Love Can Wash It Away

[shankarji]

I'm thinking that you and Kulu might have some interesting song stories.

I dunno whether it's interesting, but one that immediately springs to mind is an example of one those songs where you've felt moved to say something, but the musical setting never seemed focused enough to carry it off.

I'll let you guys be the judge!


So it was the time of the 1994 Rwanda genocide and I wanted to write a hopeful kind of song that focused on how love can wash away evil and hatred. The first verse was Rwanda based, the second verse referenced the nazi holocaust and the last verse went on about modern life as we know it.

The original "Love Can Wash It Away" tune never really came out to mine and kulu's satisfaction. We wanted brass in it, but only had an 80s synth brass approximation, which wasn’t really acceptable (shame we didn’t know Hoss back then!)...and the intro was and is pretty crappy. I kinda liked some of the instrumentation though...the guitars and bass etc, and I quite liked the melody and the chorus wasn't too bad, but we just couldn't seem to get it sounding exactly how we wanted it.

Have a listen...preferably on headphones:

"Love Can Wash It Away"

After waves of ethnic violence
After years of fear and hate
When the Hutus and the Tutsis
Had the world in such a state

On the train to Kisangani
In the misery and blood
When the women and infant victims
Had their faces in the mud

I know there’s evil living in the mind of man
Love can wash it away
I ask you open up your heart and understand

Chorus:
Humanity must follow
The path of universal love
We must renounce all our prejudice
And find our places in the sun

When a holocaust survivor
Looks at you with ravaged eyes
When the tattooed forearm thrusts itself
Neath the dark foreboding skies

When the light of human kindness
Drops into that black abyss
That is born of hate and ignorance
From a gun and not a kiss

Racial hatred turns the sunshine into night
Love can wash it away
I tell you Gandhi and Mandela got it right

Chorus

When you’re driving down the highway
Maybe get in someone’s way
They look like they want to kill you
Just for causing them some delay
See the ugly face of warfare
Ripping flesh and crushing bone
It can make a man feel terrified
It can make him feel alone

When rage and anger turn the human heart to ice
Love can wash it away
Some people tell us we should go ask Jesus Christ

Chorus

© kulu productions 1994

charas - Love Can Wash It Away_edit.mp3

(8.1 MiB) Downloaded 10 times

So quite a few years later we decided to give the lyrics a re-write…the Rwanda genocide was replaced in the lyric by the arab/israeli conflict and the approach to the music was completely different, making it a much darker song with a more chillum brothers edge to the music and the production. It kind've reminded me of a Massive Attack/Roni Size type thing, with the jungle style drum patterns. The title became LoveCan and this is how it turned out:

"LoveCan"

There’ve been waves of ethnic violence
After years of fear and hate
When the Arabs and Israelis
Turned the world's attention to their fate
There were suicidal bombers
Facing overwhelming odds
And fanatic kills fanatic
Willing martyrs die for different gods

I know, I know, I know, I know there’s evil living in the mind of man
But if you’re wise
You’ll realise
That you can open up your heart and understand

Wash it all away

When a holocaust survivor
Looks at you with ravaged eyes
When the tattooed forearm thrusts itself
Beneath the cold and dark foreboding skies

When the light of human kindness
Drops into that black abyss
That is born of hate and ignorance
From the barrel of a gun and not a kiss
See the ugly face of warfare
Ripping flesh and crushing bone
It can make a man feel terrified
It can make his soul feel so alone

rage and anger, rage and anger, rage and anger turn the human heart to ice
people tell me, people tell me, people tell me I should go ask Jesus Christ
I shake my head and say that he’s long dead
I tell you Gandhi and Mandela got it right

Love can
Clean up your heart
Love Can
Happy up your day
Love Can
Light up the dark
Love Can
Wash it all away

© kulu productions 2006

chillum brothers - LoveCan_edit.mp3

(7.02 MiB) Downloaded 7 times

So I guess if truth be told, this is a song story without a particularly happy ending, because I can't help feeling that we kinda fell between two stools. I do really like the dark soundscape of "LoveCan" with it's spoken samples, Hendrix sample and the spacy backwards noise-panning etc, and I love kulu's edgy guitar playing...so I s'pose I've got half an arse-cheek on the "Lovecan" stool.


But what say you, dear refugee?


ps: I should add that neither of the two versions were completely finished..."LoveCan" is certainly more finished, in that it was mastered for posting on MySpaz.

[Krispy]

Well, quite a contrast between the two innit. Hard to believe they're from the same seed.

I think number one's main problem is that the verses containing really difficult lyrics share the upbeat lightness of the chorus. That soaring, poppy vibe works well on the ‘love can wash it away’ part but not so much on ‘misery and blood’, huh?
You say you were instrumentally limited, and some more organic (maybe even African) instruments might’ve deepened it with some authenticity, but yeah, the keyboard makes me think of Duran Duran or sunnit.
For some bizarre reason - and before I grabbed 'Love Can' - Peter Gabriel’s The Rhythm Of The Heat popped into my head as an example and reference point for the kind of setting your subject matter might need.

I immediately like number two much better as a context of the message it’s delivering. Agreeably darker and heavier, it examines ideas in images much more, rather than attempting to explain. The vocal is kind of unrepetent in its more detached coolness, the robotic nature seems to imply more anger and disgust than in its distant sibling. The crazy panning/effects at the end makes my head spin, that's a cool idea to use disorientation to somehow communicate the song's inherent distress.

Now, what might be velly interesting would be to see if you could combine the two, put the Rwanda lyric idea down on a similarly heavy bed track with a more minimalist, image-based, observational standpoint.

[shankarji]

Well thanks for the eardrum kimmer!

Now, what might be velly interesting would be to see if you could combine the two, put the Rwanda lyric idea down on a similarly heavy bed track with a more minimalist, image-based, observational standpoint.

Well it might have been interesting back then, but I don't imagine we'll be re-visiting it after so long...y'know...difficult to get back into the mood of it again. It was hard enough dismantling the old tune twelve years later innit. Nah...I think we did it to death.


quiet in 'ere innit...wasn't this bleedin' jaymz's idea?

[Chris K.]

you took a lot of acid back in the day, didn't you?

[shankarji]

you took a lot of acid back in the day, didn't you?

how very dare you!

[Krispy]

quiet in 'ere innit...wasn't this bleedin' jaymz's idea?

I just hope he wrote himself a note, like that guy in Memento.

[Peevette]

Sorry it took me so long to get to listening to the submissions in these threads....(BTW, great idea Jaymz!!)

It really is hard to believe that these two tunes are from the same seed. Major contrasts, no doubt.

I do prefer the second version.

Thanks for sharing your story, shankji!

[jaymz]

As usual, I come up with a great idea in theory but bad in execution.

Many o women have repeated this to me over the years..

All my stuff seems to take abnormal amounts of time and require professional biographers.

But that's the price I pay to be so increidibly talented to everyone in my own mind. It's a reconciliation issue with the real world really.

nah, actually my huntin dog has heartworms and i've been busy with another website project for the past couple of weeks.. so music has taken a back burner.

It's about to get a goin again though. i can't wait!

[nunani]

Sit with Shank and hear all the adventures that he has to tell! I want to do this... some day...