POETRY THE ANALYSIS OF SONG LYRIC
WE WILL NOT GO DOWN (GAZA TONIGHT) BY MICHAEL HEART
by Tutik Ratna Ningtays 2011060140
K. 306 / Night Class
THE UNIVERSITY OF PAMULANG FACULTY OF LITERATURE
The Introduction Many singers in the whole world have a great sensitivity about humanism issues. One of the singers who against the violence in the world is the humanitarian, songwriter, and singer at one Michael Heart. As the singer, the best way to protest any bad things which happen in the world is by composing and singing a powerful song. “We Will Not Go Down (Gaza Tonight)” is the song by Michael Heart which was dedicated to the people of Gaza. This song is the protest song to the brutality of Israel. And this song is also as the spirit for the people of Palestine to keep fighting. The lyric is simple so that every people can enjoy it. This paper provides the analysis of the extrinsic elements which focuses on the background and setting of the song and intrinsic elements which focuses on theme, diction, symbol, figurative language and imagery. I hope this analysis will help the readers to comprehend the meaning of the lyric.
The Analysis About Michael Heart Michael Heart (born Annas Allaf,) is a Syrian American singer-songwriter, recording artist, guitarist and audio engineer based in Los Angeles, CA. He was born in Syria and raised in Europe (Switzerland and Austria) and the United States. He started playing piano and guitar at age 10. Shortly thereafter, he began songwriting and eventually progressed towards recording. After earning his audio engineering degree from Full Sail University, he moved to Los Angeles in 1990 and began working on the local studio circuit as a session guitarist and a recording engineer. In 2008, he independently released his debut solo album "Unsolicited Material". The album is a collection of Pop/Rock songs with lyrical content covering such topics as adultery ("Living In Sin"), war ("Damaged World"), domestic violence ("Finally Free") and the challenges of making a living ("Life Goes On") In January 2009, he composed and released a song in support of the Palestinian civilian victims of the Israeli war in Gaza. The song is called "We Will Not Go Down (Song For Gaza)" and gained popularity on sites like YouTube In January 2010, Heart co-wrote a song with British songwriter Mark Holding, in support of the victims of the Haiti earthquake. The song is titled Help is on the Way (Song for Haiti) and once again, the YouTube video encouraged viewers to make donations to the victims of the earthquake.
Song Lyric We will not go down (Gaza Tonight) A blinding flash of white light Lit up the sky over Gaza tonight People running for cover Not knowing whether they’re dead or alive They came with their tanks and their planes With ravaging fiery flames And nothing remains Just a voice rising up in the smoky haze We will not go down In the night, without a fight You can burn up our mosques and our homes and our schools But our spirit will never die We will not go down In Gaza tonight Women and children alike Murdered and massacred night after night While the so-called leaders of countries afar Debated on who’s wrong or right But their powerless words were in vain And the bombs fell down like acid rain But through the tears and the blood and the pain You can still hear that voice through the smoky haze We will not go down In the night, without a fight You can burn up our mosques and our homes and our schools But our spirit will never die We will not go down In Gaza tonight
About The Song During the war in Gaza, Michael Heart wrote a humanitarian song entitled “We will not Go Gown (Song for Gaza)” in January 2009. It is written in order to support of the Palestinians victims from the Israeli Aggression. The song was very wellknown in all over the world because it is spread as a free MP3 which means it can be downloaded without any charge. It has been downloaded by over half a million people from the official websites and not yet counted from other websites. More than 500 new clips have been made with “We Will Not Go Down” by people all over the world, and thousands of websites have uploaded the clip and posted the lyrics. As the first release, the official video on YouTube has viewed by over one million people within the first month. And the appreciations of the song are very high since the statistic shows that over 10,000 e-mails, comments, and messages are sent to respond this song. In addition, the song has also been translated into a dozen languages and subtitled on numerous clips. Besides his popularity achieved from the song, he also received some critiques. The first, of course, comes from the Israeli politician because they would get the disadvantages from it. Besides that, many people also claimed that Heart is a follower of any particular religion. Therefore, to encounter that, Heart explained that the song has nothing to do with religion. It is only a humanitarian song in nature. Based on the above explanation, it can be drawn to the conclusion that how phenomenal this song so it can gain many respects, responds, or claims from many people around the world.
Intrinsic Elements The analysis of intrinsic elements will be focused of theme, diction, symbol, figurative language and imagery. As a humanitarian, Michael Heart sends the powerful message to people to save Palestine from the brutality of Israeli aggression. This song was also intended to protest Israel. The theme of this song is about spirit to persuade people to save Gaza and
protest Israel. The reason why Michael Heart chooses the title “Gaza tonight” is because Gaza is the target of Israel aggression all the time.
A blinding flash of white light Lit up the sky over Gaza tonight People running for cover Not knowing whether they’re dead or alive
The first phrase “a blinding flash of white light” can be analyzed as the symbol of Israel aggression when their soldier threw bombs to Gaza. A blinding flash of white light can be sensed as visual imagery.
They came with their tanks and their planes With ravaging fiery flames And nothing remains Just a voice rising up in the smoky haze
The word “They” absolutely represents the Israel. Tanks and planes of course are their war equipment. “ravaging fiery flames” can be assumed to give a denotation meaning as the impact of the bomb explosion. “ And nothing remains just a voice rising up in the smoky haze” also portrays the actual events in the war. An auditory imagery can be found in “just a voice rising up in the smoky haze”.
We will not go down In the night, without a fight You can burn up our mosques and our homes and our schools But our spirit will never die We will not go down In Gaza tonight
“We will not go down” is a motivation. It persuades people of Palestine to keep spirit and fighting and it also persuades all people to help people of Gaza. As Michael Heart says then “we will not go down in the night, without a fight”. As a brave protest to Israel he says “You can burn up our mosques and our homes and our schools but our spirit will never die”. The diction Mosques, homes, and schools indubitably have specific meaning. Mosque, is the place that related to Moslem because Gaza people are Moslems. Home, is the place where every family can gather. The listener can sadly imagine how miserable when they can’t find their family or they home because their home was destroyed by aggression is. Whereas the word “schools” is more sensed to be the closest thing to the children.
Women and children alike Murdered and massacred night after night While the so-called leaders of countries afar Debated on who’s wrong or right
Finally, Michael Heart states that the lyric of the song mostly about women and children who have been murdered and massacred. Ironically the leaders or the governments of both countries are still debating about who is right and who is wrong. Michael Heart however didn’t put any figurative language or imagery. But the lyric is still meaningful with those simple words.
But their powerless words were in vain And the bombs fell down like acid rain But through the tears and the blood and the pain You can still hear that voice through the smoky haze
The powerless words are no doubt about government debate, or their statements are in vain. The simile figurative language then appears in “and the bombs fell down like acid rain. And acid rain can be assumed as the symbol of the numerous bombs that fell in Gaza every night. And the dictions “tears, blood, pain” are the closest words related to war victim
and the grief as the impact of the war. Again Michael Heart uses “the smoky haze” to illustrate the situation in the place where the numerous bombs were detonated. This powerful touching song is arranged with simple words but greatly delivers the meaningful message to protest the war, especially to protest the Israel brutality towards the people in Gaza.
Conclusion
The simple way to analyze the intrinsic elements of the song lyric is by understanding the extrinsic elements first. Understanding the background of the song is very useful to help us find the meaning of the reason of the choice of words or diction and some symbols that sometimes give multi-interpretations. Meanwhile the setting of the song is also important to be understood, so that we can know what the figurative language and imagery illustrated for. The other important thing to be understood is the author’s biography, since it will give big influence to the song.
