Manifest Destiny

"Manifest Destiny"
Song by Jamiroquai from the album The Return Of The Space Cowboy
Released	October 17, 1994
Recorded	1993-1994
Played Live	Yes; "Let Me Believe" 1 time.
Studio	Townhouse, Battery, Falconer
Genre	Aciz jazz, funk, soul
Length	6:22
Label	Sony Soho Square (UK) Work (US) Columbia (Canada) Epic (Japan)
Writer	Jay Kay, Toby Smith
Producer	Jay Kay, Mike Nielsen
BPM	N/A

"Manifest Destiny" is the fifth track off of the album The Return of the Space Cowboy. Described as a "beautiful, tender" track by Kay, contrasting with its incredibly heavy lyrics, focusing on the 19th-century American belief Manifest destiny, which was the belief that American settlers were destined to expand westward across North America, resulting in the displacement and killings of Indigenous populations across the land. The track shows Kay reflecting on those ideas: "See, I had to look carefully at the shame of my ancestry", with much regret and sorrow for the Indigenous people who had to endure those practices.

Background

Manifest Destiny originated as a track known as "Let Me Believe", which was performed live during the Emergency on Planet Earth Tour, at Rolling Stone, Milan, December 5, 1993. Despite sharing the same bassline and similar song structure, the two songs have completely different lyrics. It's unknown whether more work was done on "Let Me Believe", though the track would be reworked into "Manifest Destiny" for the band's second album, "The Return of the Space Cowboy".

Manifest Destiny was written after Kay had read "Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee" by Dee Brown. The book explores the history of American expansionism (Manifest destiny) in the West during the late nineteenth century, and its effects on the Indigenous population living there; focusing on the displacement and massacres of Native American women and children. Angering Kay, he wrote the track as a way to get his feelings off of his chest regarding the topic, describing the writing process as one of the few times where he had felt absolutely sure of what he was doing.

"...there's something so fragile in the vocal. But then I was fragile, I wasn't in a good place. Sometimes I'd be in tears writing these songs, I was fighting for everything. Every track was a battle.".

Lyrics

Despite sharing a nearly identical song structure, Manifest Destiny and Let Me Believe have very different lyrics from each other.

Manifest Destiny

Let Me Believe

As I remember, it was 400 years or more Since you came to crucify And they were taken far away from home There were promises of paradise But if they had been told that they, that they would be sold this way To satisfy the souls of chosen men See, I had to look carefully at the shame of my ancestry To redefine the storyline again Hey, if I was taken for a day and shown another way Now every child can learn a different thing See, I tried a million times, but I had to change my mind, oh Sadness was the best thing I could bring On the inside he was dead, and this is what he said As he took away the blue above the clouds Oh, "Superiority was clearly meant to be So destiny will manifest in time" So where has the love all gone? A troubled trail of tears will tell the tale Of how I was put down where I don't belong, oh Woman, child and man for sale For ethical slavery is just an absurdity How can you be alive when you are dead? With these chains of hypocrisy, the shame of my ancestry Forever stained by blood in which you tread, hey, yeah If I was taken for a day and shown another way Oh, now every child can learn a different thing See, I tried a million times, but I had to change my mind, yeah That sadness was the best thing I could bring On the inside he was dead, oh, and this is what he said As he took away the blue above the clouds Oh, "Superiority was clearly meant to be So destiny will manifest itself in time," yeah So where has the love all gone? Said I wanna know, I wanna know, I wanna know, I wanna know, I Oh, somebody tell me where the love has all gone Said I want to know why Hey!

Forget your memories, of the sunlight warm across your tender skin Forget the cooling, a progressing wind to sooth you from within, oh from within Forget the shade, hey, as the myriad of colors from the mothers, oh We had it made yeah, now that their world has had it's word cascade, yes they do, that's why Let me believe, that there can be sunshine, yeah Let me believe, that, that there can be rain Oh let me Believe, let me believe, that there can be flowers Let me believe, let me believe, that it all will remain the same Forget your memories, for a darker cloud has come around the sun, around the sun Forget sweet dreams, and now the nightmare rapped humanity, just begun, oh, just begun yeah Oh maybe I'm slow, perpetrators in convectors always tell me so, yes they do But if I had the chance, will I give the world a chance to open up it's voice, yes I would, that's why, hey Let me believe, that there can be sunshine, yeah Let me believe, that, that there can be rain Oh let me Believe, let me believe, that there can be flowers Let me believe, let me believe, that it all will remain the same Oh, let me believe Oh, I wanna do is believe Oh, let me believe All we want is, sunshine, rain & flowers