Borderline [Song]

BORDERLINE
By 3CANAL

I don't give ah...I don't give ah...
I don't give ah... I don't give ah dam
I don't give ah... I don't give ah...
I don't give ah dam. I don't give ah dam
What dey go do, what dey go say?
What dey go do, what dey go say?
What dey go, what dey go, what dey go, what dey go?

What dey go do, what dey go say
When dey realise that dey can’t push you across the line?
Don’t you go over! Don’t you go over!

I don't really give ah dam what people say
'Cause you know they going to say it anyway
Oye, just between me and you
I’m more concerned with what they do.
And when I say I don't care what people say
I talking about de ole talk and lacouray
Oye, bangarang and ratiray
Every day is another taylaylay.

What dey go do, what dey go say
When dey realise that dey can’t push you across the line?
Don’t you go over! Don’t you go over!
What dey go say when dey realise
That dey can’t push you across the line?
Man Don’t you go over! Don’t you go over!

Say, Mister Short Fuse and ready to trip
Take a deep breath, relax it
You got to centre yuhself boy, focus yuhself boy
Organize yuhself to redeem yuhself
Talk to yuhself then talk to the Lord
Talk to yuhself again trust in the Lord
With Jah as yuh counsel, who could provoke yuh?
Jah as yuh guider, who could frustrate yuh?

What dey go do, what dey go say
When dey realise that dey can’t push you across the line?
Boy, don’t you go over! Don’t you go over!
What dey say when dey realise
That dey can’t push you across the line?
Boy, don’t you go over! Don’t you go over!

I don't give ah... I don't give ah...
I don't give ah….
What dey go do, what dey go say?
What dey go do, what dey go say?
What dey go, what dey go, what dey go, what dey go?

Although some times there are some people in this life
Who want to fill your heart with strife
But don’t you go over!… Hmm
And yes, I know the situation in this world
Could make you want to lose control
But don’t you go over! Don’t you go over!

What you go do, what you go say
When you realise that dey done push you across the line?
Boy, don’t you go over! Don’t you go over!
What you go say when you realise
That dey done push you across the line?
Boy, don’t you go over! Don’t you go over!

I don't really give ah dam what people say
Cause you know they going to say it anyway
Oye, just between me and you
I’m more concerned with what they do.
And when I say I don't care what people say
I talking ‘bout de ole talk and lacouray
Oye, bangarang and ratiray
Every day is another taylaylay.

What dey go do, what dey go say
When dey realise that dey can’t push you across the line?
Man, don’t you go over! Don’t you go over!
What dey say when dey realise that dey can’t push you across the line?
Man, don’t you go over! No, don’t you go over!

I don't give ah... I don't give ah...
I don't give ah... I don't give ah dam…
What dey go do, what dey go say?
What dey go do, what dey go say?
What dey go, what dey go, what dey go, what dey go?
I don't give ah…

Source: The lyrics posted on this blog are often transcribed directly from performances. Although it is my intention to faithfully transcribe I do not get all the words and I have a knack for hearing the wrong thing. Please feel free to correct me or to fill in the words that I miss by dropping me a message via e-mail. I'd be forever grateful. Thanks in advance!
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A Note From The Gull

Feeling stressed by society’s demands, expectations, provocations, whether real or imagined? This song is about the traps into which we allow ourselves to walk. Perhaps influenced heavily by the backdrop of violent crime among other things, the scene that immediately came to mind when I first listened to the lyrics was one where one party was provoking another to physical violence. The song’s repeated message (and you can almost hear the incoming flurry of Guardian Angel’s wings) “Boy/Man, don’t you go over! No, don’t you go over!” is not just a call to avert disaster but also a challenge to reclaim control over one’s destiny.

This song leads me to think about so much more.

Most of us have never crossed that line to physically hurt another human being but we might have hurt each other in other ways. Even more inexplicable when you consider a human being’s natural instinct for self preservation, is the frequency with which we cross the line to harm ourselves because we feel that we are being pressured by others into conforming. We think we have no choice, or we know that there is a choice but the path of least resistance is so much easier.

It is easier to suppress by whatever means, or to ignore the nagging unease that tells us that someone or something else is living our lives. We are not our own men and women. All around us our peers are being refashioned in the image of whatever god is in season and some of us fall in line so that we will fit in.

And so, how do we go about arriving at the point where we can, like the singer, also not give a dam about things that in the end are really not worth a damn? And even more importantly, how do we arrive at this state on our own two legs and without the assistance of alcohol, drugs, hidebound institutions and other stupefying excesses?

Well I think we should meditate upon a dizzying conundrum which we know to be the reality:

The same society that impacts on us, is the one that we create by our actions (or inaction).

Or you could say it this way:

There is an inverse proportion between the positive activism that you undertake in your own life and the negative pressure that society can impose on your real self.

Borderline is telling us that there is a point at which we all arrive in our lives where we are challenged to take a stand. The consequences of going along to get along are often not as obvious as in the case of Mister Short Fuse with the smoking gun running away from the scene of a murder. It is something that can come to you at any minute of the day, the realization that you have betrayed yourself. The song asks:

What you go do, what you go say
When you realise that dey done push you across the line?

Be honest with yourself, and if you can accept the responsibility for whatever you did or didn't do, you will more readily admit that in the end “dey” were just the ones who dangled the hook. You, however, took the bite.

Thank you, 3CANAL!

"Patria est communis omnium parens" - Our native land is the common parent of us all. Keep it beautiful, make it even more so.

Blessed is all of creation
Blessed be my beautiful people
Blessed be the day of our awakening
Blessed is my country
Blessed are her patient hills.

Mweh ka allay!
Guanaguanare