Hands Held High

"Hands Held High" comes from the album "Minutes to Midnight"

Now I'm not usually a huge fan of Linkin Park, or rap-like songs in general, but I've always found Hands Held High from their Minutes to Midnight album to be a very powerful song. Obviously, it about a touchy subject and many have different viewpoints and interpretations of this song. Being somewhat of a pacifist myself (my actual beliefs are not exactly pacifist, but I do view war as an extremely last option), I like a lot of what this song has to say. It may be considered political, but it doesn't have to be. In the beginning of the song, the singer declares that the government will not silence him anymore, and he won't be a mindless follower. One of my favorite lines in the piece is "Like it's stupid standing for what I'm standing for", which refers to his stance on being against the war. Those who were and are against the war are often ridiculed, and are claimed to "not care about our troops", while this is far from the case. Overall, I'm not really against the war as much as this song seems to suggest, however I do believe that most Americans need to be exposed to a lot of what this song has been saying and truly examine their beliefs for themselves, because we should have done (and should do) a lot of things differently. The overall message of this song isn't even really about war, or pacifism. It's about unity, with all people. Anyway, I've talked long enough, here are the lyrics:

Lyrics:
Turn my mic up louder I got to say something
Light weights step to the side when we come in

Feel it in your chest the syllables get pumping
People on the street they panic and start running

Words on loose leaf sheet complete coming
I jump in my mind and summon the rhyme, I'm dumping

Healing the blind I promise to let the sun in
Sick of the dark ways we march to the drum and

Jump when they tell us that they wanna see jumping
Fuck that I wanna see some fists pumping

Risk something, take back what's yours
Say something that you know they might attack you for

Cause I'm sick of being treated like I have before
Like it's stupid standing for what I'm standing for

Like this war's really just a different brand of war
Like it doesn't cater the rich and abandon poor

Like they understand you in the back of the jet
When you can't put gas in your tank

These fuckers are laughing their way to the bank and cashing the cheque
Asking you to have compassion and have some respect

For a leader so nervous in an obvious way
Stuttering and mumbling for nightly news to replay

And the rest of the world watching at the end of the day
In their living room laughing like "what did he say?"

[Chorus:]
Amen
Amen
Amen
Amen
Amen

In my living room watching but I am not laughing
Cause when it gets tense I know what might happen

World is cold the bold men take action
Have to react or get blown into fractions

Ten years old it's something to see
Another kid my age drugged under a jeep

Taken and bound and found later under a tree
I wonder if he had thought the next one could be me

Do you see the soldiers they're out today
They brush the dust from bullet proof vests away

It's ironic at times like this you pray
But a bomb blew the mosque up yesterday

There's bombs in the buses, bikes, roads
Inside your market, your shops, your clothes

My dad he's got a lot of fear I know
But enough pride inside not to let that show

My brother had a book he would hold with pride
A little red cover with a broken spine

On the back, he hand-wrote a quote inside
When the rich wage war it's the poor who die

Meanwhile, the leader just talks away
Stuttering and mumbling for nightly news to replay

And the rest of the world watching at the end of the day
both scared and angry like "what did he say?"

[Chorus x6]

[x6]
With hands held high into the sky so blue,
As the ocean opens up to swallow you.

Link to song on Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5jQ0njClBKI

Copyright to this song goes to Linkin Park. If, for some reason, the want me to take this down from this Blog contact me. I would be happy to.