Let’s Get Together And Feel All Right
My dinner companions sensibly went home (or to their hotels), after an excellent Thai meal at a trendy Kuala Lumpur restaurant. I too was headed back to my digs at the Prince Hotel, when I heard the strains of music from above.
What could I do? I had to investigate :)
Four floors up, at the top of the atrium, I found a hideaway bar hosting a reggae night. People were dancing, and so within minutes was I.
The thing about dancing is, once I start, it’s tough for me to stop. Especially when the sound is reggae, and I find myself amidst a group of people who are obviously as moved by the music as I was that particular night.
I believe that music and dance together create a universal language that people of all ages, races, nationalities and genders understand.
Somehow when we dance, we become connected through the pleasure of experiencing the music, our physicality, and our spirits, and expressing that pleasure in our own individual ways, and yet at the same time as a collective instrument of the sound.
We are transported for a time to some magical place where we, our fellow dancers, and the music become one. One love. One Heart. One Song.
That night we danced to a couple of versions of Bob Marley’s tune of the same name. We were: Young. Old. Black. White. Student. Professional. Men. Women. Tall. Short. Fat. Slim. Confident. Shy. Senegalese. Canadian. We all danced. Together. Some were brothers. Some will never see each other again. But for a short time that night we were One Love in music and dance.
It was great fun :)
Playing for Change
Yesterday my friend and AWR member Wanda sent me the link to a Playing for Change video.
Coincidentally, the tune that the Playing for Change musicians around the world perform in the video is One Love. I share the Playing for Chang belief that music is a means to peace. And that the opportunity to get together and feel all right through music (and dance ) is a wonderful gift.
As one of the Playing for Change musicians says:
We believe that through music, you can get enlightenment.
Along with the video link, Wanda included a simple, yet beautiful play on words:
One Love
One Heart
One Song....one(uni) song(verse)
Universe.
Here’s the video, which I would like to dedicate to Sidiki, his brothers, everyone who danced that night in KL, and everyone, everywhere who sings and dances for the sheer joy of doing so.
One Love. One Heart. One Song: Universe.
See more cool around-the-world music vids on the Playing for Change site.
One Love
By Bob Marley
One Love, One Heart
Let's get together and feel all right
Hear the children crying (One Love)
Hear the children crying (One Heart)
Sayin' give thanks and praise to the Lord and I will feel all right
Sayin' let's get together and feel all right
Let them all pass all their dirty remarks (One Love)
There is one question I'd really like to ask (One Heart)
Is there a place for the hopeless sinner
Who has hurt all mankind just to save his own?
Believe me
One Love, One Heart
Let's get together and feel all right
As it was in the beginning (One Love)
So shall it be in the end (One Heart)
Give thanks and praise to the Lord and I will feel all right
One more thing
Let's get together to fight this Holy Armageddon (One Love)
So when the Man comes there will be no doom (One Song)
Have pity on those whose chances grove thinner
There ain't no hiding place from the Father of Creation
Sayin' One Love, One Heart
Let's get together and feel all right
I'm pleading to mankind (One Love)
Oh Lord (One Heart)
Give thanks and praise to the Lord and I will feel all right
Let's get together and feel all right
Related links:
AWR Music, Dance & More