John Mayer’s “Waiting On The World To Change” before giving his political views

Listening to John Mayer’s “Waiting on the World to Change” would make you think there is political message he was trying to make.

“now if we had the power
to bring our neighbors home from war
they would have never missed a Christmas
no more ribbons on their door”

A recent interview with Mayer shows otherwise. “I just have to be very careful with my words, because I think I know the difference between offering people an emotional observation and my opinion,” Mayer says. “My opinion is worth nothing. My emotional observation is worth everything. I want to be able to keep that trust to at least get people to think. All you have to do is think — we’ll talk about it later.”

I am of the opinion that there certainly are some political undertones with the song, but he leaves it up to the listener to decide what they think. This is one reason why Mayer is on my personal playlist because he poses questions which forces you to think and form your own decision.

Mayer does touch on the media coverage of political and news events.

“when you trust your television
what you get is what you got
cause when they own the information, oh
they can bend it all they want”

Media coverage has become “the story” in the 2008 presidential election with the Republican party strongly voicing their disgust with the “elite left-wing media” (aka NBC & CNN). Whereas the people on the Left have often felt Fox News is the voice of the Right.

Mayer leaves it up to the listener to draw their own conclusion as to his opinion of who “owns the information” and who is bending it in which direction.

If you are unfamiliar with the song, here are the lyrics for you to decide:

“me and all my friends
we’re all misunderstood
they say we stand for nothing and
there’s no way we ever could”

“now we see everything that’s going wrong
with the world and those who lead it
we just feel like we don’t have the means
to rise above and beat it”

“so we keep waiting
waiting on the world to change
we keep on waiting
waiting on the world to change”

“it’s hard to beat the system
when we’re standing at a distance
so we keep waiting
waiting on the world to change”

“now if we had the power
to bring our neighbors home from war
they would have never missed a Christmas
no more ribbons on their door
and when you trust your television
what you get is what you got
cause when they own the information, oh
they can bend it all they want”

“that’s why we’re waiting
waiting on the world to change
we keep on waiting
waiting on the world to change”

“it’s not that we don’t care,
we just know that the fight ain’t fair
so we keep on waiting
waiting on the world to change”

“and we’re still waiting
waiting on the world to change
we keep on waiting waiting on the world to change
one day our generation
is gonna rule the population
so we keep on waiting
waiting on the world to change”

“we keep on waiting
waiting on the world to change”

What do you think? Leave a comment below to let us know what you think.

John Mayer Photo Credit: sushla on Flickr