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.".