Two Americana mainstays have teamed up for the first time on a brand new song. It’s called “Medicine Man,” and it should strike a chord with, well, a few hundred million people right about now.
“Everybody’s doing the best that they can,” Keb’ Mo and Old Crow Medicine Show sing together. “We’re all just waiting on the medicine man.”
“Medicine Man” arrived as a standalone single last week, and the pandemic-inspired song was written by Keb’ (Kevin Moore).
“It was a joy,” Secor said in a release. “It felt dutiful, meet and right, urgent, essential. And harmonious.”
“You better lock your doors, turn on the news,” they sing over the song’s stomping groove. “The whole damn world is singin’ the blues/ The president lost, but he don’t wanna go/ Mother Earth, she needs a little help you know.” Source: Tennessean
“I was taking some time out at our house in California with my family,” Keb’ Mo’ says in a statement. “We were locked in and staying away from people. Doing Zoom writing appointments, watching Dr. Fauci on TV doing interviews, and it sparked some ideas. This was one of those songs that just came to me, and quickly. I woke up early one morning and wrote the whole thing in about 15 minutes.” Source The Rolling Stones
Pandemic, environmental crisis, attempted coup. Disaster never sounded so good as it does on “The Medicine Man,” a new, looking-forward-to-vaccine single from Keb’ Mo’ and Old Crow Medicine Show. The collaborators lay out a litany of terrible things that happened in the past year before turning to lyrics that match the joyful, loping mix of country-blues music – think Little Feat – as they declare: gonna give everybody a little dose/but we got to give it to the people who need it the most.
Lesson plan
Read the lyrics below and comment on the following points;
- Try to figure out the meaning of the poem
- Imagery
- Look for symbols
- Look at the poet’s choice of words
- Determine the tone and voice of the poem
- Look for a rhyme scheme
- What is your impression of the song?
Lyrics
Feets hurt and my nose is runnin’
Friends and neighbors are droppin’ like flies
Better cover your face, sanitize
And we’re all just waiting on the medicine man
The medicine man
The whole damn world is singin’ the blues
President lost but he don’t wanna go
Mother earth, she needs a little help, you know
We’re all just waiting on the medicine man
The medicine man
But we got to give it to the people who need it the most
It might turn to crap, it might turn to gold
Maybe the bees might teach the pigs to fly
But I’m just gonna love everybody ’til the day I die
We’re all just waiting on the medicine man
We’re all just waiting on the medicine man