names make all the difference in the world
Some things can never be spoken
Some things cannot be pronounced
That word does not exist in any language
It will never be uttered by a human mouth
Let breath pass through those cracked lips
That man was my hero
And now that word has been taken from us
Some things can never be spoken
Some things cannot be pronounced
That word does not exist in any language
It will never be uttered by a human mouth
Give me back my name
Something has been changed in my life
Something has been changed in my life
Something must be returned to us
Something must me returned to us
Add your song meanings, interpretations, facts, memories & more to the community.
I'll always remember this as a song I listened to dozens if not hundreds of times, then during one car ride, the meaning clicked into my head with an Aha.
It's about Malcolm X, who rejected his legal/slave name of "Little" and chose X because his original African familial name was unknown and could never be known.
I think this song is referencing schools of thought like Zen and Taoism. It's about how we confuse the symbol with what is symbolized. The narrator wants to find out what his "real" name - even though it cannot really be expressed in words.