Dave Mathews Band Essays - David Mathews, Schuyler Family

Dave Mathews Band According to the American Heritage Dictionary a poet is someone who writes poems. If I were to give my own definition of a poet it would say a poet is someone who can take a group of words and put a hundred different emotions and meanings into them. This is what Dave Mathews does with his lyrics; he takes his emotions and puts them into words. This is what makes him a poet and a master of words. From the debut of his first album Remember Two Things, Mathews has instructed the listener to do everything from love to relax and enjoy the day. He does this through his lyrics, taking his experiences and emotions putting them to words and passing his knowledge to us. It is very rare to find someone in today's music industry that can inspire in this way. Money and MTV have taken away what music is supposed to do, create emotions. A very sad and obvious example is the current charts topper The Back Street Boys. What is the world coming to when a group of kids are making millions because a bunch of 12-year-old girls have crushes? This is the cue for the prophet Mathews, he takes his talents and does something that people can relate too. He inspires and pushes the limits of the imagination. To give the reader a taste if what Dave Mathews' poetry is like I'm going to give some examples over the next paragraph. The examples that precede derive from several of his albums so as to give the full spectrum of his talents. The first exert is Proudest Monkey from the album Crash, it is a song about a person who lived a very simple life but decides to make a change: ?Swing in this tree Oh I am bounce around so well Branch to branch, limb to limb you see All in a day's dream I'm stuck Like the other monkeys here I am a humble monkey Sitting up in here again But then came the day I climbed out of these safe limbs Ventured away Walking tall, head high up and singing I went to the city Car horns, corners and the gritty Now I am the proudest monkey you've ever seen? This shows that though these are lyrics from a song, if read without music to accompany them the words have a power all their own much like a poem. The next example is from the album Before these Crowded Streets, the tract is Pig. This song tells the listener that we live in a world that is full of beauty and magic and that we should stop and smell the roses: ?Oh, isn't it strange How we move our lives for another day? Like skipping a beat What if a great wave should wash us all away? Just thinking out loud Don't mean to dwell on this dying thing But look at my blood It's alive right now, And deep and sweet within Pouring through our veins Intoxicate moving wine to tears And drinking it deep Then an evening spent dancing It's you and me... This love will open our world From the dark side we can see a glow of something bright Oh, there's much more than we see here Don't burn the day away Is this not enough? This blessed sip of life, Is it not enough? Staring down at the ground Oh, then complain and pray for more from above, You greedy little pig Stop, just watch your world trickle away Oh, it's your problem now It'll all be dead and gone in a few short years? Again Mathews uses the power of words to send a message to the masses. In today's world of money and power people tend to lose sight of the things that are important. People forget that there are more important things in life than a big bank account and a new car. Through his lyrics Mathews shows us things that are obvious to the human spirit but are often times forgotten. It takes a true poet to make us open our eyes and see what is all around us; these are the things that make David Mathews a true artist.

Reconstrution essays

Reconstrution essays The history of race relations and labor from the Reconstruction to the 1890s involves many different ethnic groups. Some of these groups were African Americans, Chinese, Japanese, Mexicans, American Indians, and the Irish. White Americans believe that they were superior and none of the other groups were capable of taking care of themselves, and who else was better to take care of them but the supreme white man. All of these groups faced racism and much hatred from the white man, and none of these groups were thought to be equal to the white man. It was many of these ethnic groups that labored to build the United States of America. Even after the slaves were freed they were still looked at as an inferior human being. Some white groups had formed, such as the Ku Klux Klan, to rid their State of the blacks, and were allowed to maim and murder when the Federal Government decided that the Fourteenth Amendment was only to protect citizens from actions by the State and prosecution by the Federal Government might be illegal. (Henretta pg.495). The ending of the Civil War had freed the slaves, but had done little to make them equal to the white groups. They had the right to vote but many were to scare to go vote for they risked being killed. They were allowed to do sharecropping but many had no money to buy the necessary seed and equipment to be able to produce enough food for the family and some for sale. Many turned to growing cotton because it was a good cash crop, but this caused South a decline of grain and livestock. All of these factors cause the South a stagnant farm economy and the Southern people blamed this on the blacks, once again giving the whites a reason to hate the freed blacks. (Henretta pg. 494) The Chinese were faring no better than the freed blacks. During the California gold rush more than 200,000 Chinese immigrated there. When the gold ran out they turned to labor force to survive. Th...