Say Analysis
John Mayer is a fairly young artist, originally infamous for his blues music. He switched to pop/rock for a while, but is now back to mostly blues. One of his more popular songs presently is titled “Say” which was featured on the soundtrack of The Bucket List. When broken down by the Poetry of Song Rating System, this song received a score of 98.
Although its grade, if you will, was nearly perfect, the song was lacking a few important things. Points were taken off for cliché phrases, short vocal range, weak vocals, predictability, and most noticeable, unnecessary repetition. The line “say what you need to say” was sung a total of 38 times throughout the song. Mayer made up for lost points for allusion, imagery, metaphors, universal relevance, symbolism, and a few other literary and poetic devices.
It may be argued that the single repeated line was actually quite necessary. It is seemingly simple, yet it is actually quite deep. Some people may need to hear it that many times to get the message. John Mayer was trying to let people know that life is too short, so say what you feel and mean before it is too late.
Although its grade, if you will, was nearly perfect, the song was lacking a few important things. Points were taken off for cliché phrases, short vocal range, weak vocals, predictability, and most noticeable, unnecessary repetition. The line “say what you need to say” was sung a total of 38 times throughout the song. Mayer made up for lost points for allusion, imagery, metaphors, universal relevance, symbolism, and a few other literary and poetic devices.
It may be argued that the single repeated line was actually quite necessary. It is seemingly simple, yet it is actually quite deep. Some people may need to hear it that many times to get the message. John Mayer was trying to let people know that life is too short, so say what you feel and mean before it is too late.
Wonderful Analysis
For those of you who have maybe been living under a rock, Scrubs is a comedy that takes place in a hospital called Sacred Heart. Being a comedy, it makes it far more difficult to believably portray an emotional scene. Yes, a plethora of soundtracks have emotional scenes with fitting songs, but it is much more impacting when it is in the middle of what is mostly extremely comical. Director Lawrence Trilling did a great job when he chose the song “Wonderful” by Everclear to be featured in an episode called “My Fifteen Minutes” found in the very first season of Scrubs.
Imagery is something that can be found in practically every song ever written. “Wonderful” by Everclear immediately came to mind for a number of reasons. One reason why this particular song stood out is because the song itself is very moving. The lyrics hit the listener like a ton of bricks. They are from a child’s point of view about how difficult it is to watch his parents fight. He just wants everything to be wonderful again, but he doesn’t want everyone to tell him that it will be. This song is the definition of imagery. The stanzas “Promises mean everything when you’re little and the world’s so big. I just don’t understand how you can smile with all those tears in your eyes. Tell me everything is wonderful now” and “I go to school and I run and play. I tell the kids that its all okay. I laugh aloud so my friends won’t know. When the bell rings, I just don’t wanna go home.” Both are excepional examples of imagery. Also, when “Hope my mom and I hope my dad will figure out why they get so mad. Hear them scream, I hear them fight. They say bad words that make me wanna cry.” is sung, you cannot help but to see and feel what the narrator is going through. When you put this song to a scene in a television show with characters that viewers have become quite connected with, it makes for an awfully touching couple of minutes.
Many young adults and children can certainly relate to this song. This may very well be the reason that in imagery is so prevalent. If one understands what the narrator is going through, one may find it much easier to imagine the exact emotions and thoughts running through his mind. On the other hand, if one has been lucky enough to not have gone through parental fighting and/or divorce, one may find the lyrics unfathomable, resulting in lack of imagery in that particular person’s head. Whether one understands what is happening or not, imagery is indubitably present throughout the entire song.
Angie Analysis
Some may say that the song “Angie” by The Rolling Stones uses the poetic device of allusion, and some may argue that. Allusion is when a reference is made to something else without actually saying it. The meaning of this song has been questionable since the day of its release. The actual writer of the song is not definitely known either.
“Angie” is said by some to be written by Mick Jagger, while others believe that David Bowie wrote it for the band about Mick after they were supposedly caught in bed together. The ones who believe Jagger to be the writer strongly believe that the song was written for his daughter Angela. Though, Mick has said that he is not one to write songs about his babies. A third party may argue the fact that this song is clearly about fighting a drug addiction. "With no loving in our souls and no money in our coats, you can't say we're satisfied, but Angie, Angie, you can't say we never tried. Angie, you're beautiful, but ain't it time we said good-bye?" could very well mean that the writer, quite possibly the entire band, is ready to stop with the drug use. It could mean that they are sick of wasting money on things that make them feel numb and unsatisfied. They loved it at one point, but when the song was written, it was "time we said good-bye."
A plethora of songs at that time were filled with allusion. Many people, especially rock and roll bands, struggled with drug addiction. The Beatles are very well known for writing songs like this. Sadly, songs are frankly not as creative and well written nowadays.
“Angie” is said by some to be written by Mick Jagger, while others believe that David Bowie wrote it for the band about Mick after they were supposedly caught in bed together. The ones who believe Jagger to be the writer strongly believe that the song was written for his daughter Angela. Though, Mick has said that he is not one to write songs about his babies. A third party may argue the fact that this song is clearly about fighting a drug addiction. "With no loving in our souls and no money in our coats, you can't say we're satisfied, but Angie, Angie, you can't say we never tried. Angie, you're beautiful, but ain't it time we said good-bye?" could very well mean that the writer, quite possibly the entire band, is ready to stop with the drug use. It could mean that they are sick of wasting money on things that make them feel numb and unsatisfied. They loved it at one point, but when the song was written, it was "time we said good-bye."
A plethora of songs at that time were filled with allusion. Many people, especially rock and roll bands, struggled with drug addiction. The Beatles are very well known for writing songs like this. Sadly, songs are frankly not as creative and well written nowadays.
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