A Powerful Lyric: "you in everything"

Music is likely my favorite means of cathartic exchange. The act of sharing such raw emotion for the purpose of both creating art and remembering a moment is a gift to all purer than much of what we get in life.

With this in mind, I wanted to share a particularly powerful song that is evoking some catharsis in me right now.

Gang of Youths are an Australian Alt Rock group fronted by David Le'aupepe. When David’s father passed away from cancer, he penned down the words to the song you in everything.

And it’s perfect.

And it hurts.

It’s a multipart experience from Le’aupepe. He is all at once remembering his childhood while experiencing the past loss of his father while contemplating the future in his own children.

Aside from the gorgeous strings and masterful connection of Aboriginal sounds within this faux alt-rock and dance ballad, this song is jam-packed with some of the most challenging lyrics I’ve read.

The refrain itself is made up of fluctuation between experiencing the life of those we’ve lost ‘in everything.’ Le’aupepe sees, hears, needs, feels his father in everything - in the past, present, and future.

This in and of itself is enough. But then there's this one lyric in particular that pushed me over the deep end.

/ We held you in your bed

We washed you in your sheets

And sang you hymnals from the islands

’Til you drifted off to sleep

Then I kissed the hands that raised me for the last time

And stared out into the street /

Then I kissed the hands that raised me for the last time.

I mean, come ON! If you don’t experience something from the very essence of that line, I’m not sure what more I can offer up from this one. It’s powerful. It’s brutal. It’s honest. It’s what we all fear. It’s universal, too. We all have those influential figures, whether by bond or by blood.

This line alone evokes loss, hurt, growth, evolution, past, future, history, love, and affection all in twelve little words.

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March 16th, 2022