1
So!
In the beginning
There was a hum
From a poet whose pulse fell
Drum drum drum!
He would perform prayers and all
Till one day he heard a voice call
Come come come!
Suspicious he moved
With vicious caution
Dismisses,
He thinks is a little often
People get held back
By the void inside 'em.
Yo!
The void said,
I'm poised to speak inside you
"Rejoice then please let me invite you
To evil, greed and lies too."
Yeah!
Confused and dazed
He moved in ways
He soon became "Hakuna"
A knock on his door, his heart is no more
A knock on his door, his soul is no more
Yeah
That was in the beginning
As the story goes on
So
The poets got a proposal
He would always hope but never know
What it feels
To be free.
He would be the frozen
Imposed as the chosen,
All laws oppose him
But it would be greed.
That's got him there
He's power-hungry,
And proud too.
People don't care, people just care
Evil don't care, evil just care
Yeah!
That was In the beginning
There was a hum.
Then things changed.
They say
It is better to light a candle than to curse the dark in the eyes of the youth
There are question marks
Like freedom.
Freedom for the mind and soul,
We don't see them.
See them for their worth at all,
That's why we lead'em
Lead'em to these wars
And what is it we feed 'em.
Feed em our impurities
And who it is we treat 'em
Treat em like the enemy
Humanity will need'em.
Need 'em like the blood we spill
And we're freedom
Freedom for the hearts we fill
We mislead 'em.
They hunger for the love we give
But we cheat 'em.
The guys beat him and all he wants
Is his freedom,
So they defeat him,
Whatever spirit hes got.
Beat him!
And they teach him
The rest of the world don't need him
And he believes.
In the disease that hes heathen
Put up your fists if all you want is freedom
Put up your fists if all you want is
That was in the beginning
Then things changed
Yeah!
And we keep holdin' on,
And we keep bein' strong
And we keep goin' on
And on and on and on
In the beginning
There was a hum
From a poet whose pulse fell
Drum drum drum!
He would perform prayers and all
Till one day he heard a voice call
Come come come!
Suspicious he moved
With vicious caution
Dismisses,
He thinks is a little often
People get held back
By the void inside 'em.
Yo!
The void said,
I'm poised to speak inside you
"Rejoice then please let me invite you
To evil, greed and lies too."
Yeah!
Confused and dazed
He moved in ways
He soon became "Hakuna"
A knock on his door, his heart is no more
A knock on his door, his soul is no more
Yeah
That was in the beginning
As the story goes on
So
The poets got a proposal
He would always hope but never know
What it feels
To be free.
He would be the frozen
Imposed as the chosen,
All laws oppose him
But it would be greed.
That's got him there
He's power-hungry,
And proud too.
People don't care, people just care
Evil don't care, evil just care
Yeah!
That was In the beginning
There was a hum.
Then things changed.
They say
It is better to light a candle than to curse the dark in the eyes of the youth
There are question marks
Like freedom.
Freedom for the mind and soul,
We don't see them.
See them for their worth at all,
That's why we lead'em
Lead'em to these wars
And what is it we feed 'em.
Feed em our impurities
And who it is we treat 'em
Treat em like the enemy
Humanity will need'em.
Need 'em like the blood we spill
And we're freedom
Freedom for the hearts we fill
We mislead 'em.
They hunger for the love we give
But we cheat 'em.
The guys beat him and all he wants
Is his freedom,
So they defeat him,
Whatever spirit hes got.
Beat him!
And they teach him
The rest of the world don't need him
And he believes.
In the disease that hes heathen
Put up your fists if all you want is freedom
Put up your fists if all you want is
That was in the beginning
Then things changed
Yeah!
And we keep holdin' on,
And we keep bein' strong
And we keep goin' on
And on and on and on
Lyrics submitted by gingerosity
In the Beginning Lyrics as written by Brian West Gerald Eaton
Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Kobalt Music Publishing Ltd.
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
Add your thoughts
Log in now to tell us what you think this song means.
Don’t have an account? Create an account with SongMeanings to post comments, submit lyrics, and more. It’s super easy, we promise!
This song is so beautiful. It just starts off like a freight train and hits you with this incredible, tragic story with this inspiring message. The emotion in K'naan's voice as he does the tragic lines "the knock on the door, his lord is no more, the knock on the door, his soul is no more" is just wrenching. Its hard for me to follow the stanza that leads to the awesome line "put up your fists if all you want is freedom" but it seems like he's speaking from the point of view of the corrupting forces that spoil the minds of so many youths. Perhaps these forces distort the idea of freedom in order to lure people in? This is supported by the lines "freedom for the hearts we fill, mislead them/ they hunger for the love we give, but we cheat them"
It seems like the final part of that (put up your fists...) is a rejection of all the negative forces that try to trick someone along the way to seeing "what it feels to be free." Put up your fists if all you want is REAL freedom, not the snake oil being sold by these terrible influences.
Sorry that that is so vague (corrupting forces? what am i talking about? i don't know) but obviously I don't know the specific things that he's referring and I don't want to speculate on the undoubtedly terrible things he might be singing about.
In any case, this song is so beautiful and inspiring. I love it. Its better to light a candle than curse the dark. Even out of some of the truly most devastating and unimaginable experiences possible out comes this beauty and hope in the most utterly eloquent way.