Open Up Your Mind

This is a bit of an odd one. The idea for it originally came about because of an argument I had with my girlfriend at the time. She's got some very strong opinions on things (very Conservative opinions I might add), and sometimes that can really annoy me ... you know, when people refuse point blank to look at something from any other viewpoint? Well yeah, anyway, so a few days later I was at work, and a couple of ideas came into my head. As soon as I went on my break, I grabbed a Wage Enquiry form ... the only bit of paper I could find ... and wrote down the ideas. I've still got this Wage Enquiry form :p It was more just a collection of different ideas with a similar theme than a full song, but I decided to try to amalgamate it into a song anyway, which is why it's a bit disjointed.

It's pretty obvious as to what it's about. Managed to slip some references in there too: The Garden of Eden, Karl Marx, rubber bullets, rubber trees (I'm not entirely sure why) and Hiroshima (the "one doomed city"). I amused myself a bit with the "BREAK" bit, the idea is that the rhyme scheme indicates that that line is going to end in something that rhymes with "wrong", and when you hear "Why can't we all just get a-", you're suppose to think that it's going to end in "along", I thought it might be cool to screw with people's expectations.

When I first wrote this it took me a while to post it anywhere. I realise that, despite the assertions in the first verse to the contrary, it is actually quite preachy, and I'm not sure how comfortable I am using a song to tell people how they should think. But I suppose that it's more just a suggestion ... and being close minded never really helped anyone anyway, so I guess this is a good piece of advice to offer.

Comments welcome

Open Up Your Mind - February - April 2005

Now this may sound judgemental
But know that I'm not here to preach
I believe in choice to each his own
When it comes down to belief
So if you choose to disregard me
Then you know that I won't mind
I'd rather you believe my truth
Than force-feed you my lies
I don't want to tell you
What is wrong and what is right
All that I ask is that you
Open up your mind
All that I want is you to
Open up your mind

Chorus:
Judge not lest ye be judged yourself
Blessed is the man who considers someone else

Open up your mind
And you will let the world inside
They say the sky's the limit
When you embrace the possibilities
But why stop there?
We can set our own limits
In times like these

Chorus:
Judge not lest ye be judged yourself
The things you do may be judged by someone else

Replace all of the bullets with rubber
That we found upon the tree
The Garden of Eden could be right under our feet
And we would still be too blinded to see
And even now we are a world at war
It seems that Marx has been proved wrong
But tell me what the hell we're fighting for
And why can't we all just get a BREAK?!

Propaganda fought and paranoia won
Authority killed our only son
The war to end all wars but one
Where one doomed city held the sun
And burned....

Chorus:
Judge not lest ye be judged yourself
Blessed is the man who considers someone else
Judge not lest ye be judged yourself
The things you do may be judged by someone else

So by all means judge me quickly
On my religion or race
But don't be surprised if
In the crowd you're feeling out of place
Cos all thoughts are important
In these apathetic times
And if your belief's unfounded
Then your faith's unjustified
Question where you need to
And try not to follow blind
If you do one thing today then
Open up your mind
Take a breath and let go as you
Open up your mind