0:17 “LA-SER yea” ——- LASERS is the title of the album in which the song was part of. LASERS stands for “Love Always Shines Everytime, Remember to Smile”
0:27 the chorus of the song is essentially the theme of the entire song. “The Show Goes On” means that life goes on, no matter how bad your life may seem. “Anybody ever wonder, when they will see the sun up, just remember when you come up, the show goes on” means that even though life may seem tough at that moment in time, you have to stick through it and keep going on because life also moves on.
1:03 “They be lying through they teeth, hope you slip up off your path, I don’t switch up I just laugh, put my kicks up on they desk, unaffected by they threats”—–This is referring to haters that would always go against him, or for us, haters that always put you down. They would do anything to make you fail. However, you cannot be intimidated by them. “put my kicks up on they desk” is putting your feet on their desk, which is usually a disrespectful gesture. However, in this case, he is using it as a sign of power because he is not affected by their threats.
2:01 “One in the air for the people ain’t here” —– this is to point one finger in the air as if you are pointing at heaven as a sign of respect for people you may have lost in your life.
2:02 “Two in the air for the fathers thats there” —– as Lupe Fiasco’s father passed away, he wants to pay respects to the African-American fathers who stand against the stereotype of “missing father figures”
2:07 “none for the n_____ tryna hold them back” means that he does not pay any respect to people who hold down kids trying to make it out of the ghetto that he previously mentioned. It could also be a symbol to stand up for yourself because you hold up zero fingers when you make a fist, to either fight back against your oppressors or stand up for yourself.
3:07 “So no matter what you been through, no matter what you into, no matter what you see, when you look outside your window, brown grass or green grass, picket fence or barbed wire, never ever put them down, you just lift your arms higher, raise em till your arms tired, let em know you here, that you struggling’ surviving’ that you got’ persevere” —– This is pretty self explanatory. It does not matter who you are, what your history is, or your background. Everyone has problems that they are facing, but you should never give up. In fact, you should be proud that you are struggling because you know that you will get through it and become stronger afterwards.
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I love this song haha. It reminds me of me singing a long as a kid. Definitely a gem and helped a lot of young children keep their heads up.
Hi Jason!
I liked your description of the fact that even though it’s rough times, we have to move on as the lyrics of this song say. I think this overall is a motivational song where we as listeners can get the joy out of it. It’s hard to find this kind of album, but it’s perfect. I think the whole film was basically trying to make these singers step like the title “The Show Must Go On.” It also looks like this guy is in the middle of trying to make a gig. Showing the sentence “The Show Should Go On” in literal terms. It was fun overall.
I remember this song from my childhood, and listening to it in middle school. It was a complete different generation of music then. I remember I liked the tune, but I do not remember the lyrics that well and what they meant. So reading this made me understand better, thank you.
These types of songs are my favorite, ones that actually have an underlying meaning and message that can help us in life. I thought you did a great job of bringing this out by analyzing this song. Its also interesting how these songs don’t often make it to the mainstream as much these days, which is sad because everything left is usually just about drugs, money, or fame.
Hey Jason, thanks for sharing. I really enjoy this song you picked. I think good to have this type of positive energy in time like now. The chorus made me feel like I am not the only one and there are a lot more people with me. No matter how hard life hit you, you should never give up.
This was one of my favorite bumps back in 2010-11, I agree with what you’re saying, as the song is about always chasing your dreams and not letting anything stop you.
This is a great song it’s very inspirational and it gives energy to work harder to realize your dreams thanks for sharing