A piano is an instrument of freedom. Yet the piano is ensnared in the beginning of the song. Stuck in a vicious cycle, stuttering, angry. The drums are almost brainwashing the piano here, making the piano march to it’s beat. Yet the process can be reversed. The piano’s note can be lifted on wings of violin strings. A virtuous cycle can replace the vicious one. Change is possible – the story can rewritten as Stevie Wonder proclaims.
Once change happens, freedom of expression sets in, notes played freely, open space, no constriction. This is envisioned transformation of black America is dramatized by the very instruments in the song. Its almost as if the instruments metamorphize from tools of hate into tools of heaven.
This song has a beautiful, miraculous range of sounds – the journey is beautiful, from volcanic inner city angst to the serenading open field. The full spectrum of powerful black responses to the hate they have received at the hands of white society is on full display – from the cogent argumentation of a Malcolm X to the glorious love of a Martin Luther King. Sometimes words are so powerfully phrased they need to be said again and again and again. We are rewriting the Black American Story.
poetic reverb 