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

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!