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.
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.