Tuesday, March 24, 2015

Poetry In Music

The song I will be analyzing is You Are Your Mother's Child, by Connor Oberst, from the album Upside Down Mountain. This album, Oberst explained, is quite different than his other albums in the sense that it really focuses on language, and not the complexity of other aspects of music like the rhythm, he just wants to relate to his audience.

'I’m not the greatest guitar player or piano player—I’m not the greatest singer, either—but I feel if I can come up with melodies I like that are fused with poetry I’m proud of, then that’s what I bring to the table."

Lyrics: http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/conoroberst/youareyourmotherschild.html

This song is about growing up and how everybody goes through life taking it for granted. I think the writer is really trying to connect to the listeners by narrating the progression of an average boy's life, from birth to marriage. His life is a very simple one; he goes trick-or-treating with his cousin and dresses up as an astronaut, plays baseball, graduates, marries and has a kid of his own. I think the writer chooses this typical cookie cutter life as a way of being able to relate to the majority of people who listen to this song.

Oberst's use of repetition throughout the song makes an impression on the listener. After every verse, the phrase- "You are your mother's child, And she'll keep you for a while, But someday you'll be grown and then you'll be on your own." But it changes slightly throughout the song. As it progresses, and more of the boy's life goes by, it changes to "She had you for a while," "Soon you'll be grown", and "Now that you're grown". I think this is showing how fast life can move sometimes, and you need to take time to appreciate it while you still have a chance.

Another language device Oberst uses is the use of present tense. The whole time during the story, he uses present tense to describe the boy's situation, making it feel like we are right there with him. It doesn't feel like a story that has already happened and that someone is just retelling to the listener. 

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