Stories and Songs - using music with a message

Engaging different senses during teaching is something that I really enjoy doing.

If you’re just looking for the resource bit, then skip to the end of this post for some amazing lyrics to expolre in English, PSHE, Citizenship or RE which looks at decisions.

I love introducing different sensory options in engaging students on a theme and am REALLY excited about a beautifully crafted album recently released by Leeds based Homecut, featuring a number of artists, including fellow Leeds lady, Corinne Bailey Rae.

As well as high standards of musicianship (no samples, all live instrumentation), a range of musical styles (making it hard to pigeon hole), great production and timeless style, lyrically, this album is culturally relevant with superb tracks that can be used in a number of topics.

Homecut describes himself as ‘harmony’. His parents had always told him and his brother that this was what they are - not mixed race or dual hertiage - as they are the result of two cultures (Ghanaian and English) coming together.  The album , titled ‘No Freedom Without Sacrifice’isn’t all about celebrating his racial/cultural identity though.  There is so much to it that everytime you listen, you get more and more from it. It’s a journey through live, reflected to the listeners.

Homecut’s faith clearly comes out on the tracks, not because he was trying to create tracks to talk about God, but because it successfully translates how a relationship with God penetrates every single part of living.

The tracks are not without questions or acknowledging the hardship and challenges of urban living (references to racism, struggles with lack of money for example) which are often ignored by a lot of artists.  It also manages not to get sucked into pushing more stereotypes.

Five years in the making, it’s clearly an open journey of a bloke who has lived between three English cities which have shaped him, in addition to influences from family, music, faith and culture.

These tracks are gsuitable to be used as discussion starters and some as meditations. Each song is a story with carefully considered lyrics that are emotive.

The track I want to focus on for the purposes of a lesson is YKTE.

An innovative track which starts at the end of the story with a guy in prison looking back on how he ended up being in this position. It skillfully works backwards over his life and we see how he ended up being in a cell. 

A clear tale of how circumstance, choice and ‘chance’ all play a part in peoples’ lives. It’s worth asking before playing the song who has ever had regrets, or been in a situation that could have turned out really badly. In this track, it’s not simple enough to put down the prison sentence down to growing up in a certain are or being from a certain background. The lyrics really cut me when I first heard them - it was mainly down to a lack of hope. Unfortunately, most of us know too many young people like that.

The lyrics are great to use in relation to discussing cause and effect. It’s sometimes easy to do things without thinking them through fully - should some things be more deeply considered? What drives us?

The media often pushes negative stereotypes of young people and this in some way gives society ‘permission’ to make (often false) assumptions about people, or what may have done that led them to ending up in a certain situations.  YKTE digs deeper in that it is not about stereotypes, simple solutions or answering the questions. It just takes a peek at real life, and the reality that, in life, twists and turns in the journey don’t always end how you like them.

YTKE.  ( © Andy Brooks)

Epilogue:

(and) How did life turn out like this?
There’s no easy explanation, goes beyond
The flaws in legal representation
Even further back than the crimes committed
The consequence is now, prison where he’s sitting
And from where he’s sitting, sees the web of decisions
Rewinding in his mind, is he a predator or victim?
Closed eyes, tears we shed with him
Now that you know the ending let’s head back to the beginning…

Verse 1:

The cell door slid open, still he seemed resigned
Salt-water rolled up his cheeks into his eyes
Wardens led him up, the corridor to transport
Sat on the van’s floor then down to Crown court
Judge gave sentence, then came the verdict
Barristers argued the case with little sense of purpose
GBH, this case was a circus
Situations worsen, cut to him on his face
Officers remove the cuffs, he turns gives chase?
To the cul-de-sac, lays a Volksvagen Jetta
Engines still running, thinking is this a set-up?
Climbs in front seat, then they pursue the fuzz
You know the ending, but we start where the end does…

CHORUS:
(You know the ending)
And in the end, it doesn’t have to be like this

Verse 2:

So he’s outside the club, rage in his veins
28 days early not 28 days late
Looking at this kid, stooped over like he’s hit
But the wounds to his ribs heal up in an instant
As the bat left his torso…
Now seems our friend’s at an awkward crossroads
With one way to go, blend straight home
Replace the bat in its wardrobe, cut to the club
Feeling disrespected, fists coming up
The was kid’s poking fun, only now he doesn’t know
What was said to provoke the blows in the episode
Sneezing out coke with his cousin and bro
The beginning to discover, cos the end you know

CHORUS

Verse 3.

Being a dealer was nice, didn’t graft too hard but
He started on coke, then worked down to marijuana
The years went and came, see its kinda funny
They started giving him weed for money
Departed to do an unfinished B-TEC in design
GCSEs next, street rep in decline
On a mountain bike running packages on the sly
That’s why his kicks were so nice, cut to a filthy room
Staring at a fifty note taken by father substitute
In a nasty crew, finding control of his emotions
Run home after taking cars back to their owners
Not so much results of post codes or skin-tones but
The end he hadn’t chosen, guess he’d never known hope

CHORUS

Prologue:
And from where He’s sitting, sees the web of decisions
Only He knows who’s the predator or victim
Closed eyes, tears He sheds with him
You know He’s the ending, he’s the beginning…

Coda:
Let’s change the ending
(Praying for you…)

(the track is only 79p on itunes, but it’s so worth buying the album as all of the songs are like GOLD)
more here… http://www.myspace.com/homecut    http://www.firstwordrecords.com