PULSE: Melissa Etheridge responds to Orlando massacre with music

Lesbian singer/songwriter Melissa Etheridge has written a new song, “Pulse,” in response to the shooting at the Orlando gay nightclub Pulse early Sunday morning, June 12, Rolling Stone reports.
The song begins with the lyrics, “Everybody’s got a pain inside/Imaginary wounds they fight to hide/How can I hate them, when everybody’s got a pulse?” The refrain calls for unity in the fight against hate: I am human; I am love/And my heart beats with my blood/Love will always win/Underneath the skin, everybody’s got a pulse.”
“I’m dealing with it the way I deal, which is, I wrote a song,” Etheridge told Rolling Stone. “I just sat here, and I just started writing a song… That’s how I first started to cope … . I feel called to speak; to do what musicians do. We’ve been the town criers for hundreds of years. We’re mirrors of society. We want to try to make sense. We want to try to heal. We want to bring some meaning, some purpose. We also want to put it down forever in history. That’s how I’m coping.”
Etheridge went into the studio Monday, June 13, with Jerry Wonda to record the new song, which she named after the nightclub where the shooting happened because “there’s just something very poetic and very meaningful about the name,” she told Rolling Stone. “You just start thinking about your own pulse. It’s the way I’ve always felt about the gay movement, the gay issue. Here we are — people who are loving; we are fighting for who we want to love.”
Etheridge said the song will be available to purchase soon, and that proceeds will be donated to an LGBT charity.
Listen to “Pulse” here.