The group sings in a contemporary style, integrating R&B and jazz influences into their devotional songs and has 10 Grammy wins, 10 Dove Awards, one Soul Train Award and two NAACP Image Award nominations. They won Grammy Awards in 1989, 1990, 1991, 1995, 1998, and 2003 and have collaborated with Stevie Wonder, Whitney Houston, Don Henley, Ray Charles, Queen Latifah, Joe Sample, Quincy Jones, Marcus Miller and Gordon Goodwin.
In 1980, Claude McKnight formed an a cappella quartet, The Gentlemen's Estate Quartet, at Oakwood College in Huntsville, Alabama, a Seventh-Day Adventist College, where he was a freshman. He auditioned fellow students for the hobby group. The Gentlemen were rehearsing in a campus bathroom (later said to be in Peterson Hall), getting ready for a performance, when Mark Kibble walked by and heard them singing. He joined the harmonizing, adding a fifth part, and ended up singing with them onstage that very night.[1] Mark later invited Mervyn Warren to join the group. The group performed under the moniker "Alliance".
The group performed in local churches and on campus over the next years, with members changing due to college's inevitable comings and goings. In 1985, the lower half of the group (bass, baritone, and second tenor) left upon graduating. At that time, Alvin Chea, Cedric Dent, and David Thomas joined.
The group was signed to Warner Brothers in 1987, and quickly changed its name to "Take 6" after a name search revealed that "Alliance" was already being used. Their eponymous debut album, released in 1988, won them two Grammy Awards and resulted in top ten appearances on both the Billboard Contemporary Jazz and Contemporary Christian Charts. Take 6's swinging, harmony-rich gospel sound attracted a flurry of attention, and the group went on to record or appear with a number of luminaries, including Quincy Jones, Ella Fitzgerald and Stevie Wonder.
In 1991, after the release of their second album, So Much 2 Say, Mervyn Warren left the group to pursue a career as a producer. Joey Kibble, Mark's younger brother, was invited to round out the vocal lineup. The group added instrumentation to their purely a cappella sound beginning with the record He Is Christmas; Join The Band and Brothers continued their streak of success, and Take 6 amassed a total of seven Grammys and eight Dove awards, as well as topping the Downbeat Magazine's Reader's and Critic's poll for seven years' consecutively.
Take 6's 1998 release, So Cool, brought the group back to its a cappella origins.
In 2006 the group launched Take 6 Records and the 2006 release Feels Good was released on that label.
The group currently lists Nashville, Tennessee as its home.[2] All members grew up Seventh-Day Adventist.[
Can't Keep Goin' On And On
Take 6 Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Heartache is like a danger zone
Somewhere there is a better place
Out there where love will find a way
Channel:
I know this train is rollin', I feel the track
I don't know where it's goin' but it's always rollin'
right back where we started
Chorus:
I can't keep goin' on and on
I can't keep goin' on and on
I've been on this train so long
I can't keep goin' on
Faith knows that everything will change
Someday there'll be no more pain
Channel
Chorus
In the song "Can't Keep Goin' On And On," Take 6 expresses the feeling of being trapped in a cycle of heartache and despair. The lyrics convey the sense of loneliness and desperation, and the search for a better life. The singer laments that heartache feels like a danger zone, and that sometimes they feel all alone. They long for love and a better place where they can be happy. Despite not knowing where this train of life is headed, the singer feels that it always rolls back to where they started. They describe the cycle of broken-hearted souls who have been on this train for far too long.
The chorus of the song is a plea to break out of this vicious cycle. The singer admits that they can't go on like this anymore. They've been on this train for too long, and they can't keep going on and on. However, the singer holds on to faith that one day everything will change, and there will be no more pain.
Overall, the song seems to be about the struggle and pain of living in a world full of heartbreak and disappointment. It's about the search for something better, and the hope that one day things will change for the better.
Line by Line Meaning
Sometimes I feel so all alone
At times, I experience extreme loneliness
Heartache is like a danger zone
Experiencing heartache can be emotionally perilous
Somewhere there is a better place
There exists a superior location somewhere
Out there where love will find a way
In that location, love will discover a path
I know this train is rollin', I feel the track
I am aware of the train's movement through sensation
I don't know where it's goin' but it's always rollin'
The destination of the train is unknown, but it never stops moving
right back where we started
It ultimately returns to its beginning point
This train of brokenhearted souls
The train is a metaphor for humans suffering from emotional pain
I can't keep goin' on and on
Continuing in this way is intolerable
I've been on this train so long
I have been enduring this suffering for an extended period
Faith knows that everything will change
Belief acknowledges that transformation is inevitable
Someday there'll be no more pain
Eventually, there will be an end to the suffering
Chorus
Repeats the refrain of the song's central theme
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management, RESERVOIR MEDIA MANAGEMENT INC, Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Written by: CEDRIC CARL DENT, CLAUDE VERNELL, III MCKNIGHT, ROGER MURRAH
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind