Favorite Songs for their Lyrics: Part IX

Girls Just Wanna Have Fun, Cyndi Lauper (1984)-I hate to over-rely on words like “classist” or “feminist” but this song is practically begging me to. Overtly this song is under the guise of a girl power anthem. The plural here-“girls” instead of “girl”--makes the biggest difference: In songs, the relationship is the celebration and it’s not a song of self-discovery, but rather a song to the “ladies out there” like Beyonce often targets her audience.

There is one explicit reference to the narrator being underclass in the song: “Oh mommy dear, we’re not the fortunate ones.” But within a larger scope, “when the working day is done” and the pressure from the narrator’s parents to do something with their life, indicates that fun is a rebellion from what could be a more dire need to produce money than someone of higher status. In other words, Lauper is a fiery proletariat who wants to team up with Marx to burn shit down: Only, through partying.

Lyrics

Give it Away, Red Hot Chili Peppers (1992)-This song is very direct please about altruism which sounds not particularly grunge (honestly, I’m not too familiar with that genre). I love how in the sense that rap is about bragging, this song is about being selfless. At the same time, he’s bragging at the same time about how he can’t tell the difference between “being a kingpin and a pauoper” The song is also structured like a square dance where a series of instructions is shouted to the audience in a participatory manner  and there’s a certain amount of repetition.

Lyrics

No More Tears Left to Cry, Arianna Grande (2018)-Released amid one of that year’s most public celebrity break-ups with Pete Davidson), this song is more of a response to a news event than it is a musing on love in a cultural vacuum. Since songs have to be economical with their words, I once again am drawn to how one or two words makes a difference. The “more” and in No More Tears, implies she has already been crying to the fullest extent of her body’s capacity. And it’s a positive song. The narrator expressed, “I’m loving, I’m living, I’m picking it up.”

Lyrics

Hold On, Wilson Phillips (1990)-This has been a song that has got me through some depressing times lately. It perfectly encapsulates the way you should respond to someone with depression. The song opens up with, “I know there’s pain” which is what I generally want someone to say to me on a bad day: An acknowledgement that whatever I’m going through is legitimate. However, the narrator gets into the tough love phase of the heart-to-heart talk “No one can change your life except for you/Don’t let anyone step all over you.” This mirrors the kind of sentiments that countless therapists, bartenders, or best friends will tell you when you ask or pay them to lend an ear. The ultimate through-line of the chorus “Hold on for one more day” is really solid advice for someone who feels like hopeless about the future. I’ve been there before and in those cases I have often made the mistake of looking really far ahead and forecasting doom and gloom. In reality, I should have just found happiness and hope on that day. There are a lot of songs about lifting you up out of depression and this is one of the best of them.

Lyrics

Easy on Me, Adele (2021)-Do relationships really work on this? Does an equal relationship where participants (of whatever sort) are squaring off about their emotions and someone requests “go easy on me?”  Someone can soften their tone in a touchy emotional discussion, but you can’t request they suppress their feelings. So it’s an interesting request.  This might come off as a love song, because, most songs are love songs, but there is reason to suspect that this is about a mother trying to apologize to her kids for being young and unprepared for motherhood (I’m not willing to Google whether Adele is a mother because I want the text to speak for itself) as she says “I changed who I was to put you both first but now I give up” and I just don’t see Adele as a swinging polyamorist.

So much of the song is covered in vivid imagery like “no gold in this river that I’ve been washing my hands in forever” (economic strife?) and “didn’t get the chance to feel the world around me” and I especially like how Adele feels like she’s drowning in silence followed by the line “baby, let me in.” Maybe going easy on her is merely giving Adele the chance to speak?

Lyrics

Get Me Away from Here I’m Dying, Belle and Sebastian (1996)-I heard this during the sound track of “Resident Alien.” The title of the song (and also its first line) doesn’t really match the intensity of the rest of the song’s lyrics which is mostly playfully breaking the fourth wall about writing. The narrator laments “Write me a song to set me free” to save him from his impending death (probably exaggerated). He then follows, “Nobody writes them like they used to, so it may as well be me.” It’s even humbler than the most humble of brags that the narrator plans to be a rock star just because he feels a void needs to be filled. He even follows it up with the line “You could either be successful or be us.” How can you not be charmed by these guys with their “winning smiles.”

Lyrics

Mrs. Rita, Gin Blossoms (1992)-The song was written about a palm reader in Tempe, Arizona who lived down the street from band member Jesse Venezuela. In the song, the narrator sings both about a lost love and his dependence on Mrs. Rita to tell him his future.  The character is also a little aimless which fits into why he needs a fortune teller. Like Two-Face in the Batman, if he was a little more decisive would he really need a fortune teller? In that sense, is it a complimentary song of Mrs. Rita? Well, in reality the song was not remembered as one of the band’s biggest hits but it was enough to quadruple Mrs. Rita’s business.

Lyrics

Makes Me Wonder, Maroon 5 (2007)-The narrator here has a pretty well-expressed sense of self-awareness as well as a resignation that he isn’t in total emotional control of this situation. He’s clearly not over his break-up and expresses his lust for her in some pretty NC-17 ways (“struggle to memorize/the way it felt between your thighs”). He pretty overtly says he wants to get her back but also possibly looks forward to the day when “it won’t hurt anymore.” Perhaps reconciling those two facets of his emotions is why he feels like he has something to hide (hence, “You’ve caught me in a lie/I have no alibi”). The most definitive thing we can conclude is that he’s in the phase of a break-up where he’s trying to process it and find answers.

Lyrics

All Songs I've Analyzed at this point (check the lyrics tab):

Adele: Easy on Me

Anna Nalick: Breathe

Arianna Grande: No More Tears Left to Cry
Augustana: Boston
Avril Lavigne: I'm With You
The Bangles: Hazy Shade of Winter

Belle and Sebastian: Get Me Away from Here, I'm Dying
Ben Folds: Landed, Annie Waits, Time, Evaporated
Barenaked Ladies: Testing 1 2 3
Bruce Hornsby: On the Western Skyline
Cat Stevens: First Cut is the Deepest

Cyndi Lauper: Girls Just Wanna Have Fun
Charlotte Martin: Your Armor
Coldplay: Speed of Sound, Viva la Vida
Counting Crows: She Don't Want Nobody Near, Hard Candy, Rain King
David Bowie: Changes
Dave Matthews Band: Gray Street, #41, Dancing Nancies, Grace is Gone
Ed Sheeran: The A-Team
Fall out Boy: Dance Dance
Five for Fighting: 100 Years
The Fray: You Found Me, Over My Head
Foo Fighters: Learn to Fly
Gin Blossoms: South of Nowhere
Goo Goo Dolls: Broadway is Dark Tonight, Better Days, Here is Gone
Green Day: Wake Me Up When September Ends
Jason Mraz: On Love in Sadness
John Cougar Mellencamp: Jack and Diane
John Mayer: Clarity, 3 X 5, No Such Thing, Bigger than My Body, Why Georgia
Howie Day: Collide
Hootie and the Blowfish: Time
Leona Lewis: Better in Time
Lorde: Team
Macklemore and Lewis: Thrift Shop
Mamas and the Papas: California Dreaming

Maroon 5: Makes Me Wonder
Matchbox Twenty: Downfall, All I Need, Let's See How Far We've Come, Black and White People
Michelle Branch: Game of Love
Nickel Creek: Green and Gray, Seven Wonders
Paramore: Ain't It Fun
Pink: Raise Your Glass 

Red Hot Chili Peppers: Give it Away

Sara Bareilles: Bottle It Up, Fairytales, Hold my Heart
Sarah McLachlan: Adia, Angel
Smashing Pumpkins: 1979
Script: For the First Time
Sister Hazel: Your Winter
Steely Dan: Barrytown
Switchfoot: Stars, Dare You To Move
Sum 41: In Too Deep
Taylor Swift: Blank Space
Tori Amos: Silent All These Years
Wilson Phillips: Hold On
Whitney Houston: I Want To Dance with Somebody
Zedd: Clarity

Song Analysis: Favorite Songs for their Lyrics: Part VIII

This is another edition of a series where I dissect and analyze songs I like for their lyrics. I'm generally only approaching the lyrics because I don't really believe qualitative value can be assigned to melodies and chords. It's also worth  noting that in the same way that some of my culture writer peers will wear their knowledge of obscure bands like a badge of honor, I tend to do the opposite and try to remain as openly unashamed as I can about owning records by Maroon 5 and Katy Perry.

Lastly, check the lyrics tag down below for other versions of this series.

Silent All These Years, Tori Amos-The implication on Genius is that the barking dog and antichrist referenced in the first verse indicate the narrator is an abusive relationship. As Freud said, sometimes a barking dog is a barking dog and an antichrist is just something you throw in to be poetic. The abusive lover theory also doesn’t hold up when you consider that she is upset that this subject is with another woman in the second verse (the one with deep thoughts though I think Tori Amos could give her a run for her money in that department) and strangely seems to be back with him by the end of the verse. There’s also a very clear case of changing subjects: At first it’s a passive observer she wants to trade places with, and it’s very unclear who she wants to stand where she stands when the mother shows up in a nasty dress (although isn’t it superficial to harp on her wardrobe?).

The confusion in narrative focus leads me to believe that the song’s unifying element is what’s there under our very noses: the song title. Amos’ relationship (and her life) isn’t one that can be easily characterized and she just wants to express it. The line “sometimes I hear my voice” indicates that only occasionally does she have any sense of inner clarity.  The more the narrator expresses herself, the more empowered she is. Threatening her boyfriend what can either be a pregnancy scare or physical evidence of abuse (“boy you best pray that I bleed real soon”) is followed by a dropping-the-mic  equivalent of “how’s that thought for you.” On the other  end of the spectrum, silence worries her that she will be “stripped of her beauty till there’s nothing left.”

There’s also an indication that this imperfect boyfriend is bound to her through economic hardship. If twenty-five bucks and a cracker (I’d like to hope it’s a whole carton of Ritz bites because one single cracker seems tough) is all she has to get “there”, then leaving a romantic partner who could potentially break into money isn’t an option. 

Changes, David Bowie-My knowledge of musicians in their prime before I started consistently  listening to the radio (1997-1999) is pretty embarrassing and it’s only through commercials and film soundtracks that I’m familiar with most of them. David Bowie is an artist I only came around to in a roundabout way: Wes Anderson’s “The Life Aquatic” in which his songs are covered on-screen with a sole acoustic guitar in Portuguese. It was only upon his tragic death earlier this year that I became aware of how beautiful of a man Bowie was.  

One thing about Bowie that I imagine to be both a blessing and a curse was his propensity for recrafting himself musically. For all his musical generosity and his inspiring sense of openness to every musical genre imaginable, there seemed an underlying dissatisfaction with sticking with anything else too long. He best expresses this in the ubiquitous “Changes.” There are both hints of being trapped by society’s expectations of him (“How the others must see the faker”) as well as liberation. There are also signs of Bowie’s curse here too: He speaks of the taste not being as sweet when he realizes a goal which seems moderately tortuous. Either way, there’s a sense of pressure to stay ahead of the curve (“I’m much too fast to take that test”) but whether it’s legitimate (hitting “a million dead end streets” is a problem whether society is pushing you or not) or some externalized threat from the next generation (“oh look out, you rock and rollers”) is curiously left vague. In a way Bowie has never known himself if you follow the opening line: “Still don’t know what I’ve been waiting for.”

Evaporated, Ben Folds Five-Perhaps I should be more certain but I’d give 7 out of 10 odds that I know what this song is about and if it were any more specific I’m sure I would like it less. My theory is it’s about a deadbeat dad who’s been riddled with guilt by the choice he made. The biggest hint I can gather is his comparison to his old man and the conclusion that it’s the nature of “all men [to] want to get into a car and go.” Rather than try to correct his wrong, the narrator has resigned himself to his fate and without a possibility of changing his future, he is textbook depressed (“don’t you know I’m numb man, I can’t feel a thing”). Going by that old saying about children being prone to making the same mistakes as their parents when they grow up, perhaps the narrator has felt that his failure would be pre-destined.

My favorite line is in the second verse: “I’ve faith that there’s a soul somewhere that’s leading me around, I wonder If she knows which way is down.” If faith in some overarching spirit to guide you somewhere is your saving grace, why would you want them to lead you down? In this case, the narrator is in a purgatory-like state and while he doesn’t have an explicit death wish, the divine spirit is keeping him from falling any lower (the narrator is numb but still alive). He imagines he deserves worse and wonders why a bigger punishment hasn’t yet befallen him.

Angel, Sarah McLaughlin-While these entries are supposed to be about lyrics, it’s hard to deny the contributions to McLaughlin’s serene voice to these lyrics. This song is pretty ubiquitous for good reason: Few songs soothe me on a bad day as this one and I find few songs whose status as a good is indisputable. McLaughlin perfectly captures the feelings of weariness and fatigue: Waiting for the “break that will make it ok”, being “tired of this straight line” and the imagined paranoia of “vultures and thieves at your door.” McLaughlin’s song is so powerful that it almost makes me want to celebrate the way life can run over you. The line “In this sweet madness, oh this glorious sadness” says this is all part of the human experience and can even be sweet and glorious if you take a step back and appreciate the value in these struggles. It’s not easy to do but this is a song that helps me get there.

On the Western Skyline, Bruce Hornsby and the Range-One of my two favorite piano players, Bruce Hornsby is a rare piano rock star who draws from bluegrass music: Rich portraits of place and somber portrayals of hard economic times often color his songs. Interestingly enough, Hornsby is from my home state of Virginia (he made several donations to my alma mata’s music department) and he hails from not the mountainous part but the Eastern tidewater region which is mostly known for producing rappers (Mary J Blige, Missy Elliott).

Although the song’s most repeated line is “I hope she’s out there somewhere on the western skyline,” he seems to be singing from a resigned sense of loneliness. Rather than seek love in the place where the “rooftops sag on second street,” he’s simply a passive observer to what’s happening around him.

As love is both an end to itself and a metaphor for some larger truth in much of music, it seems that pining over lost love (also explored in “Mandolin Rain” and “River Runs Low”)  can easily be read as a metaphor to pining over lost economic opportunity. His line “too many dreams, not enough hope” speaks directly to the kind of imbalance in jobs and job seekers that could set a community on a downward spiral. It’s also important to note that everyone seems to be affected since the lonely woman also say a prayer.

Time, Ben Folds-I’m reminded here of the biggest heroic act in the notorious tear jerker “Rudy.” It wasn’t anything that happened in the film but rather that the real-life coach  volunteered to become the villain In the screenplay so that the film would have more conflict thereby increasing its chance of being greenlit. Similarly, Ben Folds feels enough for his subject that he’s willing to be a transference of negative emotions and blame. “Think of me anyway you want. I can be a problem if it’s easier,” he sings. It’s a generous offer to say the least.

As the title suggests, the song is about time, and there’s a deeper connotation here. Ben Folds is willing to be whatever his subject wants because he sees emotional wounds as inconsequential. Mainly, they abate with time. “In time, I’ll fade away, in time, I won’t care what you say, and in time….time takes time you know”

Boston, Augustana-Because I saw the song covered by a heart-broken Leonard on “The Big Bang Theory”, I’m a teensy bit ashamed to list this one. Fortunately, I’m defiantly against musical shaming so here we go: The song is about a sad, jaded girl in need of a life change and one of its strengths is that it seems like it’s exactly as long or as short as the word count should be. While the narrator has empathy for the subject (“oh dear you look so lost, eyes are red and tears are shed”), he is mostly a passive observer (as opposed to “Annie Waits” which I’ve covered). As such he doesn’t have the capacity or obligation to fully present us with the why and how of this girl’s rush to get to Boston.

The narrator uses a lot of colorful imagery to describe her but the song sticks out more for the second hand perspective. The narrator doesn’t have the answers to her sadness  either  and also ponders about “the world you must’ve crossed.” Appropriately enough, the girl wants to start a new life where no one knows her name and the narrator grants her that anonymity throughout the song.

Seven Wonders, Nickel Creek-History’s first tourism campaign was the seven wonders of the ancient world (of course, then the word “ancient” wasn’t there). But of those seven, only the Great Pyramids at Giza remain which can be seen as a lesson on the fallibility of man.

Fittingly, the song centers around a man (or perhaps an unusually weak diety) coming to terms with his limits. He can’t “unleash the hands of time” or prevent the rain from falling. It’s a broad metaphor for man’s struggle to control his circumstances but this is bluegrass and (as I said with Bruce Hornsby) it’s a genre that thrives on the specifics. For instance, the subject is consigned to “never owning more than second place.” It’s a throwaway line that gets you thinking more about whether the protagonist’s feelings of inadequacy stem from being second place to some  rival, his internal nature or nature itself.

Raise Your Glass, Pink-Pink’s persona is one of punk-inspired defiance mixed with girl power. Songs like “Try” “Just Give Me a Reason” or “F---ing Perfect” aim to be inspirational and I won’t deny that they succeed. But sometimes her lyrics just seem sloppy. “Who Knew” is a poignant anthem to lost love, but Pink can’t resist throwing in the line “If someone said three years from now, you’d be long gone, I’d stand up and punch them out.” It’s almost as if Pink knows  she’s about to get too mushy and throwing a line about randomly punching someone will maintain her “in your face” cred. Attempting to split the difference between sentimental Pink and punkish Pink is what often makes her sounding silly.  

“Raise Your Glass” works because it embraces the “in your face” side of Pink without irony . According to Pink, we’re supposed to turn off the lights, call her up if we’re gangsta and snatch some panties (if I got that line right). She makes up words (“Dancey” which is apparently the opposite of fancy) and just flat-out laughs her way through the bridge. It’s reminiscent of Kesha’s “Tik Tok” in knowing exactly what it is but it’s got a bit more depth. I especially like the line about being “wrong in all the right ways.”

All Songs I've Analyzed at this point:
Anna Nalick: Breathe
Augustana: Boston
 Avril Lavigne: I'm With You
The Bangles: Hazy Shade of Winter
Ben Folds: Landed, Annie Waits, Time, Evaporated
Barenaked Ladies: Testing 1 2 3
Bruce Hornsby: On the Western Skyline
Cat Stevens: First Cut is the Deepest
Charlotte Martin: Your Armor
Coldplay: Speed of Sound, Viva la Vida
Counting Crows: She Don't Want Nobody Near, Hard Candy, Rain King
David Bowie: Changes
Dave Matthews Band: Gray Street, #41, Dancing Nancies, Grace is Gone
Ed Sheeran: The A-Team
Fall out Boy: Dance Dance
Five for Fighting: 100 Years
The Fray: You Found Me, Over My Head
Foo Fighters: Learn to Fly
Gin Blossoms: South of Nowhere
Goo Goo Dolls: Broadway is Dark Tonight, Better Days, Here is Gone
Green Day: Wake Me Up When September Ends
Jason Mraz: On Love in Sadness
John Cougar Mellencamp: Jack and Diane
John Mayer: Clarity, 3 X 5, No Such Thing, Bigger than My Body, Why Georgia
Howie Day: Collide
Hootie and the Blowfish: Time
Leona Lewis: Better in Time
Lorde: Team
Macklemore and Lewis: Thrift Shop
Mamas and the Papas: Dance Dance
Matchbox Twenty: Downfall, All I Need, Let's See How Far We've Come, Black and White People
Michelle Branch: Game of Love
Nickel Creek: Green and Gray, Seven Wonders
Paramore: Ain't It Fun
Pink: Raise Your Glass 
Sara Bareilles: Bottle It Up, Fairytales, Hold my Heart
Sarah McLachlan: Adia, Angel
Smashing Pumpkins: 1979
Script: For the First Time
Sister Hazel: Your Winter
Steely Dan: Barrytown
Switchfoot: Stars, Dare You To Move
Sum 41: In Too Deep
Taylor Swift: Blank Space
Tori Amos: Silent All These Years
Whitney Houston: I Want To Dance with Somebody
Zedd: Clarity

Favorite Songs for their Lyrics Part VII

This is a series where I look at songs I like for their lyrical value and use my fancy degree (in overthinking song lyrics) to analyze the hell out of them. Why is it not called "best songs"? Because I don't believe music itself can be subjectively analyzed as good or bad. Different melodies hit people in different ways. I also apologize that I don't have very sophisticated tastes in music to choose songs from. I don't really listen to anything that's not directly in front of me and on the Top 40 radio station.


I Want to Dance With Somebody, Whitney Houston (1987)-The classic ballad hides a lot underneath the surface. It seems as though the narrator just “wants to dance with somebody,” but the verses expose just how much aching she’s feeling over not having met that somebody yet: “I’ve been all right up to now, it’s the light of day that shows me how, but when the night falls, my loneliness calls.” In other words, the narrator is feeling starved for love on a nightly basis when the workday ends. It paints a vivid picture of a desperate person but it’s also startlingly true of all of us: Being lovesick rarely comes up when we’re swamped at work or engaged in a string of errands.

Speed of Sound (2005), Viva la Vida (2008), Coldplay-Sure, a sampling of Coldplay’s singles (I’ll openly admit that I’m only familiar with Coldplay songs that have played at least 40 times on the radio ) show their share of fluff (“Yellow”) and when it comes down to it, Chris Martin consciously trying to be the best band of all time is off-putting. However, there’s a feeling in some of Coldplay’s songs that these guys are at least two or three rungs higher on Manslow’s hierarchy of needs than your average teeny bopper singing about a girl’s beautiful soul. “Viva la Vida” is a song that mixes a hodgepodge of biblical references (the fall of Sodom and Gomorrah, the parting of the Red Sea, the “Keys to the Kingdom” allegory, St. Peter at the gates of Heaven) with mythology from various wars and revolutions (the Greek legend of Damocles, the beheading of Louis XVI in the French Revolution, etc) to fashion an epic tale of monarchical power and faith. “Speed of Sound” is a more meditative number about seeing the grandness of the universe and wondering whether he can achieve his potential. He also talks about the limits of understanding or learning everything he can. A sign in Japanese, for example, is a barrier of sorts.

California Dreaming, Mamas and the Papas (1965), Hazy Shade of Winter, The Bangles (1987) (orig. Simon and Garfunkel (1966)-Both of these songs talk about how the change in seasons of a picturesque setting becomes a reminder for the narrator of how life is slow to move on. In “California Dreaming,” the narrator goes for a walk on a winter’s day and the brown leaves and gray skies are a catalyst for wanting to leave. In a meandering story style, he meets up with a preacher who seems to know better than the narrator himself that his efforts to escape this purgatory of sorts are fruitless (“he knows I’m gonna stay"). He also mentions that “if I didn’t tell her, I could leave today”). Although this isn’t a very fleshed-out part of the song (which only has 126 words including repetitions), there’s something oddly relatable there: It’s usually one or two small commitments that keep us from making a big move (at least that’s how it often plays out with me).

Hazy Shade of Winter, The Bangles/Simon and Garfunkel- Clocking in at 200 words, Hazy Shade of Winter is a bit more descriptive although it covers eerily similar territory. The sky is “hazy” instead of gray but the leaves are still brown and both these seasonal changes seem to depress the hell out of the narrator. In a very subtle way, “Hazy Shade of Winter” broaches the irony of how the joys of Christmas can invoke depression. The narrator instructs you (the subject of the song as it is in the second person) to listen to the Salvation Army Band and think about how what they’re doing is better than what you’ve got planned. Still, while winter is winter and gloomy, it’s the narrator who is in the springtime of his or her life (I’m not sure how that makes the subject feel better). There’s also a suggestion that the gloomy winter is part of a larger tapestry in a sort of ying-yang manner.

Better in Time, Leona Lewis (2008)-Leona Lewis was a big deal around 2008 with her ubiquitous song “Bleeding Love” which is a pretty depressing anecdote on how she keeps bleeding, keeps, keeps bleeding love. Whatever that means, no thanks. Her lesser-remembered second single of that year, “Better in Time” is definitely a more complete sentiment. The narrator is getting over someone and uncovers some pretty deep stuff about the process along the way: That pain and healing occur simultaneously (“It’s going to hurt when it heals too”), that the media makes love sickness harder (“How could I turn on the TV without something that would remind me”) and that things do get better with time. The most affecting sentiment from the song to me is “I’m gonna smile because I deserve to” as if she has to remember to give herself permission. It’s also a song with an interesting call-and-response pattern that symbolizes an internal dialogue.

The A-Team, Ed Sheeran (2013)-A valuable lesson to all you teeny boppers out there: Release a song that’s not about yourself as your first single and then you can spend the rest of your music career whining about your sex life and still have artistic credibility. “The A-Team” tells the story about a drug addict who doesn’t appear to be leaving bad decision land any time soon (prostitution is among the measures she’s resorting to). The song starts out with descriptive half-sentences (“White lips, pale face, breathing in snow flakes, burnt lungs, sour taste) which hint at a very sad character but the description brings an curiously undeniable sense of beauty to it. When he talks about how “she flies to the motherland,” it’s in keeping with the fantasy element. Sheeran Sheeran is very soft-spoken even as he sings the line “and they scream.”    My favorite line of the song is: “The worst things in life come free to us.”

Dare You to Move, Switchfoot (2004)- If music genres were determined by the content of a song’s lyrics, then “Dare You to Move” would be in the “You’re awesome, go out into the world and be awesome” genre along with  Kelly Clarkson’s “Break Away” or Katy Perry’s “Firework” but Switchfoot’s entry into the genre seems so enchantingly grandiose lyrically speaking.

The narrator talks to the subject as if he’s being born (or being reborn) as he welcomes him/her/you to the planet and to existence. Very little in the song can be taken literally. If you go the literal route with it, you’re bound to hit upon unanswered questions: What is “the fall out” exactly? Why is everyone watching you? Is this being addressed to an alien? Switchfoot is composed of Christian members who aren’t clear about whether their band identifies as Christian rock but that might be part of it. Look closer and you see that Switchfoot is even expressing doubt about the lyrics they write as they’re singing them: “Redemption has stories to tell” and “Forgiveness is right where you fell” are both prefaced by the magical word “Maybe.” The grandiosity of the imagery is contrasted by a mandate (or rather a “dare”) that’s pretty simple: To move. Action is better than inaction is the message and within the context of the song, there’s a drastic difference.

Dance, Dance, Fall out Boy (2005)-Despite being in his late 20’s when he wrote most of Fall Out Boy’s most well-known songs, Fall Out Boy lyricist Pete Wentz has a knack for capturing the adolescent experience with a playful and genre-savvy vibe.  “Dance Dance” tells the story of a hormone-addled teenager going through a date with the girl of his dreams to a school dance which happens to be a pretty horrifying experience because of the pressure he puts on himself. The great thing about the song is that it unfolds in real-time as he blows the opening line of his date in the first verse and admits to being weighed down with “words too overdramatic.” He then starts to alternate between being obsessed and invested like a kid in line at a video game arcade who is already “two quarters and a heart down.” He finally capitulates into admitting “I only want sympathy in the form of you crawling into bed with me.” In between this tale, the chorus treats dancing as a stress-inducing routine that collectively leads everyone to fall apart but there’s little doubt that the narrator is likely dancing and undergoing the misery needed to attain his goal. 

Hold My Heart, Sara Bareilles (2010)-I’ve noticed as I’ve done this that some songs feature a narrator evolving as the song goes on (Barenaked Ladies "One Week", The Beatles’ “With a Little Help from my Friends”, and  Tracy Chapman's "Fast Car" are three random examples that comes to mind).

In this song, narrator has a habit of guarding her heart in relationships. She sees herself as bad news of sorts. She doesn’t know how to “see anybody by me getting hurt.” But in the relationship that’s the subject of the song, the narrator issues a distress signal of sorts to have insurance for her heart (“can anybody here to hold her heart”) because she doesn’t want to let go too soon of a good situation. However, the narrator gradually admits to herself that she doesn’t want to let go of the guy she’s with. The struggle in her is not about her specific habits but one specific guy who means a lot to her.

1979, Smashing Pumpkins (1996)-A song drenched with nostalgia about being young on the precipice of adulthood. The narrator is inviting the audience (“You and I should meet”) to join him in a vividly detailed point in time where he and his friends were care free. Words like “live wire,” “junebug” and “zipper blues” give the song a sense of (possibly regional or historical) specificity to the narrator’s experience. The narrator notes that while they “feel the pull” of the impending future and the adult responsibilities it will bring (he equates this future to “the land of a thousand guilts” and “poured cements”), the greatest thing about the moment is that they don’t care about what’s next in store. There’s a very strong duality about this moment that makes it memorable enough to sing about: The accrued experience of having conquered childhood while knowing that adulthood is about to kick in.

A historical footnote:   Although the song is titled “1979,” it doesn’t really sync with lead singer and songwriter Billy Corgan’s experiences in 1979. He was born in 1967. He later revealed that he chose to name the song “1979” because It was easiest to rhyme with.

 

  

All Songs I've Analyzed at this point:
Anna Nalick: Breathe
Avril Lavigne: I'm With You
The Bangles: Hazy Shade of Winter
Ben Folds: Landed, Annie Waits
Barenaked Ladies: Testing 1 2 3
Cat Stevens: First Cut is the Deepest
Charlotte Martin: Your Armor
Coldplay: Speed of Sound, Viva la Vida
Counting Crows: She Don't Want Nobody Near, Hard Candy, Rain King
Dave Matthews Band: Gray Street, #41, Dancing Nancies, Grace is Gone
Ed Sheeran: The A-Team
Fall out Boy: Dance Dance
The Fray: You Found Me
Foo Fighters: Learn to Fly
Gin Blossoms: South of Nowhere
Goo Goo Dolls: Broadway is Dark Tonight, Better Days, Here is Gone
Green Day: Wake Me Up When September Ends
Jason Mraz: On Love in Sadness
John Cougar Mellencamp: Jack and Diane
John Mayer: Clarity, 3 X 5, No Such Thing, Bigger than My Body, Why Georgia
Howie Day: Collide
Hootie and the Blowfish: Time
Leona Lewis: Better in Time
Lorde: Team
Macklemore and Lewis: Thrift Shop
Mamas and the Papas: Dance Dance
Matchbox Twenty: Downfall, All I Need, Let's See How Far We've Come, Black and White People
Michelle Branch: Game of Love
Nickel Creek: Green and Gray
Paramore: Ain't It Fun
Sara Bareilles: Bottle It Up, Fairytales, Hold my Heart
Sarah McLachlan: Adia
Smashing Pumpkins: 1979
Script: For the First Time
Sister Hazel: Your Winter
Steely Dan: Barrytown
Switchfoot: Stars, Dare You To Move
Sum 41: In Too Deep
Taylor Swift: Blank Space
Whitney Houston: I Want To Dance with Somebody
Zedd: Clarity


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