Weekly Shinedown - Song Forty Three - Shed Some Light!

Hey There!

This next Shinedown song, Shed Some Light, is one of my favourite Shinedown songs that I have ever heard. It also had such a personal meaning to me, that it is a really important song in my life!

I think that the first time that I heard it was in January 2015, when I was really getting into Shinedown's second album called Us And Them. Shed Some Light really stuck out to me, and I instantly fell in love with the song. From looking into the song, I saw that the meaning of the song was that it was about someone who was pleading to God for him to give them answers about their faith, and I always imagine that this person needed strength to help them believe, due to the immense power of this song! I also remember when Shinedown sang an acoustic version of Shed Some Light on their tour when they were playing at Kansas City, Brent Smith told the audience that Shed Some Light is his father's favourite song, and he actually wrote it with his dad in mind!

However, I didn't discover the true meaning of the song until I was walking to school one day on Tuesday 10th February 2015, and Shed Some Light came up on my Spotify shuffle play, so I let the song play. Then it hit me around halfway into the song that Shed Some Light really does describe the testimony of my cousin-in-law Joel, of how he became a Christian!

This is how the story goes: Joel grew up in a Christian family, although when he was around 16 years old, he turned away from God so that he could start hanging out with his mates. However, when Joel was 17, one of his best mates called Rob sadly dies because he was hit by a car. This threw Joel right off track, and really upset him. Then on Joel's 18th Birthday, he attended Rob's funeral. Afterwards, he went down to Whitby Beach, and just cried his heart out, and that evening, he became a Christian. He wanted God to Shed Some Light on him, give him faith, and lead him in the right direction so that he could follow God, and from then on, Joel's life was changed, and God was able to help him out, especially by leading him on the right path to meeting my cousin Kerry so that they could eventually get married!

Somehow I seem to be so obsessed with Shed Some Light that as well as constantly listening to the original Shinedown version, I also seem to constantly listen to other versions such as with Lzzy Hale, acoustic versions, live versions, and even other covers. Now every time that anyone mentions the phrase about shedding light on something, it instantly brings back memories of this song, and how truly wonderful it is!

Surprisingly, I actually know how to play the whole of Shed Some Light on my guitar, because the chords are really easy to play, such as Em, C G and D. Everytime that I play Shed Some Light on my guitar, it always makes me reflect on how Joel became a Christian on the beach.

Don't forget that you can always read all of my earlier blog posts on this page, and stay tuned for more Shinedown posts from me.

I'll see you all next Thursday!

Lois xx

P.S. I'll leave the lyrics to Shed Some Light below incase you're interested!

I'm falling apart again
And I can't find a way to make amends
And I'm looking in both directions
But it's make believe, it's all pretend

So...
Shed some light on me
And hold me up in disbelief
And shed some light on me
And tell me something that I'll believe in

It's innocence within the maze
But I have chosen the wrong way
I'm still getting over who I was
There's no sense of trust, there's no definition of love

So...
Shed some light on me
And hold me up in disbelief
And shed some light on me
And tell me something that I'll believe in

I know now, it's not who you are
It's who you know
And I see clearly now, which way to go
I remember the way I fell from above
And I recall the way I was

So...
Shed some light on me
And hold me up in disbelief
And shed some light on me
And tell me something that I'll believe in
Shed some light on me
And hold me up in disbelief
And shed some light on me
And tell me something that I'll believe
Tell me something that I'll...
Tell me something that I'll believe
Tell me something that I'll believe
Something I'll believe