Prayer For My Children

Album: Soul Of Ferguson (2017)
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • St. Louis soul singer Brian Owens wrote this heartfelt plea after the 2014 death of Michael Brown, an unarmed black teenager who was shot and killed by a white police officer in Ferguson, Missouri. He spoke of the song in a 2017 Songfacts interview: "How do I explain all this to my children? That's basically what 'Prayer for My Children' is. It's a prayer, but it's also an explanation to them of expectation and letting them know, 'This is your dad's worldview on what's going on. This is how I pray you will come to see the world you interact in.'"

    Owens advice to his children is to stay rooted in their faith. "My favorite line in that song is, 'Color and country don't define or make you who you are. God's love is the only thing that sets each one of us apart and binds us together.' We're all uniquely made. We're all created uniquely but at the same time we share so much in the fact that we were created by God. It's not too heavy but it's like our wrapping paper is our wrapping paper, but we all have a soul and a spirit and a mind and we have more similarities than we do differences."
  • This was originally written as a suite that contained two more songs.

Comments

Be the first to comment...

Editor's Picks

Little Big Town

Little Big TownSongwriter Interviews

"When seeds that you sow grow by the wicked moon/Be sure your sins will find you out/Your past will hunt you down and turn to tell on you."

Millie Jackson

Millie JacksonSongwriter Interviews

Outrageously gifted and just plain outrageous, Millie is an R&B and Rap innovator.

Don Dokken

Don DokkenSongwriter Interviews

Dokken frontman Don Dokken explains what broke up the band at the height of their success in the late '80s, and talks about the botched surgery that paralyzed his right arm.

Martyn Ware of Heaven 17

Martyn Ware of Heaven 17Songwriter Interviews

Martyn talks about producing Tina Turner, some Heaven 17 hits, and his work with the British Electric Foundation.

Sending Out An SOS - Distress Signals In Songs

Sending Out An SOS - Distress Signals In SongsSong Writing

Songs where something goes horribly wrong (literally or metaphorically), and help is needed right away.

John Lee Hooker

John Lee HookerSongwriter Interviews

Into the vaults for Bruce Pollock's 1984 conversation with the esteemed bluesman. Hooker talks about transforming a Tony Bennett classic and why you don't have to be sad and lonely to write the blues.