Don't Panic: I Got Soul!

‘You will hear of wars and threats of wars, but don’t panic.’ I’ve read those words many times and now they’ve taken on a new meaning. Jesus said them, St Matthew recorded them, but I’m reading them for the first time against the backdrop of a seemingly growing media discussion about the possibility of civil war in the country we’re living in. We’re not panicking but it does make you think a bit.

‘Don’t Panic’ is perhaps more famous for adorning the cover of The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. That comic masterpiece involved the destruction of the whole world, an event that, while treated as not funny in the book, is really not funny. We live on a street where I can still see the sandbags behind which people defended their patch fifteen years ago. The thought of this country plunging itself into another violent mess when it hasn’t cleared up the remains of the last one is far from a joke.

Into these sober thoughts burst an anthem that practically had me dancing around the living room this morning. ‘I Got Soul’ is a reworking of ‘All These Things That I Have Done’ by The Killers. (A strange name that I’ve always felt was slightly at odds with their often uplifting music.) It’s a collaborative effort for War Child under the name of ‘Young Soul Rebels’. They’ve taken a great rock song and turning it into a powerful pop rap proclamation. Around the refrain of “I’ve got soul but I’m not a soldier” they squeeze in bits of the original lyrics with sections of war-related rap. One of these says exactly what needs to be said here.

No kid should die for a war
Let’s fight for a cause
Pray for better days
Because when the going gets tough
There’s better way
Faith
And
only then there are better days