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Weeping Lyrics
I knew a man who lived in fear
It was huge, it was angry, it was drawing near
Behind his house, a secret place
Was the shadow of the demon he could never face
He built a wall of steel and flame
And men with guns, to keep it tame
Then, standing back, he made it plain
That the nightmare would never ever rise again
But the fear and the fire and the guns remain
It doesn't matter now
It's over anyhow
He tells the world that it's sleeping
But as the night came 'round
I heard its lonely sound
It wasn't roaring, it was weeping
And then one day, the neighbors came
They were curious to know about the smoke and flame
The stood around outside the wall
But of course there was nothing to be heard at all
"My Friends", he said, "we've reached our goal
The threat is under firm control
As long as peace and order reign
I'll be damned if I can see a reason to explain
Why the fear and the fire and the guns remain"
It doesn't matter now
It's over anyhow
He tells the world that it's sleeping
But as the night came 'round
I heard its lonely sound
It wasn't roaring, it was weeping.
It was huge, it was angry, it was drawing near
Behind his house, a secret place
Was the shadow of the demon he could never face
And men with guns, to keep it tame
Then, standing back, he made it plain
That the nightmare would never ever rise again
But the fear and the fire and the guns remain
It's over anyhow
He tells the world that it's sleeping
But as the night came 'round
I heard its lonely sound
It wasn't roaring, it was weeping
They were curious to know about the smoke and flame
The stood around outside the wall
But of course there was nothing to be heard at all
The threat is under firm control
As long as peace and order reign
I'll be damned if I can see a reason to explain
Why the fear and the fire and the guns remain"
It's over anyhow
He tells the world that it's sleeping
But as the night came 'round
I heard its lonely sound
It wasn't roaring, it was weeping.
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I like all the ideas above but this song is actually a South African protest song (if I'm not mistaken). It is originally written and performed by a South African group Bright Blue.
This is a South African resistance song, written in the mid-1980's by a young white soldier named Dan Heyman conscripted to the SADF. The young soldier was sent to a township to enforce curfew on the many inhabitants. He was outraged by the oppression he saw there and wrote this song in defiance. The man in the lyrics is Hendrik Verwoerd the architect of Apartheid. The song highlights Verwoerd's arrogance toward the world's media when he was questioned about the situation in South Africa. The song is about the barrier he created between races to keep white people "safe from the Back Danger" he made black people out to be dangerous, monstrous even. When in reality, the oppressed were innocents, weeping instead of roaring. A very moving song about White supremacist ignorance.
Yeah I heard somewhere that this is an African song protesting Apartheid.
Actually, this does have a lot of political sentiment, and I can certainly see this being about Apartheid. The man being referenced is more of 'The Man' as commonly referred to in the States as the Government/Police, the 'secret place' being the areas of the city where the blacks were forced to be segregated from the white communities, even though sometimes all that separated them was a fence. They had the military to keep them tame and in fear so it appeared all was well, but when you really talked to these people, they weren't angry, they were sad that their government felt it was necessary to keep the status quo as it was under Apartheid. "The neighbors came" was when the rest of the world began to take notice of what was happening and protest, but 'The Man' was able to make it look like everything was still okay. But if that was okay, why were there still military patrols and so on having to enforce the segregation?
This could even refer to the US during segregation as well, or any other country where the government is oppressing their people.
One other thing that came to me after posting my main comment, the lines "They stood around, outside the wall; but of course, there was nothing to be heard at all." May imply that the people knew a bit about what was going on, and knew that it was not something dangerous, or unwilling to compromise, but rather something that could be resolved. In addition, it could be implying that the people were offering their help. This applied to life as: You should be forgiving, and understand when people repress things, that their anger is not actually addressed to you, but rather their fear. You should help them despite how they may have treated you.
Hmm no comments yet? Well this song could any number of things. It's got to be a metaphor for something. Just haven’t really delved into it that much yet. I love the African vibe to it though. Very moving.
I think it's about someone with a past or secret that haunts him/her. They want to leave it behind but it's difficult to hide from not only themself, but also others.
Because of this, this person has a guarded exterior and has reinvented himself into a lie, and is miserable about it. The 'roaring' is the lie, and the 'weeping' is the truth.
^^Wow... That is a really neat idea behind it... Thank you for sharing.
I think that many of the things that we fear so greatly, that are horrific even in their very idea, are not as harmful as we think they are.
If you aren't careful how you face these challenges, you might wind up with a bigger problem than the one you started out with. Problems, trials, and challenges are designed to make us stronger. If they don't, that's good reason to be weeping.
^^Wow. That's quite profound. I like that.