Jack Analyzes the Lyrics: I Want To Break Free

Greetings, gentle reader, and welcome to Jack Analyzes the Lyrics.

This is where I, your friend and humble narrator (yes, I watched A Clockwork Orange recently. What of it?) take a song that is either popular or legendary and look deeper into it and try to find out what the hell we were thinking.

You see, there are songs that I've noticed which are indelibly imprinted upon our musical consciousness that, if you take a very close look at what the song is actually saying, you start to wonder about the good sense, and even possibly the sanity, of our previous and current musical generations.

And I'm kicking this one off with a gem. Before I start, though, let me gush a bit about Queen.

Queen is one of the groups that played a vital role in my musical evolution. As a singer of some skill (as regular readers of my blog may be quick to disagree with), I sat, and still sit in awe of the depth, power, and emotion behind the voice of Freddie Mercury, even later in life as AIDS began to take its toll. His body may have wasted, but his voice was full of life up to the end.

The Show Must Go On, indeed.

Even ignoring Freddie's voice, Queen's music was legendary in and of itself: awesome instrumentation, killer harmonies, and some of the most amazing lyrics ever put to record.

While we're on the subject, for you fans of "Bohemian Rhapsody", check out "The Prophet's Song", also off of A Night At the Opera. And prepare to be blown the fuck away.

So, if Queen's music is so incredible, why am I picking a Queen song for this little demonstration?

Well...

You know how some songs have, you know, a theme, an idea that they're centered around, usually based on the title? Well... let's just say this song doesn't get an "A" from Moe Dee for sticking to themes.

This is "I Want To Break Free".

This was released as the second single off of their 1984 album The Works, following the release of the single "Radio Ga Ga", which scored well in the UK, but not as much in the States, only reaching a peak of #16.

This single actually ended up doing worse in the US, primarily because of the video, pictured above, which features all four members of Queen in drag.

British people in drag... Might as well get this reference over with:

Anyway, the video is a parody of a popular British sitcom, and was thus well received in the band's home country. Here, not so much - it was banned by MTV and many other stations.

Because, of course, we can't have people seeing grown men, who are responsible for their own lives and decisions, possibly choosing to dress up like women. I mean, think of the children! [/sarcasm]

Anyway, the result, as you might have guessed, was that the song completely tanked in the States, only reaching #45 on the charts, while easily reaching the top spot in the UK.

So, let's start this detailed analysis by looking at the title: "I Want to Break Free". If we take the title literally, we can expect to hear a song about someone wanting to get out something, possibly a bad relationship or something similar, since this is a rock song. Not exactly breaking new ground, but not a bad topic for a hit pop song.

So how well does the carpet match the drapes, as it were? Let's have a look at the first verse to get an idea:

I want to break free.

I want to break free.

I want to break free from your lies.

You're so self-satisfied.

I don't need you.

I've got to break free.

God knows - God knows I want to break free.

Okay, good start. The narrator is describing their partner as a lying, arrogant prick that they no longer need in their lives, and are ready to break out of the relationship.

It's a little light on details - for example, what lies did this person tell, how does their "self-satisfied" nature bleed through and make their relationship bad - but that's what the rest of the song is for, right? The first verse sets up the song, and we look at the rest of the song for the backstory and the follow-up.

I mean, that's how a song goes, right? You get the listener connected with the first verse, and weave your story in through the rest of the song.

So, okay, Queen, let's have it. How bad is this asshole? Tell me what they did that was so bad that you want to break free.

I've fallen in love

...

...

...what?

I've fallen in love for the first time

And this time, I know it's for real.

Stop, stop, stop, STOP! Hold on a moment here!

What the hell, Queen? Seriously: What the slotting hell?!

You open the song by telling us how much of a lying, arrogant douchebag your current partner is, and now you're going on like you just met a girl named Maria?!

Anyone who pays attention to the lyrics just had the transmission fall out of their brain with that segue! And what's more, it doesn't even fit in with the song! The song is supposedly about "breaking free" - that is away from someone - and now the narrator is trying to move toward someone they've supposedly fallen in love with!

Why "supposedly", you may ask? Well, let's have a look at the next two lines: "I've fallen in love for the first time, and this time, I know it's for real."

We'll split this one in half and pick each line apart separately. "I've fallen in love for the first time..."

How do you know?

If you're feeling this "for the first time", how do you know what you're feeling is actually love? For all you know, you could have accidentally swallowed a dime, or have a spastic colon, or be under the effects of a Gypsy curse! You don't know!

"...you don't like it, but you don't know." - Lewis Black

"...and this time, I know it's for real."

Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't you just say that this was "the first time"? I mean, I'm sure you've forgotten, since it was about three seconds ago!

So what do you have to compare it to to know that it's "for real" this time? Call me crazy, but I'm still leaning toward that whole "dime swallowing" thing.

Let's carry this analysis a bit further: we can safely assume that the narrator is talking to the same person in the first verse as he/she is talking to in the second. This makes me wonder who the real asshole is. Wasn't the narrator supposedly in love with the person they're now trying to "break free" from? I mean, when they started this relationship, were they only kidding when they told their now-ex that they loved them?

This song is going all over the place. Maybe it'll start to coalesce in the bridge. Let's hope that the narrator can somehow use it to bridge these completely disparate ideas...

It's strange, but it's true (yeah)

I can't get over the way you love me like you do,

But I have to be sure when I walk out that door

Oh, how I want to be free, baby

Oh, how I want to be free

Oh, I want to break free!

Good plan: completely ignore the first two verses. I see the songwriter took the Neverending Story philosophy in writing this song.

So, in this incarnation of the metaphor, the narrator wants what all men stereotypically seem to want: sex with no strings.

"Baby, I know you love me, but this bird's gotta fly!"

...which usually ends up with her either flipping him the bird, or kicking him in the fly.

So, in the span of two verses and a bridge, we have the narrator calling his mate an untrustable liar, to a complete non-sequitur about falling in love, to being a jackoff who doesn't want to commit!

Dude! You like it? Put a fucking ring on it!

Anyway, this song confuses the hell out of me. How can John Deacon, the writer of this clusterfuck, screw up such a simple concept as "I Want to Break Free"?!

But, there may yet be hope. There's one verse left. Come on, John. Salvage this thing using your magical wordplay. I mean, you're a member of Queen! You're part of the band that brought us "We Are the Champions" and "Bohemian Rhapsody"... hell, you wrote "Another One Bites the Dust", "Stone Cold Crazy", and "Under Pressure"! You can do better than this!

Come on, John, you can do this! Take us home!

But life still goes on.

I can't get used to living without

Living without, living without you

By my side.

I don't want to live alone.

DO YOU WANT TO BREAK FREE OR DON'T YOU!?

/sigh, shake my head/ I'm sorry. Please continue...

God knows, got to make it on my own.

So, baby, can't you see?

I've got to break free.

Can't even be consistent in the same verse. Amazing.

But, as bad as all that is, it somehow gets worse: According to Wikipedia - take that for what it's worth - Deacon wrote this song as a "male response to the women's liberal [sic] movement."

So... according to John Deacon's point of view, liberated women are angry, bitter, emotional, promiscuous, moody, desperate women who feel incomplete alone, and who simultaneously crave and reject the company of men.

Yeah. That'll get you laid.

If this is the case, this song sets women's rights back 15-20 years... and this song was written in 1983!

Let's compare this to other insanely written songs of rock. "Take the Money and Run", for example. Steve Miller couldn't pull a rhyme out of a clear plastic bag, but at least the song was consistent! And you may not like Jim Croce's style or singing voice, but at least he could tell a fucking story!

So, there you have it. a verse-by-verse analysis of "I Want to Break Free".

...I think that song broke my brain...

Hey, if you have any songs you want me to listen to, analyze, and mock incessantly, drop me a line at cover2covershow@gmail.com.

Until next time, my little Empire, Power off!

Credits

All Queen Songs (c) EMI Music

Monty Python (c) Python (monty) Pictures, Ltd.

"Maria" from "West Side Story" (c) Stephen Sondheim and Leonard Bernstein, Movie Footage (c) United Artists

"I Was Only Kidding" by "Weird Al" Yankovic (c) WAY Moby Records

"Single Ladies" by Beyonce (c) Sony BMG Music

Picture of Kyon from the Haruhi Suzumiya books. Haruhi Suzumiya (c) Tanigawa Nagaru

No challenge to these copyrights is intended nor should be implied. This work is protected by the Fair Use section of US Copyright law.