Brownies and Typewriters: A Lyrical Collection

II. Back to the Promised Land

Jesus, just take me home

I don't wanna run away

Never thought that I believed

In what you had to say

Stories and photographs don't

Tell the whole story

Wake up and smell the roses

This just isn't meant to be

Everybody running for their lives

And no one is getting out alive

Oh somebody take me home

Turn that promise into stone

Baby, don't run away I'll

Sing you a lullaby

Just give me one more chance

Just to let me satisfy

Sometime just say the word

And I'll just leave you be

Unloved and unharmed

Unshackled with the key

Everybody running for their lives

And no one is getting out alive

Oh somebody take me home

Turn that promise into stone

Everybody running for their lives

And no one is getting out alive

Oh somebody take me home

Turn that promise into stone

MY OWN ANALYSIS:

So this piece was written a few years back when Bashar al-Assad made international headlines for killing his own people in Syria. I was extremely disturbed and repulsed by his actions. I turned to writing about it to help digest what was happening.

"Jesus, just take me home / I don't wanna run away" is just a way of introducing the piece. I envisioned this line being said by a child in Syria after he/she is forced to leave his/her home to try to remain safe. Jesus is known as a messenger in Islam. It's almost like the child is trying to get a message across to someone.

"Stories and photographs don't / Tell the whole story" talks about the international viewing of the severity of al-Assad's actions. I truly believe that there were photos from Syria that the media hid from the general public in order to prevent too much of an uproar. I think it is more severe than we are led on to believe.

"Everybody running for their lives / And no one is getting out alive / Oh somebody take me home / Turn that promise into stone" is a strange thing. It's about panic and hysteria. It's about the worry that life is just nothing and that we all are slowly dying because aging is just us inching closer to death. We age every single day. In America, we have the "American Dream" (a "promise" made to us that we can achieve whatever we want if we work hard at it). Not every part of the world has that same ideology.

"Baby, don't run away I'll / Sing you a lullaby / Just give me one more chance / Just to let me satisfy" can come off as many different things. I wrote it sarcastically about kissing up to al-Assad, or any leader, in order to save yourself.

If anyone has any questions or comments, leave them here or find me on Twitter at ryancellimusic! Thank you all!