Movement For The Common Man

Children Of The Land
Written by James Young
Lead vocals by James Young

Children of the land
Don't wear a frown upon your face
Come on and join your hands
We're all a part of the human race

The music is here
To let you leave your fears behind
Come on along don't do me wrong
Let's see what you might find

Children of the land
Children of the land
Don't misunderstand
We're all children of the land

Don't trust anyone else
To run your life and set your goals
You've gotta be able to live with yourself
When you are getting old

Others are getting blamed
For messing your life around
It's your own fault if you complain
For letting it get you down

Children of the land
Children of the land
Don't misunderstand
We're all children of the land

Children - come on children now
Children - yeah
Children - I said children yeah
Children - come on children now
Children - of the land
Children - of the land
Children - I said of the land

Street Collage
Recorded/Edited by John Ryan

[Man #1]

"Well, you see now, I'm a depression baby, and I remember the WPA. If we could just start the same thing again and get people working out there, why not?"

[Man #2]
"And is...is it too menial for somebody to sweep the street?"

[Man #1]

"And if you've got enough money where you don't have to work, let's face it, who wants to work? There's no reason why anybody that five generations of people got to be on welfare."

[Man #3]

"I had one gentlemen get in ---no offense to you gentlemen, he had long hair and a beard --and I told him, he had better go home and take a bath! He had B.O. so bad...it was terrible! I said 'you might be educated, but did your parents tell you to go dirty?'"

[Street Vendor]
"See the latest issue! Hard up, see! Chicago Seed!"

[Man #3]
"Kids nowadays, that's the whole thing, too much money, they've got too much money. They don't have to struggle and work for things, like when I was growing up had to do, and I was lucky if I got that job delivering hats in a hat store for twenty-five cents per hat. Too much money today is with the young kids...everything was handed to 'em, and that's why they are the way they are."

Fanfare For The Common Man
Music by Aaron Copland, Lyrics by Styx
Lead vocals by James Young

Another new day takes up on you
A fanfare wakes the land
The naked lives just a shining down
At the dawn of the common man

Outside in the madding crowd
He laughs along the way
Traffic city, what a pity
It doesn't have a word to say

Troubled people, billions of people
They can't seem to understand
Their ringing ears are unable to hear
The sounds of the natural plan

Yeah yeah yeah

Mother Nature's Matinee
Written by James Young, Dennis DeYoung
Lead vocals by Dennis DeYoung

Morning sunshine
On carpets of green
Cascades of water
Are flowing endlessly

Here in the morning light
We spent a holiday
Here in the morning
At mother nature's matinee

Here in the morning
At mother nature's matinee

Here in the morning
At mother nature's matinee

Interpretation

Using musical terminology, this "movement" is the first part of the full album called Styx, and it is divided into four parts as well. 

Dedicated to the common man, part one is Children of the Land, which is is nicely summed up by the last line of the chorus: "Don't misunderstand; we're all children of the land!"   As members of the human race, we are all in this together. Just enjoy the music for a little while and the message of hope we bring ("don't wear a frown upon your face...the music is here to let you leave your fears behind"). Take some responsibility for your own life. How things turn out for you is up to you, not to anyone else. Don't listen to people saying all your problems are somebody else's fault, because it won't help you at all. Stay positive.

Next is Street Collage, an interlude of recordings of people on the street talking about life. Their message is that people have always had to work hard for a living, but too many in the current generation seem to expect everything to be given to them. "Chicago Seed" was an underground newspaper in the city at that time.

Part three, Fanfare For The Common Man, was adapted from a classical piece written by Aaron Copland in response to the US entry into World War II and was inspired in part by a famous 1942 speech where vice president Henry A. Wallace proclaimed the dawning of the "Century of the Common Man".*  

A "fanfare" musically introduces an event or another piece of music. Lyrically, there is a fanfare waking the people of the land (the Earth) to "the dawn of the common man."  The city, with all the noise of traffic and other noise is drowning out "the sounds of the natural plan," which "their ringing ears are unable to hear."

Finally, in Mother Nature's Matinee, we can hear those sounds. On a holiday outside the city in nature, we can wake to see the beauty of sunshine on green grass and hear the sound of water cascading over the rocks in the streams. It is a matinee showing of a vision that we can all work toward achieving.