D’Angelo and The Vanguard – 1000 Deaths Lyrics

D’Angelo and The Vanguard – 1000 Deaths Lyrics

1000 Deaths Lyrics by D’Angelo and The Vanguard

“1000 Deaths” folds the old adage about cowards and soldiers into a word about guns, fear and desperation, and contains a message similar to the By Any Means Necessary speech from 1964 by Malcom X. The track should be interpreted as *Black Messiah’s context. The album was supposed to be released in 2015, but after the unarmed Michael Brown got shot by a police officer in Ferguson, D’Angelo decided he couldn’t just stand and watch. He and his label RCA Records spent a month working many all-nighters to be able to finish the album as soon as possible.

According to the 2019 documentary Devil’s Pie,, D’Angelo also wrote “1000 Deaths” as a direct response to the fan hysteria over his infamous music video for “Untitled (How Does It Feel),” which became larger-than-life and turned him into a sex symbol instead of the visionary, once-in-a-generation musician he and his peers saw him as.

[Intro: Khalid Abdul Muhammad,] [Fred Hampton]
When Jesus, when I say Jesus, I’m not talking about some blonde-haired, blue-eyed, pale-skinned, buttermilk complexion cracker Christ. I’m talking about the Jesus of the Bible, with hair like lamb’s wool. I’m talking about that good hair, I’m talking about that nappy hair. That his body would be like beryl. Another scripture said his body would be like jasper. Another scripture said his body would be like fine brass, as though it had been burned in an oven. Jesus: the Lord, the Savior, the Master, the Redeemer. Jesus, the Black revolutionary Messiah. Taken up on the hill, up on the mountain by Satan, by the Devil. And the Devil talked about a New World Order. The Devil talked about giving Jesus all of this world out there, if Jesus would just seek an alliance with him, if he would just bow down to him. And I say to you here tonight, Devil: get thee behind me, Satan. Get thee behind me, Satan
Black people need some peace, white people need some peace. And we are going to have to fight, we’re going to have to struggle, we’re going to have to struggle relentlessly to bring about some peace because the people that we’re asking for peace, they’re a bunch of megalomaniac war-mongers, and they don’t even understand what peace means. We’ve got to fight them, we’ve got to struggle with them to make them understand what peace means

[Verse 1]
I can’t believe I can’t get over my fear, oh-oh
They’re gonna send me over the hill
Ah, the moment of truth is near, oh
They’re gonna send me over the hill, oh no

[Verse 2]
I can’t believe I’m so caught up in the thrill, oh
And nothing’s gonna change my will, oh
Locked and loaded up, and I know the drill
(Say know what I’m saying)
They’re gonna send me over the hill, oh god, yeah
I know the drill, they’re gonna send me over the hill, oh-oh

[Pre-Chorus]
I been a witness to this game for ages
And if I stare death in face, no time to waste
But oh

[Chorus]
And if I charge it to the game before
Every time I slip into the unknown
Well, that’s only when the spot gets blown
It’s war— that is the Lord!
I won’t nut up when we up thick in the crunch
Because a coward dies a thousand times
But a soldier only dies just once
Once, once

[Interlude]
Oh-ah
Oh, yeah
Yeah
Yeah

[Verse 3]
Yahweh, Yehushua, uh
He don’t want no coward soldier
Ah, stick it in the golden sand, oh
Musta didna hearda ma prayer, oh-oh
I receive everything that it means, uh
And wield it victoriously
Aha, and cast out all the wickedness, oh-woah, yeah-yeah
(When they) Send me over the hill, oh-oh
I was born to kill, oh-oh
Send me over the hill, oh-oh

[Pre-Chorus]
I been a witness to this game for ages
And if I stare death in face, no time to waste
But oh

[Chorus]
And if I charge it to the game before
Every time I slip into the unknown
Well that’s only when the spot gets blown
It’s war— that is the Lord!
I won’t nut up when we up thick in the crunch
Because a coward dies a thousand times
But a soldier only dies just once
Once, once

[Outro]
Yeah