I recently heard Len’s 1999 hit song Steal Your Sunshine for the first time in years and was absolutely blown away from its greatness. I was 10 going on 11 in the summer of 1999 and remember enjoying the song on the radio, now having lived life I’m even more blown away by the meaning of the song.
I was lying on the grass of Sunday morning of last week
Indulging in my self-defeat
The opening of the song is immediately relevant to anyone with even a tinge of self reflection , from being hungover after a college party to workplace issues as an adult , self loathing in one’s own defeat is a human condition we all fall victim to. Even a child know’s of self-defeat , the start of this song is crystal clear.
Impaired my tribal lunar speak
And of course you can’t become if you only say what you would have done
So I missed a million miles of fun
The most important part of the lyrics come at the end of the first verse , setting up the problem of one’s own self consciousness. The tribal / lunar speak bit is a reference to logic of all humans over history getting stuck in issues of reflection as set up by the first line.
And I’m not only among but I invite who I want to come
So I missed a million miles of fun
The next verse with a female singer expands on missing out on fun and expands on vulgar notions of becoming. In the male verse, the narrative focuses on what could have been or what you should have done and he is telling us that is not spiritually productive. We all love our friends and have preferences for people we want to be around, but the female verse talks about missing out on fun if you can not accept other’s company. Many of us have close friend’s we met in our childhood, but if we allow ourselves to live more openly, we can be among new people who make us happy in our free time at any age.
The title of the song and chorus make the theme even more easily digestible. Like the members of Len I am from the colder end of the Northern Hemisphere and long winters make us long for the sunshine. When Len sings of “my sunshine” it has nothing to do with one’s ego, as I’ve discussed the verses talk about letting go of what could have, would have or you should have become!
My sunshine, if you steal my sunshine
My sunshine, if you steal my sunshine
My sunshine, if you steal my sunshine
My sunshine, if you steal my sunshine
My sunshine, if you steal my sunshine
My sunshine, if you steal my sunshine
My sunshine, if you steal my sunshine
My sunshine, if you steal my sunshine
The day one is born the absolute is everywhere and its motion has already begun and regardless of when one is born, one’s control of this process is zero. The grace of god is not outside of everything , god is not a man, god is all around us, good moments and bad moments. It does not matter if one is born dirt poor or a member of the “1 percent” , a child asking what they will become to an adult can only be guesstimated at best by the child or any other human. If we let go of the process of becoming , the promise of sunshine is available to us every year of our lives. Len didn’t see a lot of commercial success , they sat on the song for years but in the end the song gave them a decent income stream and became a song for everyone all around the earth. The readers of this essay or Len never knew what they would become and that is just fine.
