Come sister, my brother
Shake up your bones shake up your feet
I'm saying open up
And let the rain come pouring in
Wash out this tired notion
That the best is yet to come
But while you're dancing on the ground
Don't think of when you're gone
Love! Love!? What more is there?
We need the light of love in here.
Don't beat your head
Dry your eyes
Let the love in there
--Dave Matthews Band
I have never had a problem expressing my feelings. I can demonstrate the depth of my character and personality through whatever medium I choose: direct conversation, writing, drawing, or even dancing.
But as comfortable as I am with any of these options, I wish I could express myself more eloquently. Although I find no difficulty in stringing words together to form a coherent sentence, my articulacy needs improvement. When I wrote papers in my high school English classes, I always had grand ideas, but I lacked the means to communicate them effectively. The art of composition is a commendable talent that few possess. Forming great phrases or lines requires creativity and extensive practice. Because of his ability to talk about deep, thoughtful ideas simply and clearly, I admire my favorite musical artist and songwriter, Dave Matthews. He is an inspiration to me because of his powerful lyrics, his vision for change in the world, and because of his success in pursuing his ambitions, passions, and dreams. The concepts I am passionate about – love, friendship, and enjoying life – are common themes in Dave Matthews’ lyrics. Lyrics from the song “Pig,” as shown above, illustrate how important love is to Matthews. He also advocates awareness of worldwide issues such as genocide, war, and famine.
A unique upbringing shaped the values that Dave Matthews would later incorporate into his writing.
Matthews was born in Johannesburg, South Africa on January 9, 1967. He grew up in an environment hostile toward the ideas of freedom and equality. Though he was raised as a privileged white child in a predominantly black setting, Matthews was reared to love and accept everyone. His family came from a Quaker background and taught their four children the principles of nonviolence and acceptance. From his religious upbringings, Matthews already believed in the inner light of the self and the powers of the individual conscience and revelation.
Much of Matthews' inspiration came from champions of equality.
He grew up listening to the music of Bob Marley and Jimi Hendrix, whose lyrics focused on issues like global unity, standing up for one’s rights, and the power of the people. Martin Luther King Jr. and Jimi Hendrix both passed away early in Matthews’ life, but their dreams lived on through advocates of equality like Nelson Mandela. While Mandela sat in jail for his work against apartheid, Matthews attended high school and soaked in the morals of the soul-force race revolution outside.
Its powerful messages of equality resonated with his values on humankind, making him certain that these were ideas he wanted to express.
He developed a sense of place for his hometown because of the issues it represented and the struggles waged there. In his autobiographical essay “My African Heart,” Matthews writes, “I go back to South Africa at least once a year, sometimes twice, and usually for a month...to both lose myself and gain awareness of myself.”6 Matthews’ lyrics bring the soul-force culture to a younger generation that did not experience it firsthand. While we may not be surrounded by radical change anymore, the issues of the 1960’s and 70’s still matter today.
7 Forming the Dave Matthews Band in 1991 provided Matthews with a musical outlet for his opinions on nuclear war, poverty, and equality.
He created the band with players whom he liked but who also brought different cultures to the group. He approached an African-American jazz saxophonist, an African-American classical violinist, and a poor, sixteen-year-old Caucasian bass player from California. As different as these men were, all were united in a common love for music and a yearning for change in the world.
Matthews’ experiences growing up in South Africa inspired his lyrics. He does more than simply state a problem in his songs; his words offer deep philosophical insight that gets the audience thinking about the problem for themselves.
The song “Seek Up” warns of the dangers of materialism. Referring to the ongoing famine problem in Africa, Matthews reminds the audience we could “Oh, for a price of a Coke or a smoke, keep alive those hungry eyes."8
He writes of how people take the Earth and nature for granted in the song “One Sweet World.” He urges people to strive for a time when all humans, regardless of race, culture, or religion, “will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, [and] stand up for freedom together.”10 As part of his humanitarian efforts, Matthews played a benefit concert with numerous other artists in New York City in 2003 to oppose the war in Iraq. In taking on the American government, artists like Dave Matthews stood up for righteousness and freedom, “meeting physical force with soul force.”12 Without examples like Matthews, I doubt I would have the courage to contest such a dominant force as the United States Government.
Matthews combines his views on humankind, life, and love in songs that appeal to the hearts and minds of listeners. He writes metaphorically, yet once he presents an idea the audience can immediately understand the simpler moral behind it.
In the song “Ants Marching,” he compares busy people with bustling ants to illustrate the impersonal nature of people. The song argues that people think they have nothing in common with one another, when in reality they are all “little ants marching, Red and black antennas waving.”14
At first the comparison between people and ants seems odd, but the message of Matthews’ lyrics is very clear. Part of his skill as a songwriter is creating these unusual images to demonstrate a greater point.
“Wonder is most effectively achieved by an unexpected suggestion or association of some familiar object with one remote or hitherto unassociated”17. Obscure imagery, by “wedding word with image”18, helps the listener better understand the song’s meaning by connecting the two hemispheres of the brain. When I process Matthews’ lyrics thoroughly, they make me yearn to solve problems occurring all over the world. Everyone needs to do their part to make this one, sweet world a better place. By practicing compassion and attempting to free myself from attachment, materialism, and fear, I hope to find my place in the move to better the human race.
Dave Matthews can inspire his audience and stir a whole concoction of emotions through the genius of his words. In addition to bringing attention to global issues such as famine and inequality, he writes many of his songs about love and friendship. His personal beliefs follow those of the Indian practice of ahimsa, and his lyrics reflect this attitude of “Love all. Serve all. Hate none. Insult none. Insult none in thought, word and deed. Try to behold your own Self in all beings.”19
Under the Table and Dreaming, an album released in 1993, was written in honor of Dave’s sister Mary, who was killed by her husband one year before. The next album, Crash, emphasized the passion of love between two people. The production of the Dave Matthews Band’s most recent album Stand Up coincided with Matthews’ own marriage. Many of the songs beautifully express the love he feels for his wife. What all his songs have in common is their ability to connect to the listener on a personal level by focusing on universal issues like love.
Dave Matthews Band’s music gets me through the day. I have fifty-two of their CDs, which amounts to 2.9 days. My iPod will run out of battery before it runs out of Dave Matthews Band songs. I need this much DMB, because without it I think I might go crazy. The actual music soothes me and lets me concentrate on the important aspects of my day. Matthews’ words keep me strong, so that I can help others. How do they do this? Matthews’ songs inspire me to live each day anew. Though his themes do not inspire me to devote my life to charity, they certainly do motivate me to better myself in little ways. I try to be friendly and easily approachable. I try to be a good listener for a friend in need. I have found that helping others in these subtle ways makes me more emotionally stable, focused, and confident in myself. One can’t help others if they can’t even manage themselves. When I was going through some depression during high school, my friends still relied on me for help and advice whenever possible. Once I started seeing a psychiatrist, I started feeling better and was able to listen to others once again. This instance shows the importance of one’s own emotions when trying to help others.
Though I am not doing anything drastic to better our world, I do my part with the little things. The little things are what Matthews emphasizes. If everyone does just a little bit, the world will improve by a lot. Checking up on a friend in need and smiling at a stranger are random acts of kindness that make everyone friendlier. One person’s kindness can snowball into a host of friendlier people. It doesn’t take much to get the ball rolling. Anyone can start a local movement toward a better world by practicing friendship, love, and compassion. One individual can have an astounding impact. Each try I try to work toward a friendlier atmosphere around The University of Texas campus. I draw most of my inspiration from the simple themes in Dave Matthews’ lyrics. His sentiment inspires me to do great things in very simple means.
So much emotion goes into the lyrics of his song that each one continues to astound me when I carefully listen to the words.
I am a person who believes wholeheartedly in love, so his songs often evoke great emotion from me. I wish I was capable of writing such poetic lines for my girlfriend and demonstrating as much sentiment in my compositions as he seems to accomplish time after time with ease. I also want to emulate his clarity in conveying my own philosophies. His messages get across and are effective. Because of his amazing, emotional style and his vision for human improvement, I respect Dave Matthews for, as Gandhi commanded, being the change he wants to see in the world. His unconventional approach to his music, his themes of love and friendship, and his beautiful composition is truly remarkable and inspiring. After all – besides love, what more is there?
Pig
One Sweet World
Seek Up
Ants Marching
Quote Word Count: 221
Old Word Count: 1538
Revised Word Count: 1453
New Word Count: 1820
New Word Count w/o Quotes: 1599
Endnotes:
1. Mark Silver, "Dave Matthews at Indre Studios," Buzz Pics, 2001, http://www.buzzpics.com/matthews_indre/matthews2-16.jpg.
2. "Mr. Dowling's Apartheid Page," 1999, http://www.mrdowling.com/images/609beating.jpg.
3. "Use It or Lose It," Students for Bhopal, 2007, http://www.studentsforbhopal.org/Assets/Images/Apartheid.jpg.
4. "Bob Marley - Wikipedia," Wikipedia Foundation, 2007, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_marley.
5. "Live in Ithaca >> 2005," 2005, http://ithaca.different-day.com/2005/02/.
6. Dave Matthews, "My African Heart," Time, September 15, 2001, http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1000789,00.html (accessed February 1, 2007).
7. Michael Swalm, "TheoBlogian: September 2006," 2006, http://theo-blogy.blogspot.com/2006_09_01_archive.html.
8. Dave Matthews. Seek Up. Remember Two Things. The Dave Matthews Band. Compact disc. RCA, 1993.
9. http://www.artvps.com/gallery-popup.php?fileid=108.
10. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in Composition and Reading in World Literature, ed. Jerome Bump (Austin, Texas: Jenn's Copy and Binding, 2007), 123.
11. "Exploration of the Diaspora: A Walking Tour Through Time," Stanford University, 2006, http://events.stanford.edu/events/88/8856/.
12. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in Composition and Reading in World Literature, ed. Jerome Bump (Austin, Texas: Jenn's Copy and Binding, 2007), 122.
13. Adrian Benepe, "City of New York / Parks and Recreation," New York City Department of Parks and Recreation, 2003, http://www.nycgovparks.org/sub_newsroom/biennial_report/biennial_02_03/html/funding_initiatives.html.
14. Dave Matthews. Ants Marching. Under the Table and Dreaming. The Dave Matthews Band. Compact disc. RCA, 1994.
15. "Out of this World," 2005, http://www.thedartmouth.com/section.php?section=index&date=2002-01-31.
16. "CRO Nuclear War," Skyscraper City, 2006, http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=403064.
17. Gabriele Lusser Rico, "Writing the Natural Way," in Composition and Reading in World Literature, ed. Jerome Bump (Austin, Texas: Jenn's Copy and Binding, 2007), 139.
18. Gabriele Lusser Rico, "Writing the Natural Way," in Composition and Reading in World Literature, ed. Jerome Bump (Austin, Texas: Jenn's Copy and Binding, 2007), 142.
19. Sri Swami Sivananda, "Bliss Divine," in Composition and Reading in World Literature, ed. Jerome Bump (Austin, Texas: Jenn's Copy and Binding, 2007), 116.
20. "Terapanthonline," 2004, http://www.thedartmouth.com/section.php?section=index&date=2002-01-31.
21. "MusicMobs: Dave Matthews Band - Crash," 1993, http://musicmobs.com/music/Dave%20Matthews%20Band/Crash.
22. David Boyk, "The Daily Californian," The Daily Californian Newspaper, 2005, http://www.dailycal.org/printable.php?id=18829.
23. "Dave Matthews - Wikipedia," The Wikipedia Foundation, 2006, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dave_Matthews.