Saturday, March 31, 2007

John Mayer -- "Waiting on the World to Change"

Here's proof that not all pop music is mindless. It reminds me in tone, beat and subject matter of the early 70's political/activist pop music of Stevie Wonder and Marvin Gaye (especially What's Going On).

John Mayer's obviously extremely talented and is much more than the pop albums that he has released. He's a great guitarist and songwriter and has released blues albums. Here's my political song of the day:

me and all my friends
we're all misunderstood
they say we stand for nothing and
there's no way we ever could
now we see everything that's going wrong
with the world and those who lead it
we just feel like we don't have the means
to rise above and beat it


so we keep waiting
waiting on the world to change
we keep on waiting
waiting on the world to change

it's hard to beat the system
when we're standing at a distance
so we keep waiting
waiting on the world to change
now if we had the power
to bring our neighbors home from war
they would have never missed a Christmas
no more ribbons on their door
and when you trust your television
what you get is what you got
cause when they own the information, oh
they can bend it all they want


that's why we're waiting
waiting on the world to change
we keep on waiting
waiting on the world to change

it's not that we don't care,
we just know that the fight ain't fair
so we keep on waiting
waiting on the world to change

and we're still waiting
waiting on the world to change
we keep on waiting waiting on the world to change
one day our generation
is gonna rule the population
so we keep on waiting
waiting on the world to change

we keep on waiting
waiting on the world to change

6 comments:

Jeff said...

I'm not a huge fan of Mayer's music but I love him as a person. He has a great personality, he is really funny, intelligent, and one hell of a guitarist. Despite not liking his music that much I do love this song.

RC said...

totally reminds me of bob dylan or something.

i was listening to this very song today.

--RC of strangeculture.blogspot.com

dbackdad said...

Jeff -- Agreed. I think you'll see better music from him as he ages and he grows out of the straightforward pop.

Sadie Lou said...

OK> I used to be a huge John Mayer fan. I went to a concert of his (Maroon 5 and Counting Crowes opened). He wails on guitar. He's quite obviously talented as I keep buying his cds.
I haven't bought his new one because I'm still mad at him for dating Jessica Simpson--he is so *NOT* a guy that would have been with someone like her 5 years ago.
Anyways, this line bugs me:
one day our generation
is gonna rule the population
so we keep on waiting
waiting on the world to change


So you're just going to sit back on your hands until our the current generation is too crippled to care?
I'd rather start making changes now rather than wait for the world to change on it's own. This song still smacks of Mayer trying to break free from his pop roots that he so despises.

dbackdad said...

Sadie said, "this line bugs me:...
so we keep on waiting
waiting on the world to change"
-- I'd have to agree with you on that one. I'm certainly not sitting around waiting and I know you aren't. I think he's probably not suggesting that we wait. He's probably just trying to put into words the frustration with how slowly it does change and how little effect any one person has. But, again, that's no excuse for not trying.

Anonymous said...

i believe that when he says: "so we keep on waiting, waiting on the world to change", he is referring to the people who believe war/anything is wrong, and wish for a better place.
Put yourself as that person for a moment, you'd think just to leave the people that are fighting the war aggressively alone, and let them sort themselves out, hence the word "waiting", intially because we dont want to particpate with such things. I cant really describe what i think of the song, its one of those things that you cant really express through words, but ive said enough for you to get the idea.