Skip to main content
Emailinfo@upwithpeople.org
Phone numbers+1 877 264 8856 +1 303 460 7100

Blog Archives

Shine On, Shine Man

See a man standin’ there with a smile and a rag and he’s waitin’ just for you.
Ev’rybody comes from miles around just to see what he can do.
He sets you down, puts your foot up, pops a boot-black ready to go.
You can close your eyes and listen,
Listen to the shine man go.

Shine man (x 3)
Shine on, shine man (x 2)
Shine man

Left his home with a rag and a shoe box and he’s just thirteen or so.
He can tell you more about folks and things than anybody else I know.
Elbows flyin’ and a rag a-poppin’, that beat comin’ over you,
‘Cross the way another shine man is getting’ his licks in too
And it sounds like this:

Shine man … etc.

Save The Dancer

The ravages of human history,
The savageness of our sword.
Are as much of our legacy
As the heights we have explored.
It seems our questing for paradise
Is dressed in paradox,
Grown-ups playing with power
Like children playing with blocks

But through the triumph and the tragedy,
Rising like a bird
Is a dancer always dancing,
A dancer always dancing
To a tune we’ve never heard –
Save the dancer.

Lifting us and twirling inside us,
A dream is setting us free,
Through the darkness a dancing image,
The hope of things that could be,
For the lonely and little children,
The angry and the proud,
For the old man whose sight is failing,
The quiet face in the crowd.

Through the triumph and the tragedy … etc.

For the dreamers and the make-believers,
The festive and the sad,
For the mad and the ugly,
The sane and beautiful,
Save the dancer, save the dancer in us all,

Through the darkness, a dancing image,
The hope what could be –
Save the dancer.

Room For Everyone

We live close together in worlds apart
And need plenty of room inside our hearts.
We share the sky we share the sun.
Can’t we share the world with ev’ryone?

Sometime soon the time must come
When there’ll be room for ev’ryone
A place to walk and a place to run.
Got to be room for ev’ryone.

We’ve got diff’rent dreams with diff’rent names
But it seems our hearts still beat the same.
It’ll take some love it’ll take some trust
To make some room for all of us.

Sometime soon the time must come … etc.

Rippin’ Along

Got started in grammar school,
Saw Chuck Berry and I thought he was cool,
Right then it was plain to see
I was destined for the boogie.Rippin’ along with the music on,
You and me and the boogie, can’t go wrong.
Rippin’ along, rippin’ along with the boogie.On a bridge sat a salty dog,
And up come a sassy little groundhog,
Said the hog to the salty dog
There’s a dance down by the log, let’s boogie.

Rippin’ along … etc.

If it feels good, well, it’s rock-‘n-roll
And if it moves you it’s soul.
Where the two do meet,
You can’t control your feet with a boogie…

At the drive-in on a Saturday night
One sip and mm I thought I was tight.
Best girl right by my side,
I’m gonna take her for a Sunday drive and we’ll boogie.

Rippin’ along … etc.

Moon Rider

The painter tries to paint it the poet tries to say it
The philosopher tries to convey the meaning to your mind.
But here I am – a quarter million miles away
One human being – one human seeing it for the first time.

I can see the white of snow-capped mountains
The blues and turquoise of the oceans blend.
Australia and Asia coming round the corner
And I can’t tell where one country starts and the other one ends.

The sun is setting on the Pacific
They’re just getting up in Rome.
I don’t see the lights of my city
All I can see is home.

I saw the world without any borders
Without any fighting without any fear
So Captain give the order
We’re going to cross the next frontier.

I know this view won’t last forever
Soon I’ll be back to reality.
But isn’t it the way we perceive things
That makes them what they will be?

I see the world without any borders … etc.

Give the Children Back Their Childhood

Give the children back their childhood
Let the children run and play.
Don’t make them fight your battles
They’re the ones who always seem to pay.

Don’t make battlefields of their playgrounds
Don’t barricade their streets
Or they’ll grow up to soon
And they won’t grow up complete.

You can raise them on your hatred;
Revel in it, that’s your right
But if you do just remember
It’ll haunt their sleep at night.

A little mommy feeds her baby
Giving all the love she knows.
A tiny builder’s building bridges
to a world in which he’s going to grow.

Give the children back their childhood
Let the children run and play
And skip away on wings of fantasy
And dream of what they’ll be some day.

Don’t feed their minds with your bitter lines
And the prejudice that is yours
And they just may forget some day to carry on our wars.
And they just may forget some day to carry on our wars.

El Puente

Veo un país de altas montañas
Pirámides y campos floridos
y un pueblo ardiente
animado por sus corridos.
Veo sus familias a través de la gloria
y también del dolor
siempre abrazando las esperanza
de un mundo major.Veo un día un día de armonía
que viene entre la gente
y grandes y pequeños
con todos sus sueños
atravesando un puente.

Este mundo es como un huérfano
perdido y sin hogar
en la orilla de un gran río
que no puede atravesar.
Cada hombre y mujer colocan las piedras
del puente que están levantando
hacia el gran porvenir que los niños
un día estarán disfrutando.

(Translation)
I see a country of high mountains
of pyramids and verdant fields
and a passionate people
inspired by its epic songs.I see its families
through glory and through pain
always holding on to the hope
of a better world.

I see a day coming
a day of harmony among people
and great and small with all their dreams
crossing a bridge.

This world is like an orphan
lost and without a home
standing on the bank of a great river he cannot cross.
Each man and woman lays the stones
of the bridge that is being built
towards the great future
that the children will one day enjoy.

I see a day coming…etc.

Does It Really Matter?

“I have a dream today.
I have a dream that one day all of God’s children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics,
Will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual: ‘Free at last free at last thank God almighty we are free at last.”

Free at last, we should be free at last
Not prisoners of the past
Divided by races.
Kind of strange, though we’re all ‘bout the same
Somehow these lines remain
We stay in our places.What does the color of the skin
Have to do with the person within?

Now, does it really matter?
Well I really don’t know
But when you take it past the color zone
And you get right down to the bone
Tell me does it really matter?
Does it matter at all?

Rich or poor, there’s a destiny in store
We will share forevermore
No one excluded.
And if one day they blow this world of ours away
Makes no difference how you pray
We’re all included.

And when a hungry baby cries
Can you tell what color are the tears in his eyes?

Now, does it really matter?…etc.

“I have a dream this afternoon that the brotherhood of man will become a reality in this day … I have a dream …”

Can We Sing A Song Of Peace?

Can we sing a song of peace
In a world that’s full of fear?
Can a melody of hope
Ever hope to dry a tear?
It’s an easy thing to say
And it’s so hard to hear.
Will the fighting ever cease
If we sing a song of peace?

Can we sing a song of love
When we’re hostages of hate?
Will it be heard above
The shouting at the gate?
Can we stop the hands of time
Can we hold the hand of fate?
In this world of push and shove
Can we sing a song of love?

Clouds are gathering on the horizon
And on the wind overtures of war.
It may be too late to settle for peace
If we wait till we’ve settled the score.

Can we sing a song of peace
When they’re knocking down the doors?
Can you hold an olive branch
And hang on to what is yours?
Till the weapons that destroy
Go to join the dinosaurs
Will there still be hope at least
If we sing a song of peace?

Can we sing a song of peace
In a world that’s full of fear?
Can a melody of hope
Ever hope to dry a tear?
It’s an easy thing to say
And it’s so hard to hear
But the longings never cease
So we sing a song of peace.

Beat Of The Future

VERSE
Hey, somebody turn it up, turn it up,
Somethin’ in the sound is changin’.
Hey, somebody tune it in, tune it in,
We’re pickin’ up a brand new station.
Bustin’ through the time zone,
Shiftin’ through the gears,
The sound of tomorrow’s ringin’ in our ears.

CHORUS
It’s the beat, it’s the beat, it’s the beat,
The beat of the future,
Poundin’ like a heartbeat,
The beat of the future,
Rollin’ like a rhythm, ringin’ like a rhyme,
Rippin’ along at the speed of time,
Rockin’ me down to my feet,
The beat of the future.

VERSE
Everybody pick it up, pick it up,
You can feel it movin’ through you,
And I tell you if you listen now, listen now,
You’ll hear it talkin’ to you.
You can read it in the faces,
The writing’s on the wall.
The heart of tomorrow’s beatin’ in us all!

CHORUS
It’s the beat … etc.

BRIDGE
Out in the country, down in the street,
Everybody’s in the band.
You can hear it happen, like thunder clappin’.
The beat is in our hands.

Beat, beat, beat, beat of the future.
Beat, beat, beat of the future.

CHORUS
It’s the beat … etc.