The first time that I heard this song, I identified with it immediately. Obviously, that “wind in my face” and “salt on my skin” part really resonates with me, but I also love the peaceful resonance between the disparities. I suppose I find freedom in being an anomaly.
The way that Gavin Degraw touched on being both of the extremes in life (a poor and a rich, a mountain and ditch, etc.) always makes me smile. Because isn’t that part of what life really is, finding your place in the middle of the intense limits that life provides?
Sometimes, I like to think that I’m a conservative and a liberal, and I think that we’d probably all be a lot better off if we could find our places between those extremes. Of course, I’m conservative in that I want to conserve wildlife, nature, and our natural resources instead of merely conserving ignorance and antiquated traditions, but at least I want to conserve something. I have problems with those liberals who just want to cut down all of the rainforests and burn up all of the oil or turn it into garbage as if we shouldn’t even consider saving some for other generations as if we were the caretakers of the planet.
Anyway, I love playing this song.
This is the poem I use to introduce it when I perform it in The Cowboy Cabaret.
Free
We all want something, take it from me.
Most of us down deep just want to be free.
To be released from the shackles that bind and restrain us
and leave behind those who enslave and detain us,
to let go of attachments and ride with the wind
to not have to ask for permission again.
We all wanna be what we all wanna be
but we can never become it until we set ourselves free.
