Tanita Tikaram said she got the idea for the song after an unpleasant one night stand. However she also said that the song was about perception and reality and apathy.
'All God's Children Need Traveling Shoes' is a title of a book my Maya Angelou.
From those thing, I can say a few things that may help people understand the song meaning a little more. Of course it's just my opinion, but it is an opinion based on some facts.
I think the song is about how people in Civilized Countries tend to stay ignorant of the real struggles in life and the problems everywhere else in the world (especially 3rd World Countries) Our news and Preachers don't tell us about the global raping and murdering of children and women; or genocide; or war and poverty and famine, or of Governmental Corruption that has led many of these countries that were previously "civilized" into Third World Conditions. (east not until it's too late or it's finally in the history books). We read and pray to God and help the needy so we think our Conscious is clear. OUR perception is very far from true REALITY. (Side note example: I was 22 when the Genocide occurred in Rwanda and never fully understood what happened until the movies Hotel Rwanda and Sometimes in April were released).
So when she talks of God's children and Good People using their tools of religion or Books to clear their conscience it is not the same as really seeing what is going on and taking real action, maybe risking your life to make changes.
We watch news (holograms, basically) that is told from the perspective of the editor with input from the reporter. Never do we see the whole story from all sides and all viewpoints, which helps to skew our perceptions from reality. And while we watch, people die, suffer and go hungry or live in fear and hiding while we have food and homes and comforts. So we're getting fat on the hog! (Soft and Porky you pig out until you see the light.)
She talks about how when you attack these beliefs even in jest (we just poked a little empty pie) they get up in arms and act chaste and whole to assuage their guilt but their hostility isn't solving the problems because it's misdirected. (I don't care about their different thoughts, different thoughts are good for me)
She talks about how she gets up and works and wipes her brow and thinks she is doing something more. Being so willed that she doesn't have to follow and conform to the apathy and complacency she sees around her.
So she kind of leaves off with:
Half the people read the papers
Read them good and well
Pretty people, nervous people
People have got to sell
News you have to sell
which I take to see as more sarcasm or her chastising and patronizing our civilized society. Saying Yeah just keep reading your papers and books and watching TV and chasing fads and ads until the world ends because we like things pretty and edited like models, actors reporters and our news and that's what sells, so why waste more breath trying to make you into an activist.
That's what I get from it and from her comments and the video itself anyway.
Tanita Tikaram said she got the idea for the song after an unpleasant one night stand. However she also said that the song was about perception and reality and apathy.
'All God's Children Need Traveling Shoes' is a title of a book my Maya Angelou.
From those thing, I can say a few things that may help people understand the song meaning a little more. Of course it's just my opinion, but it is an opinion based on some facts.
I think the song is about how people in Civilized Countries tend to stay ignorant of the real struggles in life and the problems everywhere else in the world (especially 3rd World Countries) Our news and Preachers don't tell us about the global raping and murdering of children and women; or genocide; or war and poverty and famine, or of Governmental Corruption that has led many of these countries that were previously "civilized" into Third World Conditions. (east not until it's too late or it's finally in the history books). We read and pray to God and help the needy so we think our Conscious is clear. OUR perception is very far from true REALITY. (Side note example: I was 22 when the Genocide occurred in Rwanda and never fully understood what happened until the movies Hotel Rwanda and Sometimes in April were released).
So when she talks of God's children and Good People using their tools of religion or Books to clear their conscience it is not the same as really seeing what is going on and taking real action, maybe risking your life to make changes.
We watch news (holograms, basically) that is told from the perspective of the editor with input from the reporter. Never do we see the whole story from all sides and all viewpoints, which helps to skew our perceptions from reality. And while we watch, people die, suffer and go hungry or live in fear and hiding while we have food and homes and comforts. So we're getting fat on the hog! (Soft and Porky you pig out until you see the light.)
She talks about how when you attack these beliefs even in jest (we just poked a little empty pie) they get up in arms and act chaste and whole to assuage their guilt but their hostility isn't solving the problems because it's misdirected. (I don't care about their different thoughts, different thoughts are good for me)
She talks about how she gets up and works and wipes her brow and thinks she is doing something more. Being so willed that she doesn't have to follow and conform to the apathy and complacency she sees around her.
So she kind of leaves off with: Half the people read the papers Read them good and well Pretty people, nervous people People have got to sell News you have to sell
which I take to see as more sarcasm or her chastising and patronizing our civilized society. Saying Yeah just keep reading your papers and books and watching TV and chasing fads and ads until the world ends because we like things pretty and edited like models, actors reporters and our news and that's what sells, so why waste more breath trying to make you into an activist.
That's what I get from it and from her comments and the video itself anyway.