Believe (Yellowcard song)

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"Believe"

Single by Yellowcard
from the album Ocean Avenue
Released	2003
Format	Audio CD
Genre	Pop Punk
Label	Capitol Records

"Believe" is the eleventh track on Yellowcard's debut album Ocean Avenue. The song pays tribute to the firefighters who lost their lives trying to rescue people trapped in the World Trade Center towers after the terrorist attacks in New York City on September 11, 2001. The song also includes excerpts from two speeches: New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg's address on the first anniversary of 9/11 and Abraham Lincoln's famous Gettysburg Address.

[edit] Speeches

Approximately two minutes and forty-four seconds into the song, a man can be heard reciting these words:

"Again today we take into our hearts and minds those who perished on this site one year ago, and also those who came to toil in the rubble to bring order out of chaos, and help us make sense of our despair."

This is an excerpt from a speech given by New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg at Ground Zero on September 11, 2002, the first anniversary of 9/11. The excerpt refers both to the citizens who lost their lives in the towers as well as to the rescue workers who came to save them.

In the last fourteen seconds, the same man can be heard reciting these words:

"The world will little note nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here."

This is an excerpt of former President Abraham Lincoln's famous Gettysburg Address, in which Lincoln stood at the site of the Battle of Gettysburg, the bloodiest battle of the American Civil War, and dedicated the Gettysburg National Cemetery. The Address was read in its entirety by New York governor George Pataki at the same 9/11 anniversary memorial, shortly after Mayor Bloomberg's speech.

While the album was recorded in late 2002 - early 2003, around the time Mayor Bloomberg and Governor Pataki gave these speeches, it appears unlikely that the recitations on the track are those recorded at the memorial.