Become You
I finally arranged, learned, and recorded one of my favorite Indigo Girls songs. Ammie bought me the sheet music for their Become You album. Ignoring the obvious fact of their immeasurably greater talent, I couldn't have written this song. I'm not a Southerner. But I share many of the feelings from my own journey. Parts of it are even more poignant for me at this moment in history. I'm an immigrant to the South, but three of my four children are first generation Southerners if they choose it. The fourth has lived here since he was three. And we are still fighting the same battles to become something better than the southern history of oppression is trying to hang onto. I know this goes beyond the South. Living here opened my eyes to how my Utah and Wisconsin societies enact and hide many of the same racist and sexist systems of oppression. I hope we can continue becoming a new people. And I hope you enjoy my adaptation of their amazing song.
My arrangement and recording of Become You
Indigo Girls
[Verse 1]
I heard you sing a rebel song
Sung it loud and all alone
We can't afford the things you save
We can't afford the warranty
Well I see you walking in the glare
Down the county road we share
Our southern blood my heresy
Damn that old confederacy
[Chorus]
It took a
Long time to
Become the thing
I am to you
And you won't
Tear it apart
Without a fight
Without a heart
[Verse 2]
I'm sorry for what you've learned
When you feel the tables turned
To run so hard in your race
Now you found who set the pace
The landed aristocracy
Exploiting all your enmity
All your daddies fought in vain
Leave you with the mark of Cain
[Chorus]
It took a
Long time to
Become the thing
I am to you
And you won't
Tear it apart
Without a fight
Without a heart
It took a
Long time to
Become you
Become you
[Verse 3]
The center holds so they say
(It never held too well for me)
It never held too well for me
(The center holds so they say)
I won't stop short for common ground
(That vilifies the trodden down)
That vilifies the trodden down
(I don't wanna stop)
The center held the bonded slave
For the sake of industry (Ah)
The center held the bloody hand
Of the execution man (Ah)
[Chorus]
It took a
Long time to
Become the thing
I am to you
And you won't
Tear it apart
Without a fight
Without a heart
It took a
Long time to
Become you
Become you
It took a
Long time to
Become you
Become you