The unfettered idealism of an artist who wrote the song before he was 19, "captivating" is how Willy Mason's Oxygen has been described. After all this time, the song still brings a catch to my throat.
I wanna be cooler than t.v.
For all the kids that are wondering what they are going to be
We can be stronger than bombs
If you're singing along and you know that you really believe
We can be richer than industry
As long as we know that there's things that we don't really need
We can speak louder than ignorance
Cause we speak in silence every time our eyes meet.
I'm not alone. Youtube is filled with videos of fans' heartfelt chanting of the lyrics. This video, I found particularly moving because Mason unexpectedly alters the song around 2:56. Maybe my copy is a radio edit, and everyone else on the planet has heard this, but then, maybe not. Because it seems to me that the crowd stops chanting the lyrics and falls into an oddly respectful silence.
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