Broken Records: By Erin M. and Olivia Z-C
VERSE 1
She’s been living fully
battling and learning how
and though shes trying
to stay within the crowd
The people she’s known she’s beginning to leave
Facades can no longer deceive her
BRIDGE 1
Take away the childish play
its time to move on from such things
Take away the words you say
replace them with different dreams
CHORUS 1
Everything started with lights in her eyes
now the lights dim and she’s wondering why
She’s stuck in the background and learning to say
I can grow up and move on
VERSE 2
The record’s broken
he cant keep up with the new
and though he wishes
that he could feel it too
Rose colored glasses replaced with the gold
He wishes that he weren’t so old
BRIDGE 2
Say goodbye to reasons why
it’s time to wake up from the memory
Say goodbye to getting high
and live in the moment you’re in
CHORUS 2
The world is dull, it’s all gray it’s all wrong
Tries to feel something, a thrill in the song
Lost in his failures, he’s lost in the past
He needs to let go and move on
This song is a reflection on two characters from A Visit From the Goon Squad, by Jennifer Egan. The first half of the song is about Rhea, a teenage girl trying to figure out who she wants to be. She hangs out with the punks and tries her best to fit the mold of a punk girl but throughout the chapter she tries to understand what it means to be real. She doesn't know who she is, or what lies ahead in her future. The second character, Bennie, is also confused about who he is, but his confusion comes more from his past. He is stuck focusing on what he's done wrong in his life so far, and in doing that he stops himself from being able to move forward and understand himself.
We chose these two characters because people can connect with both of these haunting thoughts. We all stumble through life trying to understand what it means to be real, or what it means to be "you," and trying to figure out our future. At the same time, we all have things from our past that we dwell on, and may hold us back from being able to move forward with our lives.
To add to this: Age is a huge factor throughout many of these stories, and especially with these two characters. Bennie is stuck in his past, reliving memories from his youth, and wishing he could still feel the energy and excitement he felt back then. Rhea is almost the opposite. She is in her youth, and starting to grow up and leave her past behind her. She's trying to figure out who she is, and in doing so, loses a lot of that liveliness as well. It's like they're both stuck in their youth (as much as I hate to keep using that word), only in Bennie's case, it's because his current world isn't the bright and vibrant world he remembers "The world is dull it's all gray it's all wrong" , while in Rhea's, she's leaving it all behind as she starts to grow up. Neither character is happy with the way things are, but neither of them seems very able to change it. Rhea can't help but feel like a passenger in her own story, and Bennie almost becomes a passenger to his own past, reliving those memories. We chose these characters, because they are such opposites, yet so similar in many ways.
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