So I’ve been unable to track down a full version of the original song, the best I could do was a snippet I found here and a remix that I found here. And trust me, I spent a long time looking for the full thing. This blog, aptly named Welcome to My Online Hillbrow has a reference in the text to the song, and the lyrics. I thought they were interesting, melancholic, and worthy of our attention. It’s a recuring motif in the text, barely 5 pages go past without it being mentioned. Sadness, love, desperation, depth.
Here are the lyrics anyway:
It don’t hurt no more
Cause I’m stealing into the night
This broken heart
Won’t you please write a letter to yourself?
Maybe we’ll touch base when I can see your thoughts
Won’t you please take this child far away?
There’s too much blood flowing around
Please be safe this child
Won’t you please take this child by the hand?
Put a smile on the child’s face so scared and knows no other
Always feeling so alone
Won’t you please take this time to right the wrong?
That wasn’t her intent to mess with you
Say it loud say it loud say it loud and clear
I made a call to the missing people’s bureau
I wrote a song I had never sung
Your voice on the other side
Such pained and old I said son
There’s no time for a second call
Try again tomorrow so I’m glued
I say take my son take my pain to my pay check and love
But please take the child
With a little help from our friends
From our friends in high places
From our friends in even higher places
We can save the child
Now won’t you please be responsible
Now take your time to take think about the needs of a child
It’s their world we’re living in
See the world through the eyes of a child imagine yourself in the same situation
You got nobody you know no other you’re so lonely say in the darkness
You were a child once
Love is a destination
Belonging and respiration in good time
See the world through the eyes of a child
Take this child away from me too much blood flowing
I’m tempted to see a more literal interpretation of the lyrics to this song in light of the novel. I think this song is particularly harrowing in light of the child’s death in the opening few pages, killed by an over zealous driver, surely the song speaks to this child, especially given the dearth of other children in the narrative – are there any others?
The child physically dies and with her, innocence. However the lyrics of this song, “take this child far away” and particularly,
From our friends in high places
From our friends in even higher places
We can save the child
The words seem to imply that death might be a way of saving the child. In dying, the child rises to heaven and is safe. Refentse feels a connection to the song as he can relate to the sanctuary that is death, away from a place where there is “too much blood flowing”, both literally and metaphorically.
Just wrapping my head around the idea of an online Hillbrow.