The Brilliant Blues
Leon Cai
Writing 101: 101: Form and Meaning Meaning in Rock Rock Music Dr. Jay Summach Duke University
April 23, 2014
Switchfoot’s main songwriter and front man Jon Foreman has said that he tends to write their songs selfishly (Switchfoot 2005). But not for fame, nor for fortune. He writes their songs to understand his own world, to sort out the confusion in his head and in his life, to deal with the unexpected and the unexplained. Switchfoot, a Grammy-award winning group that has seen great success in both the Christian and mainstream music scenes, released “The Blues” on their 2005 record titled Nothing Is Sound . And on a record titled in such a way, it seems logical that a song titled “The Blues” would be an indicator of depression and sadness. In fact, under this pretense is exactly how the song begins, both lyrically and texturally: for it isn’t until further along do Foreman’s thoughts and Switchfoot’s intentions truly shine through. “The Blues”, written in verse-prechorus-chorus (VPC) form, begins with an introduction based upon verse material. As the band plucks through chords on an acoustic guitar, the listener is exposed to a set of hopeful-sounding chords that eventually resigns to a cluster of suspenseful dissonance just before the arrival of the first verse. What follows features a breathy Foreman as the narrator quietly questioning the presence of the positive emotions typically associated with a New Year: hope and cheer. He wonders about the existence of these emotions in the night in which he finds himself. Lost in his ponderings and lost in his confusion, he spends the first two verses (V1 and V2) searching for hope and cheer, wondering if his very search to find them has misdirected him to believe their absence. Following the verse, the song advances into a prechorus (P1) where the narrator more firmly explores his confusion. Foreman increases the strength in the narrator’s voice by abandoning the breathy sighs that permeated the verses, striking notes with a more penetrating tone—but still holding his full volume and lung capacity in reserve. The narrator’s emotions match the change in Foreman’s tone as the narrator more openly questions his definitions of freedom, pain, and fame, taking his doubt from the verses and applying it to other concepts in his life. Then as the band smoothly transitions into the first chorus (C(s)1), the narrator extrapolates into the future, declaring that he will be confused when the world ends, just as he is confused now. The lyrics of this first VPC cycle consider heavily the typically negative themes of confusion, pensiveness, and resignation. The continuous references of the narrator’s doubt of hope and cheer indicate his confusion. The sheer presence of doubt indicates his contemplation. And his applying of this doubt to the future and to other domains in his life indicate his unwilling acceptance of a bleak end of days. However, while doubt—a generally frustrating idea—dominates the narrator’s mind, he keeps his thoughts inside, as painted by Foreman’s reserved tone. For he only mutters and speaks to
himself in the verses and the prechorus/chorus, respectively, never letting out bursts of frustration or anger. His composure changes, however, following the first VPC cycle. After a brief, texturally building, dissonance compounding four bar overlap (J1), Foreman opens his lungs and hits louder and higher notes as the song enters its second VPC cycle. The narrator, again matching Foreman’s bigger sound, exclaims his frustration for the first time as he declares how he feels broken thinking about his doubt. The song rounds out the third verse (V3) by repeating the line, “Is this a New Year or just another desperation?” from the verses in the first cycle, as if the narrator has thrown his hands up in frustration, openly repeating the question that had best previously summarized his dissatisfaction. Furthermore, in the prechorus (P2) he rhetorically cries out in exhaustion, wondering if anyone has ever gone the distances he has to come to terms with his confusion. Then once again, the narrator indicates his frustration will last until the end of days in the chorus (C2). Interestingly though, this time around, the chorus is three times the length of the previous one, the only time this happens in the song—aside from the outro. The narrator repeats the line “when the world caves in” six times, as if his thoughts have paused, as if an idea has dawned on him. The chorus then ends with a texture-building period similar to the overlap that concluded the previous chorus: the most notable difference being its replacement of the dissonance from the pervious overlap with brighter, more optimistic chords. For the first time in the song, the narrator seems to have arrived at a conclusion more promising than his previous words suggest. What follows is a PC cycle that has skipped a verse and opted for only the prechorus and chorus. Similar to the other prechoruses, the questions posed by the narrator in this one (P3) are rhetorical. However, this time the answers are more obvious, for the narrator asks if anything in the world is worth anything anymore. The way these questions are presented—on top of major, bright, guitar strums—indicates that the answer is optimistic, that the answer is “yes, of course”. He then supports his newly found optimism by modifying the chorus’ lyrics in this short cycle (C(v)3). He indicates that when the world ends, it will still be a pensive and thoughtful day like this one as he described before. However, it will also be a day
like this one where
the world sees the end of hunger,
poverty, and abandonment, implying that the present day is actually cheerier than he had previously known. The song repeats this short PC cycle once more, consolidating the narrator’s newly found optimism with his former pessimism. He rhetorically asks if anyone else had tried as hard as he had to understand his doubt (P4). However, this time, instead of the chorus’s repeated lines indicating sadness and confusion until the end of days, the chorus (C(s)4) builds on the resolution that the
narrator had arrived at in the previous PC cycle. The narrator dismisses the angst and frustration by reassuring all those listening, and more importantly himself, that having doubt is all right because the day the world ends will be bright and happy. Despite the secure feeling the song has developed, what follows this chorus is an overlap (J2) that seems to return the song back to its disoriented roots. The overlap descends the song into a darker, softer sounding verse (V4) that begins another VPC cycle to conclude the song. But contrary to the surface idea of the narrator’s regression, the narrator takes this time to rationalize his change in mindset, and he does so with sarcasm, criticizing his own prior thoughts. For while the overlap superficially implies relapse, its true function is to give the narrator a chance to reflect and explain. He reflects on and repeats his doubts in the verse with the song’s darker, weaker feeling. However, as the song unravels from this verse to a brighter, texturally thicker, and stronger prechorus (P5), the narrator offers a rebuttal to his previous mindset. He asks if the just and the good never triumph, if the blues are all anyone can ever sing. By building on the band’s immense return of optimistic texture he indicates that the answer is no, implying the just and good will triumph and that music is not limited to the blues, the sad, or the doubtful. He then asks, as the song moves to its final chorus (C5), if nothing is ok until the end of days, if nothing will be ok forever. He asks this final question in the spirit of the song’s angelic background vocals and shining instrumentals as they rain hopeful revelation upon the listener. The answer, again, is no, for the narrator has finally solidified his brilliant conclusion against all confusion and desperation. Speaking about “The Blues”, Foreman has indicated its origin: a song written on New Year’s Day 2004 as a “modern day Psalm of sorts” (Foreman 2005). He has explained its function as “a long meandering song about how the end of the world might actually be a beautiful day.” This testimony from Foreman reveals much about the song’s nature as a story, a story of discovery and faith. Tying with the band’s Christian roots, the song vibrates harmoniously between this outlook and the Christian worldview: a world saved by the Son of God. Looking at “The Blues” from this perspective, the narrator, instead of grappling with his belief in the presence of optimism could instead be grappling with his faith in God. His frustration previously surmised to be due to his loss of faith in optimism could instead be due to his loss of faith in the Almighty. The development of the song in a way that runs from doubt to fulfillment, discovery, and faith resonates heavily with the path of belief in Christianity: to recognize one’s sins and to seek faith and forgiveness from God, a good God that ultimately guarantees his believer’s end of days to be beautiful. However, Switchfoot, while composed of Christian members, has long emphasized the break it strives to put between its
music and its faith. Tim Foreman, Foreman’s brother and Switchfoot’s bassist, has indicated that the band is “Christian by faith, not genre” (Miller 2003), suggesting the song’s adaptability to different types of spirituality and faith, whether it be in a higher power or simply emotional satisfaction. For despite that the song may have originated from the band’s spiritual beliefs, its interpretation and enjoyment were never intended to be limited to Christian listeners. “The Blues” is a song built on the process of discovery of hope. The song begins as a testimony of one soul’s loss of faith in optimism. And as the narrator begins to regain his belief in it and hope, the song grows to become a statement of reassurance of the dominance of faith— whether it be in God or in humanity or in spirit or in self. Backed by development from chords that flaunt dissonance and texture that flaunts frustration to chords that express hope and texture that expresses optimism, the narrator and song take their confusion and doubt and dismantle it, refute it, and bury it in their faith and hope. For the true implications of “The Blues” indicate exactly what Switchfoot has plastered on their album cover, that nothing is sound, nothing is
noise ,
nothing is
arbitrary and disoriented. For everything is organized, everything is secure, everything is music. Everything is well.
Works Cited Foreman, Jon. 2005. “Nothing is Sound Song Stories.” Land of Broken Hearts . Accessed April 11, 2014. http://landofbrokenhearts.org/switchfoot/song-stories/switchfoot-songstories/nothing-is-sound-song-stories/. Miller, Kirk. 2003. “New Faces: Switchfoot – How God, Surfing and Bono Inspired This California Band.” Rolling Stone , October 16. Switchfoot. 2005. “The Making of Nothing Is Sound ” (Documentary). Directed by Carl Diebold and Paul Kerby. Accessed April 11, 2014. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2DsLu3z4efY.
The Blues | Switchfoot Lyrics Sheet Introduction
PC Cycle 1
VPC Cycle 1
Prechorus 3
Verse 1
Is nothing here worth saving? Is no one here at all? Is there any net left that could break our fall?
V1
Is this the New Year or just another night? Is this the new fear or just another fright? Is this the new tear or just another desperation? Verse 2
Chorus (Modified)
PC Cycle 2
Prechorus 1
P1
Prechorus 4
P4
Are you discontented? Have you been pushing hard? Have you been throwing down this broken house of cards?
Is this what they call freedom? Is this what you call pain? Is this what they call discontented fame? Chorus
C(v)3
It'll be a day like this one When the sky falls down, And the hungry and poor and deserted are found.
V2
Is this the finger or just another fist? Is this the kingdom or just a hit n' miss? A misdirection? Most in all this desperat ion.
P3
C(s)1
Chorus
It'll be a day like this one When the world caves in. ( x3)
C(s)4
It'll be a day like this one When the world caves in. ( x3)
J1
J2
VPC Cycle 2 Verse 3
VPC Cycle 3 and Outro V3
I'm singing this one like a broken piece of glass. From broken arms and broken noses in the back, Is this the New Year or just another desperation? Prechorus 2
P2
You push until you're shoving; You bend until you break; ‘Til you stand on the broken fields where your fathers lay. Chorus
It'll be a day like this one When the world caves in. ( x6)
Verse 4
V4
Is there nothing left now? Nothing left to sing? Are there any left who hav en't kissed the enemy? Is this the New Year or just another desperation? Prechorus 5
P5
Does justice never find you? Do the wicked never lose? Is there any honest song to sing besides these blues? C2
Chorus and Outro
And nothing is okay, ‘Til the world caves in? ‘Til the word caves in. (x4) Until the world caves in (x6)
C5/O
