A Song For This Day (and year): Wake Up Everybody

In honor of the New Year now upon us, I selected another song from the Ye ‘Ol Decade of the 1970s to christen 2014. Wake Up Everybody (1975) was Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes’ last Top 40 hit. The smooth and soulful lead vocal was performed by none other than Teddy Pendergrass, in one of his last numbers with the group.

The lyrics, written by John Whitehead, Gene McFadden and Victor Carstarphen, seemed to fit our time once more.

Wake up everybody, no more sleepin' in bed
No more backward thinkin' time for thinkin' ahead
The world has changed so very much from what it used to be
So there is so much hatred war an' poverty

Wake up all the teachers, time to teach a new way
Maybe then they'll listen to whatcha have to say
'Cause they're the ones who's coming up and the world is in their hands
When you teach the children, teach 'em the very best you can

The world won't get no better
If we just let it be
The world won't get no better
We gotta change it, yeah, just you and me

Wake up all the doctors, make the ol' people well
They're the ones who suffer an' who catch all the hell
But they don't have so very long before the judgment day
So won'tcha make them happy before they pass away?

Wake up all the builders, time to build a new land
I know we can do it if we all lend a hand
The only thing we have to do is put it in our mind
Surely things will work out, they do it every time

The world won't get no better
If we just let it be
The world won't get no better
We gotta change it, yeah, just you and me

And if you think it doesn’t pertain, reflect back to the words of Carl Sagan, as highlighted by Adam Frank (on Facebook and on Twitter) in his NPR piece that included the following video from Adam Winnik and Hans Zimmer:

http://vimeo.com/22582065

A Happy New Year to us all.