Garth Brooks, country (and crossover) music superstar, brought his “World Tour 2014-2016” to the AT&T Center in San Antonio, Texas this past weekend. He sweated profusely, even in the air-conditioned atmosphere of the arena, and he was a bit older than his last appearance in the Alamo City, but the crowds at the four-show sellout greeted him with great enthusiasm. And he was just as enthusiastic as they were, thanking them profusely for their support and welcome.
He promised to play as many of the “old songs” as he could, which actually turned out to be about 90% of the concert. And he essentially did so, with “Friends in Low Places,” “The Rodeo,” “Shameless” and pretty much the entire disc of “The Hits” on the set list.
Brooks likes to introduce his songs — telling who helped him write it or how/why it was written. But there was one song he didn’t intro — just started into it on the fly. It was the somewhat controversial gospel-country-rock anthem “We Shall Be Free.”
A Wikipedia search shows that the song was one of the few hits he had that didn’t reach #1, and some radio stations refused to play it, probably because of the following lyric:
When we're free to love anyone we choose
And this world’s big enough for all different views
When we all can worship from our own kind of pews
Then we shall be free
Brooks won a 1993 GLAAD Media Award for the song, along with Video of the Year at the 1993 Academy of Country Music Awards. In the liner notes on “The Hits” compilation, he notes:
"’We Shall Be Free' is definitely and easily the most controversial song I have ever done. A song of love, a song of tolerance from someone who claims not to be a prophet but just an ordinary man. I never thought there would be any problems with this song. Sometimes the roads we take do not turn out to be the roads we envisioned them to be. All I can say about 'We Shall Be Free" is that I will stand by every line of this song as long as I live. I am very proud of it. And I am very proud of Stephanie Davis, the writer. I hope you enjoy it and see it for what it was meant to be."
I’ve always liked the song because of its controversial lyrics; that and it’s just a catchy tune. But I have to wonder about Brooks’ lack of intro to the song. Was it on purpose that he didn’t say anything? Did he just want to let the song speak for itself? And even though San Antonio is one of the Democratic strongholds in red-state Texas, there’s a lot of conservative older folks living here. Did they get the message? And will they apply it to our current political climate, when the Republican candidate for President is the living antithesis of everything the song represents?
Brooks probably wouldn’t license the song for political purposes; that’s not his style. And HBO’s John Oliver illustrated perfectly why the use of popular songs in political campaigns is an issue for many artists, although most of the vitriol was aimed at Donald Trump. But the song deserves a renaissance this political season, because we’re not getting enough of the message from the Democrats, and definitely not from the Republicans. Perhaps someone can sneak it into one of their political speeches from the DNC pulpit. That’s a sermon worth hearing.