Everybody knows that they’re guilty
Everybody knows that they’ve lied
Everybody knows that they’re guilty
Resting on their conscience eating their inside
It’s freedom, said it’s freedom time now
It’s freedom, said it’s freedom time now
Time to get free, oh give yourselves up now
It’s freedom, said it’s freedom time

Yo, there’s a war in the mind, over territory
For the dominion
Who will dominate the opinion
Skisms and isms, keepin’ us in forms of religion
Conformin’ our vision
To the world churches decision
Trapped in a section
Submitted to committee election
Moral infection
Epedemic lies and deception
Insurrection
Of the highest possible order
Destortin’ our tape recorders
From here and like under water
Beyond the borders
Fond of sin and disorder
Bound by the strategy
It’s systematic deprivaty
Heavy as gravity
Head first in the cavity
Without a bottom
A fate worse than Sodom
What’s got ‘em
Drunk of the spirits
Truth comes, we can’t hear it
When you’ve been, programmed to fear it
I had a vision
I was fallin’ in indescision
Apollin’, callin’ religion
Some program on television
How can dominant wisdom
Be recognized in the system
Of Anti-Christ, the majority rules
Intelligent fools
PhD’s in illusion
Masters of mass confusion
Bachelors in past illusion
Now who you choosin’
The head or the tail
The bloodshed of male
Or confidance in the veil
Conferences of Yale
Discussin’ doctrines of Baal
Causin’ people to fail
Keepin’ the third in jail
His word has nailed
Everything to the tree
Severing all of me from all that I used to be
Formless and void
Totally paranoid
Enjoy darkness as the Lord
Keepin’ me from the sword
Blocked from mercy
Bitter than cerasee
Hungry and thirsty
For good meat we would eat
And still, dined at the table of deceit
How incomplete
From confrontation to retreat
We prolong the true enemies defeat
Destitute a necessity
Causin’ desperation to get the best of me
Punishment ’til there was nothing left of me
Realizin’ the unescapable death of me
No options in the valley of decision
The only doctrine, supernatural circumcision
Inwardly only water can purge the heart
From words, the fiery darts
Thrown by the workers of the arts
Iniquity, shapen in
There’s no escapin’ when
You’re whole philosophy is paper thin
In vanity
The wide road is insanity
Could it be all of humanity?
Picture that
Scripture that
The origin of man’s heart is black
How can we show up for
An invisible war
Preoccupied with a shadow, makin’ love with a whore
Achin’ in sores
Babylon, the great mystery
Mother of human history
System of social sorcery
Our present condition
Needs serious recognition
Where there’s no repentance there can be no remission
And that sentence, more serious than Vietnam
The atom bomb, and Saddam, and Minister Farakkhan
What’s goin’ on, what’s the priority to you
by what authority do we do
the majority hasn’t a clue
We majored in curses
Search the chapters, check the verses
Recapture the land
Remove the mark from off of our hands
So we can stand
In agreement with his command
Everything else is damned
Let them with ears understand
Everything else is damned, let them with ears understand

It’s freedom, said it’s freedom time now
It’s freedom, said it’s freedom time now
It’s freedom, I’ma be who I am
It’s freedom time, said it’s freedom time
Everybody knows that they’ve lied
Everybody knows that they’ve perpetrated inside
Everybody knows that they’re guilty, yes
Resting on their conscience eating their insides
Get free, be who you’re suppost to be
Freedom, said it’s freedom time now
Freedom, said it’s freedom time
Freedom, freedom time now

by Lauryn Hill

Sorry, I’m on a music kick lately. This song is from Lauryn Hill’s performance on MTV Unplugged from 2002 which is absolutely brilliant. Before I heard it, I only new her as the girl from The Fugees and that Nas video. However, I was blown away by her transformation from pop to folk, or more like gospel folk. She has gone from Hip Hop and flashy dancers to sitting on a stage by herself singing with just her guitar and letting the lyrics speak for themselves. I have never heard of a person of her caliber to call for repentance in their songs. In one of her interludes she comments, “I know a lot of the content of these songs is heavy…”, which is a severe understatement. It is quite obvious to anyone who has heard these songs that she has undergone a major spiritual adjustment of a divine nature. She is now a folk prophetess. Just take a look at the track listing of this double volume:

Disc One
1. Intro
2. Mr. Intentional
3. Adam Lives In Theory
4. Interlude 1
5. Oh Jerusalem
6. Interlude 2
7. Freedom Time
8. Interlude 3
9. I Find It Hard To Say (Rebel)
10. Just Like Water
11. Interlude 4
12. Just Want You Around
13. I Gotta Find Peace Of Mind
Disc Two
1. Interlude 5
2. Mystery Of Iniquity
3. Interlude 6
4. I Get Out
5. Interlude 7
6. I Remember
7. So Much Things To Say
8. The Conquering Lion
9. Outro

Anyhow, she has been virtually unnoticed recently, so I thought I would mention her because what she is saying should not be overlooked or ignored. Take a listen at Amazon or LegalSounds.

If you twist and turn away.
If you tear yourself in two again.
If I could, yes I would
If I could, I would let it go.
Surrender, dislocate.

If I could throw this lifeless life-line to the wind.
Leave this heart of clay, see you walk, walk away
Into the night, and through the rain
Into the half light and through the flame.

If I could, through myself, set your spirit free
I’d lead your heart away, see you break, break away
Into the light and to the day.

To let it go and so to find away.
To let it go and so find away.
I’m wide awake.
I’m wide awake, wide awake.
I’m not sleeping.

If you should ask, then maybe
They’d tell you what I would say
True colours fly in blue and black
Blue silken sky and burning flag.
Colours crash, collide in blood-shot eyes.

If I could, you know I would
If I could, I would let it go.

This desperation, dislocation
Separation, condemnation
Revelation, in temptation
Isolation, desolation
Let it go and so to find away
To let it go and so to find away
To let it go and so to find away

I’m wide awake, I’m wide awake, wide awake
I’m not sleeping
Oh no, no, no.

Lyrics by U2

I know it is widely acknowledged that this song is about Gareth Spaulding who was a friend of Bono that died because of a heroin overdose: “I wrote the words about a friend of mine, his name was Gareth Spaulding. And on his twentyfirst birthday he and his friends decided to give themselves a present of enough heroine into his veins to kill him. This song is called ‘Bad’” (comments Bono made at a show in Sweden in 1987). However, I cannot escape a simultaneous connection with the experience of the apostle Peter after he tried to protect Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane. “Where in the world are you getting that?” you may ask. Well, picking up on the Judas experience in “Until the End of the World” from Achtung Baby, I thought it wouldn’t be strange for Bono to identify failings and regrets of others around Jesus, particularly those viewed positively. What really hit me was the refrain “I’m wide awake, I’m not sleeping”. At first, I began to think of the Transfiguration, where Peter, James, and John fell asleep praying (see Luke 9:30-33). But then I also thought of the other occurrence of sleeping during prayer while they were in the Garden (see Luke 22:44-46). Thus, I got the thought that perhaps “Bad” was Peter rehearsing after the fact what he would do if he could do it again. He had limited his scope on Jesus and the nature of his kingdom to the extent that in both of the events mentioned above, he ends up making suggestions that in restrospect are so bone-headed both of which are intended to keep Jesus around rather than let him go. Anyway, that seemed to fit with the verbage of the song, particularly the fact that he was now “wide awake”. Perhaps I’m wacked out, but Bono is accustomed to weaving different layers into his lyrics so I personally wouldn’t put it past him. I also wouldn’t bank on it. But, whatever.