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Friedensnote No. 8
This song is not one of those that most people immediately think of when they think of peace songs. And yet, in the form of a gentle, melancholy soul ballad, it poses a few burning questions: why has humanity, when it comes to the use of violence, apparently learned nothing since its very beginnings? And what might the healing counter-forces to warmongering be? The stillness of nature, the connection to our religious roots, or simply the human soul’s call for love?
Instead of loud accusation or hatred against the haters, the famous singer (“I Just Called to Say I Love You”) here lets his sadness show through at how human beings still torment one another. Stevie Wonder is, as is well known, physically blind – yet his song reveals him as a clear-sighted critic of his times and a deep spiritual thinker.
The song Feeding Off the Love of the Land, originally by Stevie Wonder, performed here by Trijntje Oosterhuis, is my absolute favourite Stevie Wonder song – and so fitting for the current social and global situation! I wanted to highlight a song that is not about war and drama, but rather deals with how war comes about in the first place. We are becoming more and more estranged – from ourselves, from a healthy togetherness, from nature, from being in tune with everything that should actually be our human foundation, with everything that should be sacred to us! I think the song addresses exactly that. It throws us back on our own actions and gently nudges us toward our own mistakes.
We may think that what is happening in the world right now is new, unprecedented. But that is not true: the structures for destructive behaviour have always been laid down within us human beings.
„Seems the wisdom of men hasn’t got much wiser,
then the very beginning of our time.
Agree or war has been our way of compromising,
let live and love has become the biggest lie …“
But the song does not accuse. Rather, it makes you sad at how humanity treats itself and the world. As long as we do not begin to recognise that, for a life lived in community, it is essential to accept other opinions, and as long as we fail to find our way back to a sense of connectedness, there can be no peace!
Peace begins within us! And only once it has been established there can there probably also be peace on a global level!
“Feeding Off the Love of the Land” addresses our eternal failure, our lack of humanity – without accusing or wishing to raise a moralising finger! It is emotional, and it seems to me as if the song were whispering to us, to remind us of who we are. What is more, this song is a true rarity; hardly anyone knows this piece by Stevie Wonder.
I heard the song and was fascinated … It is so pure! Something that most pop songs today are missing. The usual radio jingles are always composed according to a simple pattern, bordering on the banal, but rarely genuine and pure!
In the current epoch of world history, in which critical art and critical artists are being deprived of their livelihoods by cancel culture, are to be degraded and silenced, it is all the more important to show what art actually is – what value art and music truly have for a society!
Music is the finger in society’s wound. Music is its conscience!
We are here. And we will continue to raise our voices!
„I awake each morning to the birds a-singing
Singing out to God to come and save his own
But when throughout the world the cry of love is ringing
Is then when He’ll stop to hear our song!“
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