In Emeli Sande’s, a British recording artist, song “Read All About It, Pt. III” from her album, Our Version of Events, Sande uses her powerful lyrics to deliver not one message, but many messages that touches on issues that deal with society such as gender, race, political events, and the world as a whole. Just by looking at the title, Sande is calling everyone to come and read and listen to her song like a heading of a newspaper article. Although all the words in the songs have a significant and deeper meaning behind them, some of the most powerful words come from the beginning of the first verse itself, which says
“You’ve spent a life time stuck in silence
Afraid you’ll say something wrong
If no one ever hears it how we gonna learn your song
So come on ,come on
Come on, come on
You’ve got a heart as loud as lions
So why let your voice be tamed?”
Looking at the verse as whole, it seems like Sande is simply trying to encourage people to declare the issues going on around the world, whether it is the simplest of things or the bigger things going on. In a deeper sense, when looking at the first line, she says, “ You’ve spend a life time stuck in silence,” Sande is saying that people, not specifically directing the message towards men or women but society as a whole, has been “stuck in silence.” To say that something is stuck can mean to be immoveable or cemented, almost as if there is no way out of it, which is what Sande is trying to exaggerate here. Then looking at the word silence in this context can mean to be hushed or left speechless. It seems like Sande is trying to emphasize how repressed society has been to make known certain things, which can be referred to anything in this case. Then looking at line 7, we see Sande uses the word “tamed” like a lion is being repressed from its natural instinct. By using the specific word tamed, even though there are so many other words she could’ve used, Sande is emphasizing this central idea of being repressed and muffled by society and abiding by society’s conformities. Sande also makes a reference to lions in the previous line, and by using the words “as loud as a lion” it makes us question what is a lion without its roar? A silent lion is only half a threatening and scary as a lion with a roar, which is what Sande is trying to communicate here; let your voice be heard even though it isn’t what society wants to hear. A persons voice can do many things, like a lion’s roar can threaten and cause fear; a persons voice can change the world. Also in the line Sande asks a question that is directed towards everyone, but also herself. She says “so why let your voice be tamed?” as if she is questioning herself when she says “voice” as a singer, why she hasn’t sung about all these issues before, but finally has done so by singing this song. Then take a look at line 2, Sande says “afraid you’ll say something wrong” which ties back into conforming to society. Although those words can mean several things, in my own perspective, it seems Sande is trying to say don’t be threatened by society and fear that what you have to say is wrong or not important because your voice is a powerful weapon that should not be suppressed. By using the word “afraid” is like saying people are discouraged by society or even being cowardly to say what is really on their mind. But in lines 4 and 5 she says, “so come on, come on, come on, come on,” in which she is encouraging people to listen to what she is trying to say and more importantly do what she is saying, which is to use their voice to make a change in the world and make known what they know. The repitition emphazies just how important her message is; it is almost as if she is yelling at us to do it. There is so much going on in these first 7 lines of Sande’s song and there is so much more than can be interpreted in just these 7 lines.
P.S Well now you guys know a little bit about the song and my interpretation of it so here I have inserted a beautiful interpretation of the song, truly one of my favorites! I hope everyone gets a chance to see it and enjoy!
Jenny,
Thanks for sharing this piece with us. What I like about your reading is how you really spend time with the words and explain to us your thinking. One thing I will encourage you to focus on when you work on your paper is seeing if you can identify a single element that the artist is using. Right now (which is fine for the post) you’re kind of jumping from line to line and interpreting a bunch of things. But perhaps if it was a paper, you could focus on the lion metaphor or perhaps you’re more interested in the diction of repression. Either way if you picked an element you could then make a claim about how that element works towards (or in some cases against) the overall message.