McCorkle was born in Berkeley, California. She studied modern languages at the University of California, Berkeley. McCorkle began singing professionally after hearing recordings of Billie Holiday in Paris in the late 1960s. She nearly became an interpreter at the European Commission in Brussels, but moved instead to London in 1972 to pursue a career in singing. While in the UK, she made two albums which, although well received, enjoyed only limited circulation.
In the late 1970s, McCorkle returned to the United States and settled in New York City, where a five-month engagement at the Cookery in Greenwich Village brought her to wider public attention and elicited rave reviews from critics.
During the 1980s, McCorkle continued to record; her maturing style and the darkening timbre of her voice greatly enhanced her performances. In the early 1990s, two of the albums McCorkle made for Concord Records, No More Blues and Sábia, were enormously successful and made her name known to the wider world. She was recorded by the Smithsonian Institution which at the time made her the youngest singer ever to have been included in its popular music series. McCorkle played Lincoln Center's Avery Fisher and Alice Tully Halls five times and Carnegie Hall three times, and was featured soloist with Skitch Henderson and the 80-piece New York Pops in a concert of Brazilian music.
Thanks to her linguistic skills, McCorkle translated lyrics of Brazilian, French, and Italian songs, notably those for her Brazilian album Sabia. McCorkle also had several short stories published and, in 1991, began work on her first novel. She published fiction in Mademoiselle, Cosmopolitan Magazine, and non-fiction in the New York Times Magazine and in American Heritage, including lengthy articles on Ethel Waters, Bessie Smith, Irving Berlin and Mae West.
McCorkle suffered for many years from depression and cancer, and took her own life at age 55 by leaping off the balcony of her highrise Manhattan apartment. She was alone in her home at the time. The police immediately entered her home after identifying her body and found no foul play. Suicide was ruled the cause of death.
evolution
Susannah McCorkle Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Drive a mile through solid granite
Thrive in all extremes of weather
But we cannot live together
We have pondered our existence
Tracked the comets in the distance
But we're overcome with blindness
We have ventured where
None have gone before us
But in matters fundamental
We are patterned on an old design
Welcome back Tyrannosaurus
Evolution is a state of mind
We have filled the halls of science
With the bones of mighty giants
They'd all been there for generations
Buried under our foundations
It's a page right out of history
Everything is still a mystery
All except for one distinction
We can stop our own extinction
We have set ourselves apart
From all that's gone before us
But in matters fundamental
We are victims of an old design
Here's your chance Tyrannosaurus
Maybe we can get it right this time
Grab a club and join the chorus
Evolution is a state of mind
The lyrics of Susannah McCorkle's song "Evolution" are a commentary on the development of human civilization and our place in the world. The first stanza suggests that humans have achieved great feats, such as traveling to other planets and drilling through solid rock, yet we are unable to live together in peace. This highlights the paradoxical nature of humanity- our technological achievements are at odds with our inability to coexist peacefully.
The next stanza speaks to the scientific advances we have made in understanding our place in the universe- tracking comets, pondering our existence- yet we are still plagued by our inability to show compassion to one another. The lyrics convey the idea that we have failed to evolve morally and ethically at the same pace as our technological advancements.
The final stanza draws a comparison between humans and the extinct species of dinosaurs, implying that we too may be on the verge of extinction due to our unsustainable practices. However, the lyrics also suggest that there is hope for us, and that we have the power to change the trajectory of our fate through conscious evolution.
Line by Line Meaning
We can travel to the planets
We possess the technology to explore outer space
Drive a mile through solid granite
We are capable of engineering feats such as drilling through solid rock
Thrive in all extremes of weather
We are adaptable to survive in various climates and conditions
But we cannot live together
Despite our advancements, we struggle to coexist harmoniously with each other
We have pondered our existence
We have contemplated the reason for our being
Tracked the comets in the distance
We have monitored celestial bodies in space
But we're overcome with blindness
Despite our pursuit of knowledge, we are still ignorant to certain truths
By an act of human kindness
Our compassion towards others can lead us to overlook certain realities
We have ventured where
We have explored territories
None have gone before us
We have gone to places no humans have visited in the past
But in matters fundamental
When it comes to important and essential matters
We are patterned on an old design
We have inherited certain traits from our evolutionary ancestors
Welcome back Tyrannosaurus
A reference to the dinosaur which existed in the past
Evolution is a state of mind
Adapting and evolving is a mindset that we should adopt
We have filled the halls of science
We have expanded our knowledge on various scientific fields
With the bones of mighty giants
The fossils of prehistoric creatures, such as dinosaurs
They'd all been there for generations
The remains of these creatures have been on Earth for centuries
Buried under our foundations
These fossils have been found under our cities and buildings
It's a page right out of history
This is a common theme in our past
Everything is still a mystery
There is still so much we do not know and cannot explain
All except for one distinction
With the exception of one important thing
We can stop our own extinction
We have the power to prevent our own species from dying out
We have set ourselves apart
We have distinguished ourselves from other creatures in our world
From all that's gone before us
From all of the previous life and history on this Earth
But in matters fundamental
When it comes to important and essential matters
We are victims of an old design
We are limited by our evolutionary heritage
Here's your chance Tyrannosaurus
We can learn from past mistakes to achieve a better future
Maybe we can get it right this time
We have the potential to make better, informed decisions
Grab a club and join the chorus
A call to action to participate in our evolution
Evolution is a state of mind
Adapting and evolving is a mindset that we should adopt
Lyrics © Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Written by: BROCK PATRICK WALSH, IVAN GUIMARES LINS
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind