Lauryn Hill:
Father Forgive Them Forgive them father for they know not what they do Forgive them father for they know not what they do Beware the false motives of others Be careful of those who pretend to be brothers And you never suppose it's those who are closest to you, to you They say all the right things to gain their position Then use your kindness as their ammunition To shoot you down in the name of ambition, they do Forgive them father for they know not what they do Forgive them father for they know not what they do Why every Indian wanna be the chief? Feed a man 'til he's full and he still want beef Give me grief, try to tief off my piece Why for you to increase, I must decrease? If I treat you kindly does it mean that I'm weak? You hear me speak and think I won't take it to the streets I know enough cats that don't turn the other cheek But I try to keep it civilized like Menelik And other African czars observing stars with war scars Get yours in this capitalistic system So many caught or got bought you can't list them How you gonna idolize the missing? To survive is to stay alive in the face of opposition Even when they comin' gunnin' I stand position L's known the mission since conception Let's free the people from deception If you looking for the answers Then you gotta ask the questions And when I let go, my voice echoes through the ghetto Sick of men trying to pull strings like Geppetto Why black people always be the ones to settle March through these streets like Soweto Like Cain and Abel, Caesar and Brutus, Jesus and Judas, Backstabbers do this Forgive them father for they know not what they do Forgive them father for they know not what they do It took me a little while to discover Wolves in sheep coats who pretend to be lovers Men who lack conscience will even lie to themselves, to themselves A friend once said, and I found to be true That everyday people, they lie to God too So what makes you think, that they won't lie to you Forgive them father for they know not what they do Forgive them, forgive them Forgive them father for they know not what they do Forgive them, forgive them
I Used to Love Him As I look at what I've done The type of life that I've lived How many things I pray the father will forgive One situation involved a young man He was the ocean and I was the sand He stole my heart like a thief in the night Dulled my senses blurred my sight I used to love him but now I don't I used to love him but now I don't I chose a road of passion and pain Sacrificed too much and waited in vain Gave up my power ceased being queen Addicted to love like the drug of a fiend Torn and confused wasted and used Reached the crossroad which path would I choose Stuck and frustrated I waited, debated For something to happen that just wasn't fated Thought what I wanted was something I needed When momma said no I just should have heeded Misled I bled till the poison was gone And out of the darkness arrived the sweet dawn I used to love him but now I don't I used to love him but now I don't Father you saved me and showed me that life Was much more than being some foolish man's wife Showed me that love was respect and devotion Greater than planets deeper than oceans My soul was weary but now it's replenished Content because that part of my life is finished I see him sometimes and the look in his eye Is one of a man who's lost treasures untold But my heart is gold I took back my soul And totally let my creator control The life which was his to begin with I used to love him but now I don't
Poe:<blockquote>Haunted
Come here
Pretty please
Can you tell me where I am
You won’t you say something
I need to get my bearings
I’m lost
And the shadows keep on changing
And I’m haunted
By the lives that I have loved
And actions I have hated
I’m haunted
By the lives that wove the web
Inside my haunted head</blockquote<blockquote>Control
Don’t you mess with a little girl’s dream
‘Cause she’s liable to grow up mean
Surprised you to find that I’m laughing?
You thought that you’d find me in tears
You thought I’d be crawling the walls
Like a tiny mosquito and trembling in fear
Well you may be king for the moment
But I am a queen understand
And I’ve got your pawns and your bishops
And castles
All inside the palm of my hand
While you were looking the other way
While you had your eyes closed
While you were licking your lips
‘Cause I was miserable
While you were selling your soul
While you were tearing a hole in me
I was taking control
Now I have taken control
Now I have taken control…
This is beginning to feel good
Watching you squirm in your shoes
A small bead of sweat on your brow
And a growl in your belly you’re scared to let through
You thought you could keep me from loving
You thought you could feed on my soul
But while you were busy destroying my life
What was half in me has become whole</blockquote>Poe is a very interesting (and beautiful) cat. She’s apparently just come out of a long legal battle with her record label and is doing the independent thing. I think she is a precedent-setter, and I think we will see more small-but-big-enough-to-have-a-go-of-it acts following suit. The kind of acts you will see succeed are the ones with their own authentic ethos, the kind of something that retains fans, connects with them on a deeper level, keeps them coming out to shows and buying discs even when the market is weak and over-saturated.
To describe what she went through, and also as a condemnation on the industry as a whole, Poe wrote a story. It is really good, I recommend reading it through.
Poe is the one who is Danielewski’s sister (of course we all heard of Poe first with her 1995 hit, whatever it was!), and her last record, Haunted, is a concept album around House of Leaves (as well as dealing with her father’s death…a soundbyte from him at the end of Control is amazing). In fact, they went on tour together, a combo book/music tour. Found more pictures from that today here (Mark), here (masks depicting Tad which somehow were used to set off the recordings used on the records, live), here (more Mark), here (Mark with a venti Starbucks), here (Mark and Poe at the public library), here (backstage at Jay Leno, Mark is looking tre cool but I don’t think he was actually on the show, must just have been his Hollywood look), and here (this guy read, from memory we presume, the entire HoL quote from the special version of Hey Pretty {that we only found at Salon back when we were reading the book}{from a search of my archives, I apparently never blogged about the book or those files, despite a memory for doing just such}{the one where Mark reads from the book in between sections of the song}, during a Poe concert!). Lots more good pics and stories if you surf around there a bit. Poe’s looking darn good these days and even has some ninja moves.
