Music Review // Marshall Dane "No Need To Speak"

 

One of the biggest things Marshall Dane has done with this song is represent how deaf people can still experience music.  For me, I never really thought about deaf people and their music experiences until I saw that viral video where a rapper saw an ASL interpreter and thought that the interpreter was dancing to his songs.  That was one of the first times I really thought about deaf people and them hearing music in their own way.

But more so than just music, Marshall Dane shows how deaf people can also just communicate with their body language.  I think of lines in this song like "I won't turn away" as being important to those who read lips.   Perhaps one of the best lines in this song as well, from an ASL perspective, is: "Just trust / These hands of mine".  I really feel like ASL should be taught more just because if you sign "help", for example, whatever language you speak, it comes out the same.  It's that universal language.

This is a slow, folk, almost country type of ballad and the singing gets big.   But it feels like a love song and in a lot of ways it is.  There is also some deep thought within, with lines such as: "I don't need the thunder / to tell me when there's rain"  I think it's just so important to remember that just because someone is deaf it doesn't mean their other senses aren't still there, so they're still able to rely on those to do a lot of things.

Sometimes I feel like there are topics in this world we need to discuss more but don't get talked about enough and so bringing them to light through music is a good thing.   It's also something that most people might be shocked by- that there is a song about deaf people because a lot of people might think that deaf people can't really experience music.  This is just an overall pleasant song, but more so it has an important purpose.