question of the week What song changed your perception of the world?

[Roymega]

The first time I remember music actually having an effect on the way I perceived the world was in 1998 at the age of 12--might even have been 11, not exactly sure the month I heard it-- but when I heard Everlast's "What It's Like" something changed, something profound. Til that point, music had always painted a much prettier picture (happy-go-lucky, everything's alright even when it's not, etc..) than the one portrayed in this song. It really made me think about the way we tend to subconsciously prejudge people based on their appearances or however the current situation presents them as and write them off without ever getting to know the whole story. That strange, wonderful feeling-empathy-was born.

 

 

[Rudi]

Everlast's "What It's Like" : I had to search out the lyrics because I cant make them out from the vid.

I can see how this might have appeared to a 12 year old.

 

The first lyric I that ever made me sit up, take notice and think was 'The Games People Play' by Joe South

 

Oh the games people play now
Every night and every day now
Never meaning what they say now
Never saying what they mean

 

And they wile away the hours
In their ivory towers
Till they're covered up with flowers
In the back of a black limousine

 

 

I used to wonder how he got away with the final line

Turn your back on humanity, and you dont give a damn

 

Now I listen to it back, he never uses the word damn at all. The word isnt used, but you hear it all the same.

[Peggy]

My oldest sis put Iron Butterfly's In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida on the family stereo. 

 

 

[Jim622]

I saw The Patty Smith Group perform  My Generation on SNL. The next day I went out bought the combo album of My Generation and A Quick One by The Who. Music was never the same.