week 8 blog 2

I wanted to talk some more about the Bob Marley song "Redemption Songs." I thought it was a very interesting song and though I had heard it before, it took on a very new meaning when listening to it in the context we listened to it in class. I thought the ideas of escaping mental slavery were interesting. I thought it made an interesting point about a persons own personal responsibility for their mindset with in a situation. I thought that it said some good things about putting yourself in the mindset of freedom and that would help your situation both mentally and physically. In looking at the lyrics I noticed something else that I found particularly interesting. There is a slight, but important change in the lyrics of the chorus from the start to the end. The chorus at the beginning of the song and throughout most of the song has the line, "all I ever have: Redemption songs." However, the song finishes with the lines, "all I ever had, Redemption songs." I think the change in the one word, have to had, is very important and brings in a whole new level to the song. It shows that there has been a move from the present tense to the past, which suggests that the song is about and is itself a type of journey, a trip from now to then and this one word change does that. I think it is also interesting that the change in word comes after the repeat of a previous verse. The repetition of the verse and the fact that the new line is still about redemption suggest that at the end of the journey, something is still the same even though the tense change suggests something has changed. I believe the repetition represents the physical state or location having not changed and the change from have to had represents a change in state of mind.