Lyrics Listening To Bill Withers - Gabriel Teodros

Sometimes you just gotta let your pen cry

You could read the writing on the walls
Or the windows boarded up
Nobody's gonna save us but us
You could trust that the virus might change
But the pandemic's the same
Capitalism has got the world in flames
And it's been that way since folks were brought in chains
Over false land claims, gunshots and small pox
My pops used to tell me to beware of the cross
I was homeschooled about Alcatraz and The Longest Walk
His whole life was Marx
And we grew apart
And then pops broke his back and had attacks in his heart
He's fighting cancer now while letting cigarettes spark
And the hospital bills are just off the chart
We want to save our elders but some will break your heart
I keep my head down and focus til we out of the dark
Listen to Bill Withers sing and it seems less hard
Cause my grandmother's hands and her sons not far

We gonna need each other now like never before
For the laborers that's out now saving the world
And for the disabled folks we shoulda listened to more
It's a war going on outside, no one is safe but
Home is a place so many loved ones run from
And I know that a shelter in place gon kill some
Nobody's gonna save us but us
So say something
To anyone you miss
For every struggle that exists
We can take the weight of the world if we all lift
We can take the weight of the world if we all lift

This global pandemic
It's economic
It's all of us
Hurting, uncertain
Moments that make a person
A generation
The curses of mediocrity haunted us
Old white aristocracy following teleprompters
On every channel this evening
Stay in place for a season
Pray to what you believe in
That who you love stays breathing
The hospitals overflowing
It's better to stay home
But what's it all mean when that options gone
Cuz home's not a house for more than I can count
And the government's not 'bout to bail no poor folks out
It's all hands on deck
Do everything to protect
The most vulnerable with whatever you got left

Cuz nobody's gonna save but us
Grocery store workers, and the drivers of the trucks
Hospital staff who are short on scrubs
Community kitchens
And organizers, what's up

I want to say rest in peace to Ty
A UK hip-hop legend
The first person from London in fact to reach out to me way back, in the mid-2000's
I want to say rest in peace to Bill Withers
One of the greatest songwriters to ever live
I want to say rest in peace to Tony Allen
A pioneer of Afrobeat
I want to say rest in peace to Ms. Betty Wright
Rest in peace to Little Richard
And so many more
And I want to send love to anyone and everyone
Who lost someone in this time