It Could Have Been Me
We don't need any more verses
Hi all,
Thank you for joining me for this week’s song, It Could Have Been Me, by Holly Near.
Below, you’ll find my interpretation of the lyrics, which I’ve written in italics. As with most everything, there are many ways to interpret things. I invite you to leave a question or comment at the end. Please be respectful of others’ opinions if they should differ from yours.
This is a long article. I have divided it into two parts: the first covers the original lyrics, and Part 2 discusses more recently added verses. I have also included videos that contain the various verses if you would like to hear how the song has evolved.
For Japanese students, vocabulary words in bold are provided in Japanese below.
The Song
Part 1
(804 words)
Singer-songwriter, and feminist activist Holly Near, wrote It Could Have Been Me in 1973. She had been invited to write a song for a memorial at Kent State University where 4 students had been shot and killed on 4 May 1970. You can read about that event here.
In 1970, the U.S. was quite divided about many issues, but maybe the one that stood out the most was the Vietnam War. Young people were being drafted to go to fight in Vietnam, and many students protested the war, especially when the president expanded the war into Laos and Cambodia. At Kent State, the National Guard was called in to control the protests. One of the guard began shooting at the students: Shot down by a nameless fire, killing four and injuring nine more. There were also people in the U.S. who thought the war was justified and the tactics used against the students were also justified.
Students in Ohio two hundred yards away
Shot down by a nameless fire one early day in May
Some people cried out angry, “You should have shot more of them down!”
But you can’t bury youth my friend, youth grows the whole world round
It could have been me, but instead it was you
So I’ll keep doing the work you were doing as if I were two
I’ll be a student of life, a singer of songs
A farmer of food and a righter of wrong
It could have been me, but instead it was you
And it may be me, dear sisters and brothers, before we are through
But if you can die for freedom, freedom, freedom, freedom
If you can die for freedom I can, too
(Alternative lyrics: Students in our country, at Kent and Jackson State [Near 2017] This refers to the Jackson State University killings that happened on the campus just 11 days after Kent State. Two black students, a high school student and a college junior, were killed, and 15 others were injured [PBS].)
In verse 2, the lyrics talk about Victor Jara, a Chilean singer, songwriter, poet, and fighter for the people of Chile. He played the guitar beautifully and often led people in singing. He was murdered by the military (junta) after a coup d’etat in Santiago in 1973.
The junta broke the fingers from Victor Jara’s hands
They said to the gentle poet, “Play your guitar now if you can!”
Well Victor started singing until they shot his body down
You can kill a man but not a song when it’s sung the whole world round
…
But if you can sing for freedom, freedom, freedom, freedom
If you can sing for freedom I can, too
Regarding the third verse, I wasn’t sure what the lyrics referred to. I wrote to Holly Near, and she graciously responded with the following:
The last verse is not about a specific country (although I had [regions in] Africa on my mind at the time). The verse puts focus on women all over the world who hold culture and community together in war zones, surviving poverty, resisting dictatorships. Then there is the acknowledgment that although there is no way for me to truly know what it means to be her, I see her. I hear her. And I will give voice when she is being silenced. - Holly Near
A woman in the jungle so many wars away
Studies late into the night, defends a village in the day
Although her skin is golden like mine will never be
Her song is heard and I know the words and I’ll sing them ’til she’s free
…
But if you can work for freedom, freedom, freedom, freedom
If you can work for freedom I can, too
The next verse refers to the fighters in Nicaragua and El Salvador in the 1980s. The governments had the backing and aid from the U.S. A group called the Sandinistas were fighting against death squads who were supported by wealthy landowners. The people who fought for the Fronte Farabundo Martí had their own anthems and songs of solidarity.
The songs of Nicaragua and El Salvador
Will long outlast the singers who must face the guns in war
They sing at the line of fire, they sing from a fire within
All across the land the poets stand
El pueblo unido jamás sera vencido
El pueblo vencido jamás sera vencido
But if you can sing for freedom, freedom, freedom, freedom
If you can sing for freedom I can, too
El pueblo unido jamás sera vencido is a famous and popular Chilean protest song. It was written by Sergio Ortega Alvarado and the band Quilapayún just months before the coup d’etat in Santiago. The song has been translated into many languages and is used today for many causes.
VOCABULARY
(Part 1)
injuring 怪我をさせる
expand 広げる
injuring 傷害
justified 当然
tactics 戦術
graciously 畏くも
dictatorship 独裁
acknowledgment 承認
Part 2
(571 words)
Over the years, Ms. Near has added other verses to the song.
From her 1984 album, Holly Near & Inti Illimani Historico, Sing to Me the Dream: Un Canto Solidario, Holly Near, Inti Illimani Historico, Mercedes Sosa, Quique Cruz & Adrienne Torf sing Hay Una Mujer Desaparecida / Voices / It Could Have Been Me
The first song in the video, Hay Una Mujer Desaparecida, I will cover in a future article. It Could Have Been Me begins at 04:50 in the video below. In this version, the first verse talks about Karen Silkwood. Karen was a laboratory worker at a company that made products for use in nuclear power plants. She discovered that many of the health and safety rules were not being followed at the company. Some plutonium had even gone missing. She gathered evidence and was going to meet with a union representative and a reporter, but the on the way to the meeting she had a car accident and died under suspicious circumstances. The folder with the evidence was never found.
One night in Oklahoma Karen Silkwood died
Because she had some secrets that big companies wanted to hide
There’s talk of nuclear safety and there’s talk of national pride
But we all know it was a death machine and that’s why Karen died
…
If you can speak for freedom I can, too
Ms. Near wrote another verse after the École Polytechnique shooting in Montreal in 1989 in which a man entered a polytechnic school and shot and killed 12 engineering students, 1 nursing student, and a budget clerk, as well as injuring 10 other women and four men. Before he went on this rampage, the shooter claimed he was “fighting feminism.” The crime was an anti-feminist act of violence against women.
Women shot in Montreal by a man so full of rage
Makes me think of ancient time, back in the Middle Ages
This was not a single incident, this was not a one-time tragedy
People all around the world must fight misogyny
On 12 June 2016, a 29-year-old man entered a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida, and started shooting. He killed 49 people and injured 53 others. This crime was a homophobic act of violence against members of the LGBTQ+ community.
Saturday night for dancing and meeting up with friends
One weapon and one hateful mind and a bloody, tragic end
Churches, mosques and temples, dance halls, bars, and schools
But we’ve had enough, let’s get tough
It is time to change the rules
And it could have been me….
But if you can dance for freedom…. I can, too
(Watch Holly singing this verse at: https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=10153815174643282)
And yet another verse is about an antisemitic terrorist act. On 27 April 2019, people were attending a variety of services at Chabad of Poway synagogue in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, when a man entered and started shooting, killing 11 and injuring 6. One of the ceremonies at the time was to celebrate a child’s birth. This crime was a antisemitic act of violence against members of the Jewish community.
We gather for the naming of a child new to this earth
We offer love and power to celebrate the birth
Then gunshots fill the synagogue and he cries “The Jews must die”
But we won’t rest in silent fear
We are the outcry, yes, we are the outcry
…
But if you can stand for freedom, freedom, freedom, freedom
If you can sing for freedom I can, too
.
May there be no need for more verses.
.
VOCABULARY
(Part 2)
plutonium プルトニウム
evidence 証拠
representative 代表者
suspicious circumstances 疑わしい状況
death squad 死の部隊
anthem 頌歌、アンセム
solidarity 連帯意識
polytechnic school 工科大学
rampage 暴走
incident 事件
misogyny 女性嫌悪
homophobia 同性愛嫌悪
mosques モスク
synagogue ユダヤ教会
birth 誕生
antisemitic 反ユダヤ主義者
Jews ユダヤ人
outcry 叫び
For complete lyrics see: Near, Holly (1995, May 4) “Twenty Years Later,” Vietnam Generation: Vol. 2 : No. 2 , Article 13. Available at: http://digitalcommons.lasalle.edu/vietnamgeneration/vol2/iss2/13
To learn more about Holly Near and her music, please visit her website at:
Holly Near in Concert w/ Jeff Langley - Oct. 2, 1976 (It Could Have Been Me beings at 1:36:23):
SOURCES
Association étudiante de Polytechnique and PolyPhoto, Montréal, par U. de, & Montréal, par V. de. (n.d.). Polytechnique remembers the 14 young women whose lives tragically ended on December 6, 1989. December 6 - Polytechnique Montréal. https://www.polymtl.ca/december6/ Accessed 13 August 2023.
Desjardins, L. (2017, December 6). Massacre of 14 women in Montreal remembered. RCI. https://www.rcinet.ca/en/2017/12/06/shooting-canada-murder-14-women-anniversary/
Encyclopædia Britannica, inc. (2023, June 27). Orlando shooting of 2016. Encyclopædia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/event/Orlando-shooting-of-2016
Near, H. (1995, May 4) Twenty Years Later. Vietnam Generation: Vol. 2: No. 2, Article 13. Available at: http://digitalcommons.lasalle.edu/vietnamgeneration/vol2/iss2/13
Near, H. (2017). And it could have been me: Kent State and Jackson State. Portside. https://portside.org/2017-05-04/and-it-could-have-been-me
PBS LearningMedia. (2021, February 11). Jackson State: Another protest turns deadly: The Day the ’60s died. https://www.pbslearningmedia.org/resource/0b12dd18-64da-47b5-a447-5f9e91469978/jackson-state-another-protest-turns-deadly-the-day-the-60s-died/
Robertson, C., Mele, C., & Tavernise, S. (2018, October 27). 11 killed in synagogue massacre; suspect charged with 29 counts. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/27/us/active-shooter-pittsburgh-synagogue-shooting.html