Hi friend!
I wanted to share this new song with you as a rough demo. It will take a while before I get it properly recorded and produced and I was just too excited to get it out there in some way.
Mama, Why Won’t They Listen? is a song about not being heard by those in power when change is greatly needed.
I think anyone who is dependent on politics can resonate with this song. Or anyone who simply doesn’t feel heard by their loved ones.
One of my main songwriting techniques is to listen inwardly to things I am saying over and over again or feelings or mental images that keep popping up. This isn’t the most effective technique as I often don’t have much going on inside as not much is happening in my life.
But the line ‘why won’t they listen?’ has been there for a long time.
I live with a very stigmatised and misunderstood illness called ME/CFS. I won’t go into details about the political history of it, but in short it is a disease that disproportionally affects women, and because of that it has been thought to be a psychological illness — a reaction to modern life or hysteria of some sorts.
The majority of countries around Europe officially see it as a biological illness now (although the stigma still lingers), but in Denmark the official sentiment is still that it is a psycho-social disorder.
In 2020 I started writing opinion pieces that were published in national newspapers about this situation and how dangerous it is for us patients. I did a lot of advocacy back then and nothing happened. There is still a lot of advocacy going on and the needle hasn’t moved much.
On top of that I have a friends with ME/CFS who have no parents to care for them who are trying to get care from social services. They just won’t listen to their needs and they are getting sicker.
Mama, why won’t they listen? was my brain’s response to all of this.
The song is not very text-heavy, I felt like I have said what I wanted to say and I wanted to keep it basic so the main point is focused on.
Here are the lyrics:
Verse 1
I thought it would be
Blue skies today
I thought it would be
A different kind of day
Pre-chorus
A day of change
A day where we are not forgotten
Chorus
Mama, why won’t they listen?
Did I not say it right?
Mama, why won’t they listen?
Is my demeanour not polite?
Oooooh
I tried to tell them I matter and I still belong
Oooooh mama
Why won’t they listen as I sing my song?
Verse 2
When will our blood
Be cleansed of grief
When can we breathe
Again?
Pre-chorus
When there is change
When we are no longer forgotten
Chorus
Mama, why won’t they listen?
Did I not say it right?
Mama, why won’t they listen?
Is my demeanour not polite?
Oooooh
I tried to tell them I matter and I still belong
Oooooh mama
Why won’t they listen as I sing my song?
Sometimes I sit down at the piano and a motif or melody comes out of me immediately. This was not one of those times.
I have documented the process for you to see.
First, I tried out a few chord progressions. It took a while before I found the right vibe (but not the right chords):
I could feel the vibe in my body and began trying some other chords and the melody then came quite quickly, but I still had to faff around to get it right. That’s just how songwriting works:
I’m really looking forward to producing this one. I want it to be a sparse arrangement with just the piano chords and then have some background humming of sorts, maybe a very low flute drone. We’ll see what I come up with.
Enjoy!
Tell me…
What do you think of the song?
Do you resonate with it?
Do you sometimes feel like they don’t listen?
I’d love to know in the comments!
