For a Song: Shining Star

Earth Wind and Fire: Shining Star

[purchase]

My week has gotten off to a dark start. I posted for my last review a tragic tale of doom. And our theme at Star Maker Machine this week is Domestic Violence and Sexual Abuse. Not exactly light listening or reading. It’s very important stuff, but it hasn’t exactly lightened my mood. So I wanted this week’s For a Song to be something up. I needed the breather.

Shining Star certainly fills the bill. But I hated the song when I first heard it. It was all over the radio when it first came out. I was a kid, and my friends and I used to like to make fun of the falsetto vocals.

But I eventually came to love funk. And Shining Star is a fine example of the form. Take the drums and bass, add keyboards for color. Add to the rhythm with the guitar parts. And then punch the whole into the stratosphere with the horn parts. Just try to sit still as you listen to this.

The words to Shining Star express encouragement that life is full of boundless possibilities. Just what I needed right now. “Shining star for you to see, what your life can truly be.”