Lyrics and Story Track 5 "Woman Be Free"
This song has now been recorded in various guises 4 times. First on Seconds On End's 2005 album Shadowland, then reggae style on The Left Hand Side, then dubbed out instrumental on The Left Hand Side II (7th Turn Woman Dub), and now here. Philospohy Dr. Peter Sawyer of the band Seconds on End turned me on to a book by Richard Tarnas, called "The Passion of the Western Mind" around 2002 or so. Tarnas examines about 2500 years of western male dominated philosophy, ending more or less with Nietzche (and suicide.)
All in all, it is a depressing tome, as modernism and post modernism tend to subsume to pointlessness (in the male dominated dialectic). However, in his epilogue Tarnas points out that we haven't heard from women yet. I couldn't agree more. Civilization will do well to adopt a more balanced outlook and to do so today's women must be empowered to and simultaneously left alone to grow into their powers (and make mistakes, just like we men). Hence, "woman, you've got to get yourself free, woman, you've got to let yourself be." I wrote the original riff on ukulele at Phil and Jane's land in Felton as an homage to scrapple (don't ask) which combined with some of my favorite lyrics I've ever written show off my irreverent and yet reverent style. I just love this version, especially the breakdown with Tony and Bobby "off the leash" as I lead them down a middle eastern influenced modal zone...
She never sings a song about heart break, such things do not come for free
Thought she whistles the tunes of her past loves, she'd rather let them all be
Today she sings a song of forgiveness, kicking pebbles as she dances it out
The click and clack of each one's approval, echoing words that make her want to shout:
Woman, you've got to get yourself free! Woman, you've got to let your self be!
Been a decade or more since she killed it, that goddamn TV
Electrons freed up for thinking, that's the way she thinks it ought to be
"Funny how we all become our heroes", she says, "or else we will fall."
"And as long as you're gonna join your heroes, why not outshine them all?"
Woman, you've got to get yourself free! Woman, you've got to let your self be!
Wonders of nature surround us, offering lessons that do coem for free
Each day in the mirror she sees them, intelligence, energy, integrity
Woman, you've got to get yourself free! Woman, you've got to let your self be!