Hey Socials! It’s time to drop track #2 of the Unnamed Album! …Anyone got any bright ideas on album titles yet? I took your feedback from “Where I Belong” and hope it shows in “Little Girl, Get Up”! If you love what you’re hearing, don’t refrain from sharing with family and friends. Every share is a success, you know.
Let’s take a closer look at this tune:
The seed of “Little Girl, Get Up” was composed at the height of the #metoo movement and fleshed out for a live performance fundraiser benefitting Girls Rock Detroit in 2018. I won’t sugar coat it. The sentiment acknowledges that, clearly, shit is fucked. It’s fucked in ways we’ve always known it was fucked. It’s fucked in ways we’ve had to realize were fucked. And it’s fucked in ways we’ve yet to realize are fucked…but even so, *I* *you* *we* are courageously moving ever forward, just doing our best. That’s all we can do; and it’s enough.
Here’s what Taylor Ruffin had to say about her visual interpretation of “Little Girl, Get Up”:
“The song inspired me to draw scenes that involve a little girl who is trying to find a solution to her dilemma. I also remember that this song was inspired by the #MeToo movement.
It starts off with a girl playing in her yard with her two toys. One of the toys looks happy while the other one has a sad face on it. The girl notices that one of her dolls is not happy.
These few scenes portray how you notice that you or somebody closer to you doesn’t seem alright and you want to know why and to figure out how to make you or them feel better.
So the girl shows the doll to her parents, but it seems like they are checked out (watching tv) and not paying attention to her.
Those two scenes represent how some young girls (or young boys) will try to talk to their parents about something that bothered them, happened to them, etc. and the parents will either think the kids are overreacting, imaging things, or simply do not care to find out what’s going on with their kid, sometimes they even try to ignore it because it’s easier than to deal with what happened. And of course it’s not just with kids but adults as well when it comes to the workplace, home, etc. #Metoo
In the next scene the girl is passionate about finding out what’s going on with her doll, so she hits the town. She was looking for ANYBODY to help figure out why her doll was unhappy but unfortunately nobody had the answer or didn’t pay attention to her. The girl gets really frustrated.
These scenes are supposed to represent when you’re going through something and you feel like you have no one to talk to, so you want anybody to listen to you. It’s heartbreaking and frustrating when you can’t even find anybody to believe or even hear your story. Overtime that builds up a lot of anger.
The girl then goes down a path alone. In the last scene she is standing on a rock with her doll still, looking up at the sky trying to process that she still has not gotten an answer about her toy.
These things are supposed to represent how people (kids & adults) take time for themselves (maybe isolate or try to heal) to process what’s going on with them and/or around them. It is also supposed to represent that there is not an easy answer to everything and sometimes you just have to figure it out on your own.”
-Taylor Ruffin
Socials stay tuned for a patron-exclusive post with your mp3 download of “Little Girl, Get Up.” You’re so loved and appreciated for making this possible!
Musically Yours,
Maggie