The opening and title track sets the stage for this song cycle. Because of the unique American legal system and our Constitution, individuals are able to take on big corporations and governments in order to effect social change. Barack Obama famously gave a stump speech about how one voice can change the world. In America, that is completely true, and this album celebrates those voices and their achievements in civil rights and social justice. The song, One Voice, honors Oliver Brown, a welder and pastor from Topeka, Kansas, who organized a group of Black parents and sued the Topeka School District for its unlawful segregation practices. The resulting Supreme Court case, Brown v. Board of Education, outlawed school segregation and ignited a civil rights movement that truly changed the world. Musically, the song begins with a solitary and grows to a rousing gospel-tinged finale with many voices in a musical interpretation of how one voice can change the way we think, act, and live our lives.
Click to watch to Alan discuss “New Generation.”
Click to watch the concert performance of “New Generation.”
Read the lyrics
Worker:
In Nineteen Eighty-Four I first walked through that factory door,
Fresh out of school the real world beckoned me to come
I worked hard every day and I was proud to earn my pay,
I loved the job, the future man that I’d become.
The owner he would like the things I say,
Promotions came with raises in my pay,
Decades came and went, a forty-year career I spent,
I never thought that I would see this awful day,
Now they’re making their way for a new generation,
Forget the assets I bring,
Making their way for a new generation,
Experience, honesty, loyalty don’t mean a thing.
Owner:
In Nineteen Sixty-Three my father built this company,
He mortgaged everything he had to make it go,
For seven days a week, he never stopped, he’d hardly sleep,
It takes tenacity to make a business grow.
No, we didn’t do it alone,
We paid our people well as we have grown,
The decades came and went, and competition made a dent,
And now technology’s our future steppingstone.
So we’re making our way for a new generation,
We can’t afford to decline,
Making our way for a new generation,
Younger and stronger, we’ve got to keep up with times.
Worker: So who can I work for?
Owner: It’s not my problem anymore,
Owner: Get your resume complete
Worker: You made me sign a non-compete!
Worker: Finding work for me is hard
Worker: It’s a fact you disregard,
Owner: So what am I to do,
Owner: employ you ‘til your ninety two?
Owner: Your job has been eliminated,
Worker: You broke the law, discriminated,
Worker: You own the business, you have the might,
But sacking me now, well it just isn’t right,
Owner: You will retire and leave me a mess, for
I won’t have the time then to train your successor.
Together: You only see from your own point of views,
You’ll never know what it’s like in my shoes,
You can’t appreciate how much I’m scared,
Of a future for which I feel so unprepared.
Cause we’re (you’re) making the way for a new generation,
I know it hurts to concede,
Making the way for a new generation,
Worker: Experience, honesty, loyalty, wow!
Owner: Younger and stronger the future is now!
Together: is it too much for me to think that you’d understand!