Wake Up Everybody!

This Sunday, the 2011 Grammy Award Ceremony took place. And while I was thoroughly amused by Lady Gaga's latest shenanigans, I was happily shocked when they announced the winner for Best Rap/Sung Collaboration. Wake Up Everybody by John Legend & The Roots (Feat. Common & Melanie Fiona) took home the Grammy much to my personal satisfaction. Now perhaps I should explain my happiness..... It seems to me that nowadays, the subject matter of most successful songs is all the same. Everywhere I look (or listen in this case), all I hear is someone singing or rapping about how much money they have or their bedroom escapades or how many drugs they have done/sold. And while I am certainly not opposed to all songs that may concern these topics, in my opinion it is getting a little old. That's why I was so excited when Wake Up Everybody won. Here is the video and the lyrics (originally written for Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes in 1975 - except Common's verse) :



Wake up everybody
No more sleeping in bed
No more backward thinking,
Time for thinking ahead
The world has changed
So very much
From what is used to be
There is so much hatred
War and poverty

Wake up all the teachers
Time to teach a new way
Maybe then they'll listen
To what you have to say
'Cause they're the ones who's coming now
When the world is in their hands
When you teach the children
Teach the very best you can

[Chorus - John Legend & Melanie Fiona]
The world won't get no better
If we just let it be
The world won't get no better
We gotta change it, yeah
Just you and me

Wake up all the doctors,
Make the old people well
They're the ones who suffer
And who catch all the hell
But they don't have so very long
Before the Judgement Day
So won't you make them happy
Before they pass away

Wake up all the builders
Time to build a new land
I know we can do it
If we all lend a hand
The only thing we have to do
Is put it in our minds
Surely things will work out
'Cause they do everytime

(Chorus)

[Common]
It's the God hour
The morning I wake up
Just for the breath of life I thank my maker
My mom say I come from hustlers and shakers
My mom built it on skyscrapers and acres
He said take us back to where we belong
I try to write a song
As sweet as these arms the one the type to bare arms
And wear my heart on my sleeve
Even when I fell in God I believe
Read the days that weave through the maze
The seasons so amazing
Feed them and raised them
Seasons are aging
Earthquakes, wars, and rumors
I want us to get by but
We're more than consumers
We more than shooters, more than looters
Created in His image so God live through us
And even in this generation, living through computers
Only love love love can reboot us

Ohh Wake up, everybody
No more sleeping in bed
Ohh Wake up, everybody
I said I need a little help, y'all
Ohh need a little help, y'all

Come on, come on, come on, come on

Need a little help y'all
Ohh Need a little help, y'all
Wake up everybody
Wake up everybody
Wake up everybody

Celebrities and musicians have had a prominent place in American society for a long time. And like a wise man once said, "with great power comes great responsibility." Now more than ever, they are constantly in the public eye and influence over millions of people across the globe with the language in their songs. The last thing we need is for more musicians to fill the heads of Americans with songs that glorify drugs, sex, violence, etc. The more we hear this type of language, the more we believe it. Let's get this straight, I am not censuring these types of songs in any way (I know I have several on my iPod). But the incredible onslaught of music with this sort of subject matter is certainly not good, especially for young and impressionable kids. That's why the emowering, positive message of Wake Up Everybody was such breath of fresh air. The fact that it won a Grammy tells me that there is hope for the music industry yet.