Samuel's Blog

Samuel’s Musicians Of The Week

This week the award goes to Soul Asylum, the group responsible for the powerful and moving song Lawsie has chosen to play for this year’s HSC students (and presumably the equivalent systems in other states), “Stand Up And Be Strong”. Regular readers would know that I’m not a huge fan of modern music, but this particular song makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand up whenever I hear it. It would appear that Soul Asylum have a MySpace page where they let you listen to some of their music, including “Stand Up And Be Strong”.

The message in the song is perfect for students going through the torture of the HSC (or equivalent), and whilst I think the HSC is an outmoded, unfair and poor way of grading students, no system seems to be able to make that final year of secondary schooling any less grueling, nerve racking and downright scary…maybe it’s all part of being that age, I don’t know, but what I do know is that I don’t want to go through it ever again, and I extend my best wishes to everyone who is going through it.

Just try to remember that, as important as these few weeks are, it’s not the end of the world, and if it doesn’t quite go to plan…well life has many detours in store, and most of the time things will turn out fine (why do I think I’ve stolen that line from somewhere?). It might take some time to get where you want to be, and that may be somewhere entirely different to where you’re thinking of now, but you’ll get there.

I think Lawsie picked a great song this year, I hope you do too.

You might be right
You might be wrong
You might just think your life has gone on for too long

Your knees get weak
And your heart grows cold
And you’re tired of doing everything you’re told

And nothing can take away from you
What you take and what you’ve been through

Stand up and be strong
Stand up and be strong
It won’t take long
You can’t go wrong
Stand up and be strong

You might have to fight
You might have to cry
You might have to cry
You might have to fight
Stand up and be strong

If you live in the hills
You take too many pills
If you’ve lost the thrill
Against your own will
Stand up and be strong

And nothing can take away from you
What you take
Well you know what you’ve got to do

Stand up and be strong
Stand up and be strong
It won’t take long
You can’t go wrong
Stand up and be strong

If you get all depressed
When you get undressed
If your life’s a mess
Remember you’re blessed
Stand up and be…
Stand up and be…

Stand up and be strong
Stand up and be strong
It won’t take long
You can’t go wrong
Stand up and be strong

Stand up and be strong
Stand up and be strong
You can’t go wrong
It won’t take long
Stand up and be strong

Samuel

October 29th, 2006 at 05:56pm