Single $0.5
To be played LOUD
Song Info
Genre
Charts
Peak #261
Peak in subgenre #82
Author
Juliana Down
Rights
2006
Uploaded
August 09, 2007
Track Files
MP3
MP3 2.0 MB • 96 kbps • 2:56
Story behind the song
Change the world was written around a guitar riff Bayan came up with right in the early days. I think it used to be an exercise he used to warm up but once we the rest of the band heard it we could hear it for what it was. The lyrics themselves had been written several years earlier when all the shit hit in the fan in Sept 2001 and everyone was losing their mind. For some reason, as Bayan and Fadi and Ray worked out the music, the lyrics just came at me.
Now, you have to remember this was back in the early days of the band becoming a writing outfit and when I suggested that Dia rap the words I remember that the idea was not greeted warmly. Thankfully, I'm persistent and eventually everyone decided to give it a shot and guess what? It worked! So we had a riff, and we had a verse but we needed a chorus and some sort of development. I believe Ray came up with the chorus lyric and from there we spent ages working out the middle section. JD really like their middle sections and we put it together painstakingly.
The lyrics themselves are addressing all would be fascists. the reference to "castles in the sky" is about being promised heaven. At the time I wrote these lyrics i was having (and still have) huge morality issues with suicide bombers. I just cannot understand what how someone could justify it and at the same time I can't understand how come the rest of the world just hasn't pressed pause on everything else to try and alleviate some of the desperation that makes it exist (that's the "don't you ask me to understand things that i cannot perceive" line). The lyric is begging for everyone to just admit that everything is really messed up and that the only way we are going to 'overcome' is by being truthful about the reasons everything is so horrible (we're all just waiting for a little hopeless honesty).
"Selling away the deeds" is how I see what the morally self-righteous do. They 'build castles in the sky' (i.e. heaven) and then claim ownership and deny anyone who doesn't follow their creed entry regardless of what our own value systems tell us ('before we have a chance to claim the moral majority') .
The chorus is saying, "dude, i really feel your frustration but you're only bring negative energy" and then we sarcastically ask, "and you want to change the world?". Negative energy will only create a negative reality. It's saying the ends do not justify the means and that I'm not gonna sign onto your crazy ass masterplan just because you are frustrated or in a bad state. Give me a plan that is productive and I'm there.
The second verse is much simpler. It's basically an invitation to start a more compassionate and worry free world. Fat chance huh? The middle section's 'Its gonna be alright' is Dia's ad-libbing. The delivery and the words he chooses convey the feeling that you've got to be badder than the bad guys to sort out this unholy mess we're in.
Lyrics
Change The World
Don't you ask me to understand things that I can not perceive
We're all just waiting for a little hopeless honesty.
They'll build their castles in the sky and sell away the deeds before we've had a chance to claim the moral majority.
They'll use big words and try to scare us with a threat of hurt
But they're just thugs and I'm not scared for whatever that is worth,
If they ask if there's any way to get unstuck
I'll just smile and walk away coz I just don't give a ……
{Chorus }
Hey I respect your situation but you criticize and get in my way,
And you wanna change the world!
Hey, I warned you, you, you, you
My life becomes an open invitation
For all the chancres and dancers who wanna start a global family
There is no freedom here unless there is a freedom from our fears
The future's coming yesterdays the only casualty
* { Chorus }
note: Anyone who has followed the band probably heard the version of this we released in 2005 with the jazz/funk breakdown verses which we discarded.
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