What It's Like

What It’s Like (Censored Music Video): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vCZ1YteCv5M

What It’s Like (Uncensored Lyric Video): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vPoEA43cqKc

This week, depending on how I feel about this Blog…may be my last, but I’ve chosen a great song to end this with. The song is What It’s Like by Everlast from the album Whitey Ford Sings the Blues (1998). This song was the top hit from the album, and was hailed as a genre-crossing lead single. It will make you really think, and has very powerful lyrics. WARNING: CONTAINS SOME EXPLICIT LANGUAGE. The explicit language is meaningful however, making the song more powerful.

                The song itself doesn’t follow a story like some of the others I’ve talked about, but rather gives three examples of situations you’ve heard insulted time and time again and makes you see them in another perspective. The first is about a beggar, the second is about a teen pregnancy, and the third is about the family of a drug dealer. Everlast sings how you could never understand what they’ve been through, yet we still shun them. If we “God forbid…ever had to walk a mile in her shoes,” or “had to wake up to hear the news,” then maybe we “might know what it’s like” to sing the blues, to choose, or to lose. The song struck a chord with me because I’ve thought badly of people in these situations before, and I assumed I knew their situation. This song showed me that I was wrong.

                The Interlude is equally as important. Everybody falls down in life, and we’ve all seen “the good side of bad, the down side of up, and everything in between.” Bad things happen to every one of us, and Everlast wants us to understand that through this song. We can be against abortion, but until our life and future hang in the balance of a choice, we can’t understand what the right thing to do is.

                I love this song, its message, and its power, and I hope this song hit you hard too. And who knows, you might see another post sometime soon…until next time!

What It’s Like Lyrics:

We've all seen the man at the liquor store beggin' for your change 
The hair on his face is dirty, dread-locked, and full of mange 
He asks a man for what he could spare, with shame in his eyes 
"Get a job you f****n' slob," is all he replies 
God forbid you ever had to walk a mile in his shoes 
'Cause then you really might know what it's like to sing the blues 

Then you really might know what it's like 
Then you really might know what it's like 
Then you really might know what it's like 
Then you really might know what it's like 

Mary got pregnant from a kid named Tom that said he was in love 
He said, "Don't worry about a thing, baby doll 
I'm the man you've been dreaming of." 
But 3 months later he say he won't date her or return her calls 
And she swear, "God d**n, if I find that man I'm cuttin' off his balls." 
And then she heads for the clinic and 
She gets some static walking through the door 
They call her a killer, and they call her a sinner 
And they call her a whore 
God forbid you ever had to walk a mile in her shoes 
'Cause then you really might know what it's like to have to choose 

Then you really might know what it's like 
Then you really might know what it's like 
Then you really might know what it's like 
Then you really might know what it's like 

I've seen a rich man beg 
I've seen a good man sin 
I've seen a tough man cry 
I've seen a loser win 
And a sad man grin 
I heard an honest man lie 
I've seen the good side of bad 
And the downside of up 
And everything between 
I licked the silver spoon 
Drank from the golden cup 
And smoked the finest green 
I stroked the fattest dimes at least a couple of times 
Before I broke their heart 
You know where it ends, yo, it usually depends on where you start 

I knew this kid named Max 
Who used to get fat stacks out on the corner with drugs 
He liked to hang out late 
He liked to get s**t-faced and keep the pace with thugs 
Until late one night there was a big gun fight and Max lost his head 
He pulled out his chrome 45, talked some shit, and wound up dead 
Now his wife and his kids are caught in the midst of all of this pain 
You know it crumbles that way 
At least that's what they say when you play the game 
God forbid you ever had to wake up to hear the news 
'Cause then you really might know what it's like to have to lose 

Then you really might know what it's like 
Then you really might know what it's like 
Yeah then you really might know what it's like 
To have to lose