Change Your Attitude [Song]

 
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CHANGE YOUR ATTITUDE

By Ras Shorty I
Album: Jamoo Victory, 1999

What is wrong with this world we live in today? I say,
So much people going astray on the broad way
Idleness and pleasure seeking having sway on the minds today
As though people forget to pray.
I see children being left alone without parental direction
After school, alone at home in front the television
If Sesame Street is the example they must follow,
Is a Froggy baby mentality go rule us tomorrow.

You see when you train a child how to go
When they get old, they ent moving so
When the tree young and you bend it wrong
It's hard to straighten when it old and strong.

Listen to me, change your attitude. Turn your whole life around
Come, change your attitude. The best time to start is when you are young
I say, change your attitude. Don't wait 'til you sick in the hospital
To change your attitude. Stop being carnal and be spiritual.

People walking around in a mental haze and they love to laze
And wouldn't even lift up their voice in praise
If we don't take heed and mend our ways
One of these days, we go set this entire world ablaze
I see in the East and in the West, in the North and in the South
International commesse, is rumours of wars and wars all about
And this is the example our children will follow
The school yards will be the battle fields of tomorrow.

You see when you train a child how to go
When they get old, they ent moving so
When the tree young and you bend it wrong
It's hard to straighten when it old and strong.

Listen to me, change your attitude. Do right with all your might
Come, come, change your attitude. And all your tomorrows going to be bright
Ey, ey, change your attitude. Cast your bread on the water, come sun or rain
Change your attitude. What goes around comes around again.

When I look at this modern society,
I see so much conflict and misery
Scientifically we progress rapidly but add some charity
We buried deeply under beast-like mentality
I see fulfillment of prophecy which holy men prophesied
Women walking casually today with their bottoms outside.
And this is the example our children will follow
I hope you doh bawl when your daughter walk naked tomorrow.

You see, when you train a child how to go
When they get old, they ent moving so
When the tree young and you bend it wrong
It's hard to straighten when it old and strong.

Listen to me, change your attitude. Don't wait for nobody, is you must start
Come, come, change your attitude. You can ask the Lord for a brand new heart
I say to change your attitude. I was a disciple of Lucifer
Thank God, I change my attitude. Now I serving Jesus, the Saviour.

What is wrong with man from ever of old, the scriptures unfold
He accepted brass for gold and destroyed his soul
With an evil imagination out of control,
This misguided soul is spreading violence throughout the world
I see children sexually abused by close relatives
Husbands leaving their wives battered and bruised
We modern yet so primitive.
And this is the example our children will follow
Oh Lord, what kind of world will we have tomorrow?

You see, when you train a child how to go
When they get old, they ent moving so
When the tree young and you bend it wrong
It's hard to straighten when it old and strong.

Listen to me, change your attitude. Remember, you are from the human race
Ey, change your attitude. In a rat race, man ent have no place
Come, come, change your attitude. In the image and likeness of God you are
So, change your attitude. You should be showing God-like behaviour.

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

Thank you, Ras Shorty I and The Love Circle! I have nothing to add but my gratitude.

First posted: Jan 31, 2012

"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

3 comments:

Maximilian Forte said...

I never heard this one before. Was it well known in Trinidad? By the way, do you agree that how you are trained as a child leaves a permanent and indelible mark? Because if that is so, Shorty asking people to "change" their attitude is pointless--or did I misunderstand?

Guanaguanare said...

Thanks for visiting and your comment. About the song, I had not heard it until this month although it was on the album "Jamoo Victory" which was released in 1999 by Ras Shorty I and the Love Circle. You can read more about that album here.

To answer your question about the training that a child receives in its formative years, yes, I do believe that an individual is forever marked by the quality of that experience, whether for good or bad.

I do not believe, however, that a person is relieved of free will and is forever a prisoner of his or her past. Just like we have examples of people who received excellent upbringings making very foolish decisions as adults, so too I have to believe that even human beings who have not had the benefit of proper guidance as children still retain the power to make conscious decisions about what they need to turn towards or to turn away from.

Ras Shorty I admits that it is more difficult to change your ways when you are older and set in these ways but he extends the promise that it can be achieved if you change your attitude. While Ras Shorty I believes that his religious conversion was his source of strength, others may find other sources. You must first make a choice to admit some sort of remedial intervention, whether you do it on your own or with the help of others, and this is the start.

So I do not think that his message is pointless because that would be agreeing that we are beyond redemption. There is nothing airy-fairy about what Ras Shorty I is proposing. Perhaps the dominant religious overtones which are very much part of his experience, will not appeal to all but whether you want to call what guides you your attitude, your schema, your world view, nothing about a human being's spirit is etched in stone unless we agree to allow ourselves to make it so.

My favourite lines are:
"
What is wrong with man from ever of old, the scriptures unfold,
He accepted brass for gold and destroyed his soul."


Blessings

Maximilian C. Forte said...

Well said, you have made me think some more about this. What a deceptively "simple" song--it ends up being quite complicated the more one examines it.

Many thanks!