Dubstar: So Say We All
Steve Hillier in Prague, July 2023
“All that I was meant to be
Every way that time has changed me
All that I was meant to do
Every word I said that was not true
And all that we leave behind, all we resign
Like a child in my arms
All that we leave behind
Falls to dust
And sand in my hands and drifts away
But it stays while you learn to pull through
All that’s owed to me
Everything I wanted, haunted by
Fights that I regret
To all the ways I’ve grown, I’m now in debt
To all that we leave behind, all we resign
Like a child in my arms is
All that we leave behind
Crumbles to dust
And sand in my hands never goes away
It stays while you learn to live again”
I’ve written here about how SSWA was written in Christianhavn in Copenhagen.
It’s notable how many songs I wrote for Sarah deal with loss, and this is another. But So Say We All is not a sad song. It’s learning to live in the presence of what was. To accept and celebrate what we can’t change. All that we’ve done has value.
SO SAY WE ALL?
So why did I call the song So Say We All, when it’s not mentioned in the lyric at all? In the TV show Battlestar Galactica, the phrase ‘so say we all’ is used repeatedly. It’s an affirmation, an agreement, much like the word ‘amen’, but more emphatic and usually (but not always) said by a collective. There are plenty of science-fiction references throughout Dubstar, our first release was a song called Stars. It felt right that the last song would reference something else you might find in outer space…and what better way to end an album than with the sound of collective agreement?
DANISH ENDING
At the end of SSWA you can hear the ghosts of other tunes that were to be included on United States of Being. Here’s a handy list of the songs whose vocals are featured. See if you can spot them all.
Yours truly, returning to Christianhavn’s best known district in 2022
Is There Anyway Back From Here?
My Life
It’s You, It’s Me
Gemini
Interpretation
Window Pain
Interpretation
Hit
From the Front to the Back
This article include excerpt from DUBSTAR.COM. Want more? You can find the story behind every Dubstar song ever recorded including dozens of unreleased songs right here at Dubstar.com
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