One Republic: Secrets

The first time I heard the song "Secrets" by One Republic was when it literally first came out because my friend was obsessed with the band and would buy every song that they ever came out with. So when this song came out, he cane running to me, telling me this song was going to be the next big thing. At first I didn't believe him and just shrugged it off just like every other time he would tell me about a One Republic song that was supposed to hit fame. But, once I listened to the song, I couldn't help but keep listening to it over and over again. It was addicting and then soon after became my favorite song and hit in the top 100 in itunes.

From the context of the song, it sounds like the person singing is feeling a lot of pressure to tell some juicy story that will have everyone talking about him so that he can be in the spotlight again.

"I need another story, something to get off my chest. My life gets kind of boring, need something that I can confess."


However, he doesn't have an exciting story about a troubled family life or a dark, shameful past; the kind of stories that people love to gossip about.


"Got no reason, got no shame, got no family I can blame."


The first time I listened to the song, I thought he had become so desperate that he had decided to just make up some story or do something dangerous that would attract a lot of attention. But the chorus convinces me that that's not the case. 


"Sick of all the insincere... This time, I don't need another perfect line. I don't care if critics never jump in line."


It sounds like he realizes that if he did that he would get a lot of attention, but he personally feels like it's not worth it. He's doing what he is just because he loves doing it, not because he wants fame and attention. He's realized that he doesn't care about shocking everyone with the perfect, story; he's sick of everyone working so hard to get attention that way and he wishes that people weren't so shallow and insincere.


Finally, I hear a plea for people to pay attention to him for the right reasons - his music, his personality, his dedication to what he does - even though he doesn't have an 'exciting' life that would be on all the magazine covers. He's going to be honest and show us who he really is, and he hopes people will appreciate that.


"Just don't let me disappear. I'm gonna tell you everything... I'm gonna give all my secrets away."

Bastille: Pompeii

"Pompeii" by Bastille is a somewhat newer song that came out this past year and skyrocketed to the top of the music charts. It's hard to categorize this particular song because it is a mixture of so many different genre's and types of music. But if I had to, I would say it's definitely Alternative. The meaning of this song can be taken on many different paths, but I really think my translation hits it right on the sweet spot.

It talks about how both on a large scale (wars, poverty, etc.) and a small scale (hopelessness, poor relationships, etc.), our world falls apart due to our own faults ("vices" in the song — selfishness, greed, general wrongdoings). We look around and recognize that our society and our own personal lives are flawed. 


Over and over in anyone's life, there are problems and difficulties. Yet, when we "close our eyes" (stop thinking about the problems themselves), we realize that despite our recognition of these flaws, we really haven't changed our attitudes at all to help make things better ("nothing's changed at all"). For that reason, we keep making the same mistakes over and over again — we've "been here before," and we're making the same mistakes again, one reason why the metaphor of Pompeii and it's destruction is brilliant for this song. We want to change everything that's going wrong, when maybe we should be looking to change ourselves and our own shortcomings. 


One of the most powerful lines of the song conveys this message — "Where do we begin? The rubble or our sins?" In other words, do we just clean up and hide our messes, or do we dig for the root of the problem first? It seems to suggest that the first option will lead to continued failure and an endless cycle of destruction.


There's definitely more here, but I think that's part of it. And like many songs, there are multiple valid interpretations, but I think this idea of our cyclical flaws is definitely in there. Fantastic song, even better lyrics.

Pearl Jam: Jeremy

The song "Jeremy" by Pearl Jam is just another one of those songs that brings me back to those relaxing car rides with my father when I was younger. And it's another song that we would sit through in absolute silence just taking the rawness of the song in.

The song is really meaningful, and you can really fell for the kids pain through the lyrics. In the first verse "At home, drawing pictures of mountain tops with him on top. Lemon yellow sun, arms raised in a V, dead lay in pools of maroon below" it shows that the kid, Jeremy, draws what he would like to feel in the drawing, like he conquered something in life and that people would actually respect him.

In the next couple lines "Daddy didn't give him attention, Oh, to the fact that mommy didn't care" you can really see that he was neglected all throughout his childhood, and that he didn't feel loved by anyone, or that he was even significant. The next two lines "King Jeremy the wicked, Oh, ruled his world" shows that he felt control for the first when shooting himself at the school, and that was the only way he could of ever felt any control.

The chorus of the song "Jeremy spoke in class today", means that he finally spoke out for himself and showed everyone how he felt, but that was by committing suicide in front of the class. The next verse describes what Jeremy Wade Delle actually did and what lead him to commit suicide. The following verse, " He hit me with a surprise left, my jaw left hurting. Dropped wide open, Just like the I heard" basically says how his mouth dropped wide open when being hit, just as wide when he heard about the shooting. The one line in the verse before the chorus, "And the boy was something mommy wouldn't wear" just shows again how his mother would not love care for him or show him any attention.

This song just show me how fortunate I am to have a family that cares for me and loves me. This song was written in 1991, and since then dozens of school shootings have cluttered the news. It is so tragic and it's something that needs to be stopped.

Bruno Mars: Grenade

Bruno Mars is probably one of the most talented current male singers out there. He is right up next to Sam Smith, Hozier, and Fall Out Boy. One of my favorite songs by him was put out a couple years ago, called "Grenade" and it was an instant hit.

When I first listened to this song, I also took it to mean that he's singing about a girl he's in love with and she just takes him for granted and abuses him in so many ways, and yet he can't let her go.

However, after listening to it a few times and really thinking about what the lyrics could actually mean, I believe it's not so much about a man who loves, in his words, a "bad woman," but instead about a man who is completely obsessed with this woman.

You can see this right in the very beginning when he says he should have known she was this way because she had her eyes open during their first kiss. He asks why were her eyes open, but the only way he would know hers were open is if his were also open. Him saying that should have been the signal she was bad seems a little obsessive and almost threatening. I can almost hear the persona from the song cornering this woman and aggressively asking "why were your eyes open?? why didn't you close your eyes??"


Next he says that all he ever wanted was for her to give him ALL of her love, and that's it. "I just wanted you to love me unconditionally. Why couldn't you do that for me??" 


The chorus goes on to say he would do all of these things for this woman (intercepting a grenade, jumping in front of a train, getting shot in the head) and it's a little too obsessive. Imagine if you were to just start seeing someone and after two weeks s/he was already saying they would die for you and they don't want to live unless it's with you. Granted, we don't know exactly how long the characters have been together, but it's still a very unhealthy way to look at a relationship.

So really, to me, it sounds like this man came on too strong to this girl in the early part of the relationship and she felt uneasy and maybe that she was in danger, so she decided to stop seeing him. As a result, we hear the story of an extremely sick and obsessive man wondering why she couldn't feel the same way about him as he did about her.

Rolling Stones: Beast of Burden

The Rolling Stones is probably one of the best rock and roll bands of all time. They can easily be put right up there with Led Zeppelin, Aerosmith, and even Van Halen. They have created some of the most memorable rock songs that will and have gone down in history forever such as; "Brown Sugar", "Paint It Black", and "Satisfaction". But in this entry I am going to tell you about one of their lesser known songs, because even the less popular songs by the Rolling Stones are worth a mention.

This is another one of those many songs that takes me back to one of those rare good childhood memories that I would have with my father when my father would take me out for a ride in the car and educate me on the importance of classic rock and to never let it go. There were some songs we would talk through, and occasionally sing along to, and then there were some that we would just sit in silence as the song played out. This song was one of those that was usually sat through with a relaxing hush stillness. This song was of course "Beast of Burden" by the Rolling Stones.

I don't know why this song just captured me, but I would listen to it over and over and feel all sorts of emotions I wouldn't even understand flow through me. I mean, I didn't even know the meaning of the song until I was sixteen years old! And when I learned that, even more emotion gushed over me, knowing the meaning and having it be one of the few rare good memories I had with my dad.

The song first starts out by saying "I'll never be your beast of burden, my back is broad but it's a hurting, all I want is for you to make love to me..". To me the singer is talking about how he is obsessed with a certain woman and is telling her he won't be her "beast of burden" which means he won't burden her with relationship or drama. And that all he wants is for her to "make love" to him. He is basically saying, all he wants from her is sex and nothing else.

He goes on by saying he wants to "go home and draw the curtains, music on the radio, come on baby make sweet love to me". Which is basically more referencing to how much he wants to take her home and have sex.

After that, he says " I'll tell ya, you can put me out on the street, put me out with no shoes on my feet, but put me out, put me out, put me out of misery." He is now showing how badly he wants her and is obsessed. He doesn't care if she takes everything from him and "puts him out on the street" as long as she "puts him out of misery" (has sex).

Finally he just keeps on going on saying that he'll never be her "beast of burden" and pleading her. This song is just a really good song and everyone should check it out.

Bohemian Rhapsody: Queen

Going back to Classic Rock, the song Bohemian Rhapsody really hits home. The first time I heard this song, I was in the car with my step-dad on one of our regular drives up down to Williamsburg to pick up my step-brother. It was kind of a tradition that we would listen to classic rock on the 45 minute drive there and back because it was our favorite kind of music to listen to together and if one of us didn’t know the lyrics we would eventually learn them because we only listen to rock.

This song starts as a kind of vague question, as the singer has found himself caught in an unescapable series of events and can't believe it's actually happening. He tries to kid himself that he doesn't really care.

Next we move to his prison cell where he's explaining to his distraught mother that he has killed someone and as a result, thrown his own young life away, as he is going to be executed within 24 hours.
He then explains that it's too late for any kind of reprieve, and that he feels physically sick at the thought of what is about to happen. He cries that he doesn’t want to die and wishes he'd never even been born.

Then he goes into a kind of daydream, reverie, whatever where a kind of operatic drama is taking place in his head between him, the poor boy who has got himself into a terrible situation in a moment of madness, the chorus who are pleading for mercy, and the authorities who are legally bound to execute him. There are lots of cod-Italian images, which I think is Freddie (the singer) having a really good time writing. 

At the end of this bit he pleads to be released as he feels that the devil, Beelzebub is going to punish him enough.

We then move into the hard rock bit where his mood changes and he starts to feel angry that anyone has the right to do this to him and is desperately looking around for a way to get out, no matter what.
This doesn't last long, however, and he soon runs out of energy and lapses into acceptance of the unchangeable situation.

I believe this is the greatest song ever written. It’s like the Mount Everest of popular music, as Beethoven 5 is the Everest of the classics. Mercury was known as a great showman, but people forget that he was a great musician and composer. Up there with Lennon McCartney, Buddy, Dylan, Hendrix, sting etc.

The role of the rest of the band is undeniable, notably Brain May's amazing guitar. Second only to Hendrix and the equal or better of Knoplfler, Clapton, Gilmour, Beck etc.