Category Archives: Song Analysis

Song Analysis #8: Morrissey – I’m Throwing My Arms Around Paris

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It’s the new year, but here’s a quick recap from me: I’ve been super busy with a working trip to Australia the week of my birthday – to cover the inaugural ARIA Week, including working the red carpet and media room at the 26th ARIAs (the Australia equivalent to the BRITs and Grammys – and plenty of work on SXSW previews, including this first piece on the pop and pop hybrid UK acts showcasing at the big event in Austin this year. WHEW.

With so many things on my mind, I’ve had little in the way of free time to sit down and write, so I think to continue this site, I better just shorten my descriptions and get rolling. I’ll also be premiering new features on this site later this week, so stay tuned for those as well.

Morrissey is probably my most favourite songwriter because the words he uses are so cutting, yet hit home and are usually so on point. You can turn on ‘Everyday is Like Sunday’ and feel wistful about blighty.

Unusually, I learned of Morrissey’s solo work first (through a now ex-boyfriend), then the Smiths, not the other way around. I’ve seen Morrissey numerous times, having seen him in DC 3 times, Manchester 3 times during a particularly exciting (for me) weekend on his ‘Ringleader of the Tormentors’ tour, and once in London the week after the Manchester weekender. Most of those gigs are chronicled here.

Title: ‘I’m Throwing My Arms Around Paris’
Where to find it: ‘Years of Refusal’ (2009, Decca)
Performed by: Morrissey
Words by: Morrissey

First, the words:

“Verse” 1
In the absence of your love
And in the absence of human touch
I have decided

Chorus
I’m throwing my arms around
Around Paris because only stone and steel accept my love

“Verse” 2
In the absence of your smiling face
I traveled all over the place
and I have decided

Chorus
I’m throwing my arms around
Around Paris because only stone and steel accept my love
I’m throwing my arms around
Around Paris because only stone and steel accept my love

“Outro”
I’m throwing my arms around Paris because
Nobody wants my love
Nobody wants my love
Nobody needs my love
Nobody wants my love

Yes, you made yourself plain
Yes, you made yourself very plain…

Now, the analysis:

This is actually a very simple song structurally. The verses are only 2 lines each before Steven shoots straight off into the chorus, which on the surface sounds like a happy, pop sentiment. But with Morrissey, we all know all is not fine and dandy. No, he’s telling us how badly he’s hurting from being spurned by someone he loves very much who can’t love him in return. It’s a hallmark of Morrissey’s songwriting: ‘Nobody Loves Us’, “Let Me Kiss You’, ‘I Am Hated for Loving’.

Most of the time, Steven puts it out there that his capacity for loving another human being is not being rewarded. In this song, he is forced instead to love something entirely large but inanimate as an entity: a whole city. First examine the line from the chorus “only stone and steel accept my love”: both of these things do not feel like another person, yet he’s so full of love, he’s willing to give it all to these things in the entity of Paris, because he feels so strongly that he so desperately wants to share with someone.

There is also the switch off from “nobody wants my love” to one time of “nobody needs my love”. I find this incredibly exciting, how changing one single word can change the whole feeling of the outro. A “want” is entirely different than a “need”; this particularly reminds of one of many arguments that I had with the aforementioned ex-boyfriend when we were still going together. We would be on the phone and I would say, “I need you…” in a desperate plea when he was cross with me about something we had a row about. The words coming out of my mouth and into his ear on the other end only infuriated him more, him replying, “I don’t want you to ‘need’ me, I want you to ‘want’ me. I want a woman who can stand on her own two feet.” This hurt me so badly because I’ve had to work so hard for everything in my life and saying that I couldn’t stand on my own two feet was the most disparaging of comments. (I do admit though that during the time I was with J, I was undergoing chemotherapy at the time and was suffering from terrible self-worth issues after losing my hair, so I was more vulnerable and more willing to go more than halfway in order to maintain our relationship.) Ever since we broke up years ago, I have been having trouble balancing the need and want for a lover, something that Morrissey alludes to in this song in a veiled way. I don’t fall in love very easily, and I have only fallen truly in love with two men in the last 10 years.

I don’t know what the personality defect is in me. Maybe it has to do with being unable to find someone that think will accept me for who I am: a woman in many respects, with an eye on responsibility, perfectionism, and complete honesty, but also a girl who has suffered so many setbacks in her life that she still wishes for the perfect relationship. It’s an odd combination that I would be the first to agree isn’t solid basis for 99% of relationships. Unfortunately. “Yes, you’ve made yourself plain / yes, you’ve made yourself very plain…” is particularly cutting to me, since Morrissey sounds like he’s written himself out of the game, either to save his own face, or because his lover has come right out and said, “I don’t want to be with you.” When you’ve made any sort of emotional investment in anyone in the midst of a relationship, this is pretty much the most painful thing you can hear. Will it send you into a spiral of depression? Most probably.

Before I leave you, I did want to note how the beginning of the song is interesting too; it sounds like a motorbike starting. This doesn’t make sense unless you were a Morrissey fan, as in the Noughties, there was a famous photo floating around of Morrissey leaning on a motorbike (which, unfortunately, I can’t find easily right now); he never had a song like Manic Street Preachers‘ ‘Motorcycle Emptiness’ famously naming the chic vehicle in a title, but putting the sound in at the start is a nice touch.

Lastly, the song, from its official promo video. Why the whole video has a bunch of dogs in it, we’ll never know. Maybe it’s a general commentary that former lovers are dogs?

Song Analysis #7: Bombay Bicycle Club – Cancel on Me

Sorry, everyone. Long story short: I have been dealing with major, unforeseen fatigue that my doctor can’t figure out the cause of (and so I’m scared to death about it), and I’ve had to severely limit my time in front of the computer when I get home from work. So it might be a while before I can get into the regular schedule of lyric analysis again. Sorry 🙁 But I had to do this one today. I am just so sad about someone and this song fits how I feel exactly.

Title: ‘Cancel on Me’
Where to find it: ‘I Had the Blues But Shook Them Loose’ (2009, Island)
Performed by: Bombay Bicycle Club
Words by: presumably Jack Steadman

First, the words:

Verse 1
Cancel on me again,
Oh, cancel on me again.
And it’s not your fault and again,
No, it’s not your fault, you said.
Oh…

Chorus
All the world has come to see the end.
You will never see this place again.
And all the world has come to see the end.
And you will never see my face again.

Verse 2
No, it’s not your fault and again,
No, it’s not your fault, you said.
So cancel on me again.
Oh, cancel on me again.
Oh.

Chorus
All the world has come to see the end.
You will never see this place again.
And all the world has come to see the end.
And you will never see my face again.
And you will never see my face again.

Bridge
Dreaming of you pushing up to me;
And I know where it’s going to lead.
Dreaming of you rushing up to me;
And you know it’s where you want to be.
Dreaming of you pushing up to me;
And I know where it’s going to lead.
Dreaming of you rushing up to me;
That was the boy I used to be.

Outro
Yeah, I’m dreaming of you rushing,
I’m dreaming of you rushing,
I’m dreaming of you rushing up to me…

Now, the analysis:

I am a latecomer to the Bombay Bicycle Club party. After loving a few tracks from their 2009 debut ‘I Had the Blues But I Shook Them Loose’ (I adore ‘Magnet’), I kind of forgot about them after I’d heard a couple of tracks from the folky ‘Flaws’. However, having reviewed their third album ‘A Different Kind of Fix’ for TGTF, I started to look at them in a new light. Maybe they were more than just indie kids singing to teenyboppers.

The only time I’ve seen them live was this past March in DC. HELLO. Bombaymania. While Tom Jones has had his share of women’s underwear thrown at him while on stage, my guess is that Bombay Bicycle Club is not the type to have this happen. So when a bra, with a girl’s phone number written on the inside no less, was flung onstage that night, I laughed to myself. I don’t think any of them wanted to keep it as a souvenir – or at least didn’t want to be seen publicly acknowledging it. It hung on a mike stand, forgotten, after they’d left the 9:30 Club stage. Some male fan wanted it and I stopped him, complaining, “geez, let them have their first bra, ok?” Looking back at my comments now, I giggle. I could nearly sense the mortification of frontman Jack Steadman when the women’s underthing landed on stage. He must have thought, “is this really happening?” Or maybe instead, “why are they throwing bras at us? I don’t understand! This isn’t bra throwing music!”

And it’s not. To a trained ear, as well as eye, the lyrics of Bombay Bicycle Club are a bit more complex than should be reasonably assumed your average teenager would comprehend. ‘Cancel on Me’ is a perfect example of this. The civility of a man giving the woman an out, by offering to let her “cancel on me” instead of him doing the dumping or running, is refreshing and cannot be emphasised enough. But on the other side of the spectrum, you can feel the bone-crushing, aching ultimatum of Keane‘s ‘This is the Last Time’ in here in the words being repeated, “And you will never see my face again.” Their “world” is ending, and so is this “place” they had. Is he the one being sad about walking out? Or does he feel like he has to leave?

Then the next question is, why is he giving her the opportunity to “cancel” on him so he can make a break for it? We don’t know. My guess is that he’s trying to extricate himself out of a relationship probably bad for the both of them. It’s clear in the bridge, the spoken sequence in a style that has become a Steadman trademark, that he knows he’d physically respond (making out / sex / etc.) if she came up to him and flirted like she always has, because she has that effect on him – “Dreaming of you pushing up to me / And I know where it’s going to lead”. But he is also quick to note she wants to see him, wants all of this more than he does: “Dreaming of you rushing up to me / And you know it’s where you want to be.”

But Mr. Steadman’s thoughts don’t end there. There is a wistful outro of him repeating “dreaming of you rushing up to me” that I find so, so, so sad. There’s no such thing as a simple relationship; you’re invested not only your time but all of yourself in another human being when you love them. Even if things don’t work out, you know the union must end, and you do everything to make the end final, I don’t think you ever, ever forget the one you loved. There is always a little piece of that person in your heart, no matter if you fall in love again. Or not. That piece can be the most painful piece of the break-up. He knows, even if he tells her to go, to not call on him again – because he insists he won’t answer – there was a time when he loved her so very much and this time they had together, he will remember this. And even if he’s found love with someone else, there will always be times in his life when he will feel the sadness of that other relationship ending. For he knows he can only dream of her being excited to see him like she used to, he will never have that feeling of her rushing up to him again. Because it’s over.

Okay, that’s it, I’m leaving the analysis here so I don’t risk bawling my eyes out…

Lastly, the song, performed live at the People’s Party in Jakarta in January 2012.

Song Analysis #6: James – Sometimes

Title: ‘Sometimes’
Where to find it: ‘Laid’ (1993, Mercury)
Performed by: James
Words by: Tim Booth

I am taking a simple-ish song to ease myself back into the lyric interpretation…

First, the words:

Verse 1
There’s a storm outside, and the gap between crack and thunder
Crack and thunder, is closing in, is closing in
The rain floods gutters, and makes a great sound on the concrete
On a flat roof, there’s a boy leaning against the wall of rain
Aerial held high, calling “come on thunder, come on thunder”

Chorus
Sometimes, when I look deep in your eyes, I swear I can see your soul
Sometimes, when I look deep in your eyes, I swear I can see your soul

Verse 2
It’s a monsoon, and the rain lifts lids off cars
Spinning buses like toys, stripping them to chrome
Across the bay, the waves are turning into something else
Picking up fishing boats and spewing them on the shore

The boy is hit, lit up against the sky, like a sign, like a neon sign
And he crumples, drops into the gutter, legs twitching
The flood swells his clothes and delivers him on, delivers him on

Chorus
Sometimes, when I look deep in your eyes, I swear I can see your soul
Sometimes, when I look deep in your eyes, I swear I can see your soul

Verse 3
There’s four new colors in the rainbow
An old man’s taking Polaroids
But all he captures is endless rain, endless rain
He says listen, takes my head and puts my ear to his
And I swear I can hear the sea

Outro
Sometimes, when I look in your eyes I can see your soul
(I can reach your soul)
(I can touch your soul)
Sometimes

Now, the analysis:

‘Sometimes’ is not as well known as a James tune as ‘Laid’ (about sex) or ‘Sit Down’ (about loneliness), but I think by skipping this one, you’re short changing the Manchester band. This song should be given just as much weight, as I think the words – set to a soothing guitar rhythm that acts like a lullaby, nearly – are far better than those other two.

The world goes on, even when you’re in love (or not) or have a broken heart (or not). The purpose of a monsoon – to give life to an otherwise barren, arid land – is used as a plot device and is compared to the trials and tribulations of life. The horror of a child being picked up by the storm leads to something that is not as horrible, as “the flood swells his clothes and delivers him on, delivers him on” to the next life. An old man who is taking Polaroids of nothing but the endless rain can still find joy in what is within him (the sea), which the protagonist can also feel.

More literally, I think the chorus is simply putting the feelings you have for someone and how terrible things can happen – like storms – around you and you barely notice, because you’re in love. I feel this twinge in my heart every time I hear “sometimes, when I look deep in your eyes, I swear I can see your soul” because I have always used eyes as the windows into a person’s soul. In all my adult life I’ve had the ability to suss the goodness in most people, and I credit this in great deal to what I see when I look into their eyes. If the eyes are vacant and soulless, I can just tell something’s not right.

I still dream about the man I last loved and his beautiful eyes, and I often hope that he saw my soul when he looked through mine.

Lastly, the song, via its official video.