“The Sea” by Say Anise – A Song Feature

 

     Bob Dylan, The Beatles, and Say Anise have written songs in which the lyrics include at least two points of view and at least one claim of being blameless. Dylan wrote “Who Killed Davey Moore,” a 1963 song that centered upon a boxing death of the same year. In each verse, a different party steps forward and explains why he is free of culpability. In “She’s Leaving Home,” The Beatles (1967) wrote lines about actions of the daughter running away and other lines from the perspective of the mother. The mother doesn’t understand – “We gave her everything money could buy.”
 
     This year, Say Anise released “The Sea.” She explains:
  “’The Sea’ is a song about the European refugee crisis, written from two different points of view. The verses are written from the perspective of a mother and child who have lost their home, and the chorus is from the point of view of the western observer, portraying their conflicting feelings of guilt, powerlessness and apathy. Cheery, I know.”

      As in the songs by Dylan and The Beatles, there is an assertion of blamelessness. The western observer says, “Blame it on the sea, Blame it on the crowd, You were not around, So don’t blame it on me.”
 
     Say Anise is the performance name of Emily Barnett, who is based in London. She is the vocalist and the acoustic guitarist on “The Sea.” Other contributions came from Melisande Yavuz (violin) and Adrien Latgé (backing vocals). Emily said about the writing of “The Sea:”
  “I did a little digging because I couldn't remember when I actually wrote it, and I think it was late 2016 or very early 2017. So it's been around a long time! I have tried to record it a couple of times before, but it never quite felt right, until I found my magical producer Joey Walker who seemed to know exactly what to do with it.”
 

      “The Sea” by Say Anise

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Website: https://sayanise.com/
 
Lyrics of “The Sea” by Say Anise
This is not our home anymore
It lives across the sea
Somewhere out there
It waits for you and me
 
Do not be afraid of the waves
They break but they can heal
The rise and fall
Is all part of the deal
 
I try but I can’t seem to understand it
I try, I try
I try but I can’t seem to understand at all
 
Blame it on the sea
Blame it on the crowd
You were not around
So don’t blame it on me
 
It won’t be too long little one
Til we are free
There’s so many more
They won’t just leave us here
 
I try but I can’t wrap my head around it
I try, I try
I try but I can’t make any sense of this
 
Blame it on the sea
Blame it on the crowd
You were nowhere to be found
So don’t blame it on me
Don’t you blame it on me