Below are three different and beautiful songs that reassure us we’re not alone. “No One Is Alone” by Stephen Sondheim shares a similar theme with newer songs “A Safe Place to Land” and “You’re Not Alone.”
I. “No One Is Alone” from the Broadway musical “Into the Woods” by Stephen Sondheim
A lyric excerpt from the middle:
...Nothing’s quite so clear nowDo things, fight thingsFeel you’ve lost your way?You decide, butYou are not aloneBelieve meNo one is alone (no one is alone)Believe meTruly…
There are, of course, the recorded Broadway and movie versions. My favorite arrangement and video of “No One Is Alone,” however, is from the TV series Glee, which used the song in the context of a candlelight vigil for Russ, who’d been victimized by a severe gay-bashing.
II. “A Safe Place to Land” written by Sara Bareilles and Lori Mckenna; sung and recorded by Bareilles, featuring John Legend
This cut closes Bareilles’s excellent 2019 album Amidst the Chaos.
Selected lyrics:
…Oh, imagine yourself in a buildingUp in flames, being told to stand stillThe window’s wide open, this is leap is on faithYou don’t know who will catch you, but maybe somebody willThe ocean is wild and over your headAnd the boat beneath you is sinkingDon’t need room for your bags, hope is all that you haveSo say the Lord’s Prayer twice, hold your babies tightSurely someone will reach out a handAnd show you a safe place to land…
A quick scan of its YouTube comments shows that this song has particularly resonated with survivors of various forms of domestic violence. Bareilles has said, however, that its inspiration actually came from the media coverage of the Trump administration‘s policy of separating children from their parents at the southern U.S. border.
A beautiful performance by both Bareilles and Legend:
III. “You’re Not Alone” (2022) by Allison Russell, featuring Brandi Carlile
Sample lyrics:
…Wish that I could keep you fromSorrow and harmNone of us is here for longBut you’re not alone…
Before her solo career Russell performed with various groups, including Birds of Chicago, led by her and her husband JT Nero. Russell, incidentally, identifies as queer.
Both these singer-songwriters are, in fact, part of the LGBTQ+ community as well as survivors of childhood abuse, and both are known for their support of a variety of humanitarian causes. A certain soulful sorrow combined with strength emanates from many of their individual songs and performances.
Originally from Canada, Russell does some of her lyrics in the French-based language of her childhood. The video below is from a concert that features all-female backup instrumentalists:
