You listen to the radio
These days it’s getting harder to find a good band
Now that we’re all a bit older
Looks like we’ve reached a place to make our last stand
There are millions of people now
Believing religiously that white is black
Well it’s time to stand up
Shoot ‘em all down and make ‘em take it all back
The night is growing colder
The world is shicing over and I just can’t fall asleep
The storm clouds grow bigger
The lightning flashes and the questions run so deep
But I’ll get the answers
Even if it means collapsing into one big heap
‘Cuz Ah got de power!
I’m gonna give it all I got to give
Ah got de power!
I’m gonna be my own reason to live.
The pressure passed the limits
Something had to break and it just broke
I know it’s beautiful out there
‘Cuz living round here man, you know it’s like one big joke
I’m growing more and more restless
I’ve got my sights set higher than just this town
I got a fire inside me, oh
It’s either gonna warm me up or burn me down
You filter through the music
It all sounds new and different but it’s all old and the same
You hopped all the bars and clubs
These overplayed scenes are all so boring and lame
But you’ll soon be hearing from me
I’m the one who’ll put these self-described saints to shame
‘Cuz Ah got de power!
I’m gonna give it all I got to give
Ah got de power!
I’m gonna be a new reason to live.
Ah got de power!
Remember the way we’d take over all the clubs and bars
Ah got de power!
We swore we’d take over the world with keys, drums, and guitars
Ah got de power!
We were gonna give it all we had to give
A brand new spirit, a reason to live
A rising star
Ah got de power!
I’m not content to leave things the way they are
Ah got de power!
I refuse to believe that there’s such a thing as going too far
Ah got de power!
I’ll give it everything I got to give
With a whole new spirit, a reason to live
I’ll be a star!
©2023 The Hesh Inc.
This song was originally written in 1984 as an answer to Bruce Springsteen's "Dancing in the Dark." The song "We Got the Power," from the then-popular TV series The Kids From Fame, was also echoing in the back of my mind as I wrote this. At the time, I was living in Israel, doing nothing constructive as my attempt to study at a higher-level yeshiva failed, the relationship I had been in crashed to the ground, and the bands I was in played one or two gigs each before breaking up. I was on edge, waiting for the Israeli military to draft me, and a big part of me wanted to be back on the East Coast of the United States rocking it up instead of serving three years with my life on hold (and the none-too-unrealistic possibility that I might not reach the end of those years, with all that implies). The original lyrics captured that on-edginess I was feeling.
About eight years, two continents, a sea, and an ocean later, I had begun acting on that deferred dream, playing in bands in New Jersey and New York. The band I was in, formed with friend and drummer Izzy Kieffer and guitarist Stephen Czeslowski, played the song often at gigs and recorded a demo version of the song at The Place studios in Manhattan. The demo was released on Everybody's in the Money, a collection of demos and oddities, on the mp3.com label, but that label was bought out and decimated, along with all the music that had been released on it. (For the curious, the demo can now be found on SoundCloud.)
Sometime in the 2010s I updated the lyrics so that they would reflect where I was at a later stage in life (a little less desperate, a bit more jaded but still optimistic) and didn't reference The Boss too specifically, and I also added the last verse. The music is still generally the same, but a new recording will probably be in order soon (together with gems like "Wasted Years" and others to be decided).
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