Yours & Mine

Album: Historian (2018)
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Songfacts®:

  • Lucy Dacus was in Europe when chaos erupted on the streets of Baltimore in April 2015 after a 25-year-old Black man named Freddie Gray died of a spinal-cord injury he received while in police custody. Dacus felt helpless as she watched footage of protests and riots on the news, wishing she could be there to join the cause against police brutality, even though she was afraid of getting caught up in the violence. So she did what she does best - she started writing a song: "Yours & Mine." It starts with the confessional refrain, "I'm afraid of pain, both yours and mine, both yours and mine."

    "It's about wanting to be present, but people telling you that it's too dangerous, or even yourself being afraid of the consequences, but knowing that you have to do it in order to feel like you are a contributing member of society," Dacus told 13th Floor in 2018.
  • In the lyrics, Dacus calls out people who turn a blind eye to the unrest as stores and houses are being set on fire: "Have you got nothing to say?" Despite her strong convictions about protesting, Dacus doesn't want anyone to listen to the song and think she's judging them for making a different choice. She said, "It's basically about my decision to protest, and, meanwhile, trying to respect the people that don't decide to do it, because I don't want to judge people for their decisions, and I don't know everyone. Everyone has their reasons for their decisions."
  • This is placed right in the middle of Historian, Dacus' sophomore album that explores themes of love and loss. The singer wanted to take listeners on an uncomfortable journey where joy and pain co-exist. "I wanted to lead people into something difficult to look at, but... you don’t want to drag people - you just want to motion them towards it," she told 13th Floor.
  • In the chorus, she sings, "We've got a long way to go before we get home, 'cause this ain't my home anymore." In a 2018 interview with Newsweek, Dacus recalled her conflicting feelings of wanting to come back home while she was in Europe during the uprising. "I felt like returning to the US wouldn't feel like coming home. I had no pride in my country," she confessed.
  • Prince was also moved by the Baltimore protests, which inspired his 2015 song "Baltimore." Soul singer Leon Bridges also included footage of the revolt in the video for his 2015 track "River."
  • This opens the 2019 series finale of Orange Is The New Black, titled "Here's Where We Get Off."

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