FREE

"Free" is a piece from my short-lived "protest-song" era, which occurred somewhere around my junior year in college. I had read an article by Roberta Croteau in which she pointed out that one of the great Western symbols of freedom, the Liberty Bell, has a big ole crack in it. She suggested that the ideals of liberty and personal freedom we hold so dear in our culture might be similarly flawed.

Weve all seen examples in our own lives and in the lives of people we know of how exercising a personal freedom can twist quickly into slavery to a habit or addiction. What is more subtle is how our emphasis on personal rights and liberties has put many of us into the bondage of individualism. And what is really insidious is how easy it is to exercise the free will given us to evade the chains of grace (Gal. 9:1).

This song musically turned out to be the "prettiest on the record the gentlest and most melodic and some twisted part of me I didnt know I had loves how ironic the treatment is. I teach my songwriting students about prosody, which is the appropriate marriage of music and lyric. In this song the prosody is all whacked out. And I like it that way! Go figure.

Free

Carolyn Arends

I count my blessings, I am a daughter
Of the Land of Opportunity
I want for nothing, no one can stop me
Or take away my liberties
Ive got a flag in my backyard
And a gun in my hand
And every night I thank the Good Lord
For this great land

Cant see the forest for the skyscraper
Locked in cold war with the sun
Which one will kill us: hate or indifference?
Or has all the killing been done?
Well I dont know why Im asking
Cause Im well aware
That while were free to wonder
Were more free not to care

Now were so full of freedom that we may just well
Split down the middle like the Liberty Bell
Theres just too many lies that were too free to tell
Were all free to die, were free to go to hell

© Running Arends Music (ASCAP)