The Cat Empire sings a song called “The Crowd”. As often happens, God speaks to me through this what some people I know would call “secular” song.
Here are the lyrics, or you could go watch it on Youtube.
Lord unchain my hands
Let me sing inside the crowded trams
Let me dance among the traffic jams
We’re going to sleep on the St Kilda sandsLord unbind my feet
Let me mingle with the good people we meet
Water rising up into the street
Unbind my feet‘The apparition of these faces in the crowd;
Petals on a wet black bough
Ezra Pound found the formula
Our houses are rectangular
But life is curved not angular
So when things start to strangular
Remember rain still falls on the halls of power
New babies being born every hour
And the eagle keeps watch on the old clock tower
Over me…Lord unchain my hands
Let me sing inside the crowded trams
Let me dance among the traffic jams
We’re going to sleep on the St Kilda sandsLord unbind my feet
Let me mingle with the good people we meet
Water rising up into the street
Unbind my feetOn the train I refrain from sitting with head and shoulders bowed
They told me time is of the essence, no wandering allowed
But then I saw a pretty girl whose features stood out in the crowd
Went ten minutes past my stop waiting for her to look around
I’m just another clown kicking around in Melbourne town
Cooling out, relaxing watching the world go round
So if you ever have the time and you want to go drink some wine
I’d rather greet you with a smile than greet you with a frown…Lord unchain my hands
Let me sing inside the crowded trams
Let me dance among the traffic jams
We’re going to sleep on the St Kilda sandsLord unbind my feet
Let me mingle with the good people we meet
Water rising up into the street
Unbind my feet
This song has so much of my cry in it. Why are my hands chained and my feet bound? What is it that makes me pause instead of sing and be “sensible” instead of dance? I want to mingle with the people I meet and greet them with a smile and be free to share life with them. I want to dance among the traffic jams rather than scream in frustration when things are going wrong.
Lord, unbind my feet. Help me free myself to sing and dance and live and love and worship.
Amen sistah
I was reading something before where this guy was talking about London in the early 80s and how stultifyingly conservative it was, that this big crowd of Australian yobbos were talking on this train and being glared at.
And I thought, Melbourne is sort of like that London of the early 80s now. It’s just this cultural thing, isn’t it, that keeps everyone’s feet stuck to the footpath.
Unbind mind too, Lord
Hope your feet find themselves unbound today, Sue.
Beautiful. I want to sing and dance whether or not anyone is watching.
Fred, welcome to my bloggings. I’m not sure I’ve seen you here before. I hope you continue to sing and dance and celebrate. It’s such a freeing thing.
Yes. This is the cry of my heart too. That I would be present for the moment and available to what is important in this world – people.
Beautiful thoughts in this song.
Ruth, “Present for the moment” – what a wonderful thought. I’ll take that with me today.