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.

Artist A-Z #2

Let me make one thing absolutely clear: I am no fanboy.

Yes, there are certain series, musical artists, writers, etc. that I enjoy immensely...

(Disintegration? Sorry, Kyle: Recovery is the greatest album ever.)

...but I don't automatically assume the sun rises and falls on these things. I am free to admit that there are problems with some (sometimes a great deal) of the output related to my favorite book/comic/anime series, artists, etc.

For example: I love Stephen King. His Dark Tower series is one of my favorite books, and his fantasy is just plain amazing.

However, I am not a huge fan of his horror. Misery was gripping and suspenseful, yes, but that was more a thriller than pure horror. And I nearly fell asleep trying to read The Stand. And The Langoliers was lame as hell.

What I'm trying to say is, if there's something wrong with something, even something from someone or something I really like, I'll be the first to point it out.

...which brings us here:

This little number is off of Al's fourth studio album, "Polka Party!", widely dismissed as his worst album.

And I have to agree. There are only four tracks on the CD that are any good, and one of those is the polka medley!

There are ten tracks on "Polka Party!".

You do the math.

I was thinking about skipping the Polka Party tracks on the A-Z list and just do a full Cover2Cover review of Polka Party, but I concluded that I needed to show that, yes, there are bad Weird Al songs, and that I can critique them honestly.

I just wish I didn't have to do this right out of the gate.

The song itself is a parody of the Robert Palmer song "Addicted to Love"

This highlights one of the major problems with the problems with this track - indeed, the same issue exists in all four parodies off of "Polka Party!", but I'll get to that later. For now, let's get right to the review.

There's no good way to say this, so I'll just say it: This song is stupid. And it's not even the good kind of stupid. The funny kind of stupid.

Normally, if you want stupid, Al's your guy. He's made plenty of stupid songs that were actually funny. Hell, just look at any other album in his discography, and you find one or two there that are good, listenable, fun tracks.

This, on the other hand... this one's the bad kind of stupid. The unfunny, lame, embarrassing kind of stupid. This is the kind of song an eight-year-old trying to be Weird Al would write. Hell, this is the kind of song that record executives who think they can write comedy songs would come up with.

But, I repeat myself.

The song is directed toward a guy with a potato fetish, and, in a stunning twist (and by "stunning", I, of course, mean "stunning that I stayed awake this long"), we find out in the end that the narrator happens to be a potatophile too. M Night Shyamalan, eat your heart out!

Now, I personally have no use for potatoes - eating them in any form make me sluggish and sleepy and phlegmy (yeah, you wanted to know that. You're welcome), and IMO have little to no nutritional value whatsoever. But I understand that some people like them and eat them regularly - granted, not to the extremes hinted at in this song, but still...

But as the subject matter for a comedy song, there's not really that much to go on. I mean, how many potato jokes are there? Not a lot, and very few of them actually in the song. It just goes on and on about how much the subject likes potatoes, and the kinds of potatoes he likes, and describes the many ways he gets his potato Jones resolved ("You took a trip to Idaho/Just to watch potatoes grow").

This does not make for a funny song. There's really only two jokes in the song, and even those are a stretch: the first s a pun on the words "potato bug".

("Potato bug/has got me too!")

...and the other one is a groaner about whipped potatoes

("I've often seen them whipped/But they just can't be beat")

Told you.

And, to my utter disappointment: not one eye joke. Potatoes have eyes, people have eyes, there's got to be some kind of joke there! How do I know potatoes have eyes? The beans told me. You know how the beanstalk.

See? I can make lame vegetable jokes too! Where's my recording contract?

Seriously, though, as I hinted at before, there is a specific problem with this, and all the parodies on "Polka Party!", and this is totally my personal opinion based on the evidence at hand.

Up to that point in his career, since his self-titled debut, Al released an album a year, likely to keep himself fresh in the minds of the listening public, since he's lumped in that amorphous group of artists called "novelty acts". This idea can be a double-edged sword, in that in the race to keep yourself relevant, you also may become overexposed, causing fatigue and backlash.

But it wasn't really a backlash that depressed sales and recognition of "Polka Party!"; it's the quality. You see, in that race to remain relevant, with a relatively short time to produce output, you make some poor decisions.

(I'm looking at you, 3 Doors Down)

The choice to make this song was, to me, doomed to fail from the start for two reasons: One, as mentioned, the subject matter doesn't lend itself to very many jokes; and Two, the original song isn't all that lyrically dense to begin with so, even if there were jokes to add, there are very few places to put them. It's like trying to make a DVD case sink to the bottom of the lake by filling it with Styrofoam peanuts.

The song seems to want to make the fact that it's a parody as the joke instead of putting jokes into the parody. And this, as I've stated, a failing of all four parody songs on "Polka Party!", so expect links back to this article in the future.

After the critical and commercial failure of "Polka Party!", Al's next album wasn't released until two years later, and if you thought "Polka Party!" was bad, his follow-up was even worse.

No, that's the name of the album: "Even Worse".

(That was the only chance I was going to get to use that joke, so I took it. Again, you're welcome.)

Okay, that's done, and I'm glad to be away from this one. There's more bad to come, and not just off of "Polka Party!"; there's still enough bad for everyone spread out over the entire discography; "Polka Party!" just happened to get the bulk of it.

Join me next time when we take a first look at one of his original songs. Until then, in the words of a couple of the greatest non-thinkers of the 20th century: "Be excellent to each other!"

Power off!

Next: "Airline Amy"

Artist A-Z #1

Okay, all. I decided it's time to actually post some content, rather than telling you that I may be posting some content sometime in some nebulous future.

One of my original ideas, once I got some traction as a reviewer, was to do a discography series, where I review a single artist's albums from their first to their most recent. I even had a few artists in mind: Green Day, Van Halen, Fiona Apple, and so on.

But I decided that that would be too close to what I plan to do with bad albums (and, no, I haven't abandoned the original C2C idea; I just need to get some momentum going; and Covering the Covers and another originally canned segment, Analyzes the Lyrics, will also come in its own time. Please be patient.). As such, I've decided to do something a little different.

If someone else has already done something like this, fine, but I'm doing this just to get my foot in the internet's door, so to speak, and to sharpen my style and sense of humor so the finished product when I do actually make the move to video will be cleaner and, well, exactly as aweXome as my ego demands it be.

Anyway, rather than cover an artist album by album, I'm going to go from song to song, in alphabetical order, doing a short review of each song in that artist's repertoire.

And the artist I'm going to start in on is...

...

Hey, come back!

Meh, who needs them, anyway?

So, yeah. I've been on a Weird Al kick recently (and by "recently", I mean for the past 15 years). And to celebrate the release of his first studio album in five years (and not that bad a one either), I'm going to start at the A's and go all the way down to the Y's (no Z's in this mix), and review each one, starting with the above.

It should be fairly obvious what song this parodizes - or, rather, flat-out ridicules.

Most of Al's parodies take the title or the lyrics, put a completely different spin on them, and makes a completely different song out of the same tune, while at the same time having little to no connection with the source material.

Not so here.

This is one of a handful of what I term "meta-parodies" in which the subject matter of the song is directly tied to the song it's parodying. Other examples of this are "Smells Like Nirvana" and "Perform This Way", both of which I'll get to later.

The song itself is a list of things the narrator would rather do than listen to "Achy Breaky Heart". Now some of the alternatives don't seem that bad to me: I love the Bee Gees and the Village People, and some of Abba's songs are okay. Just about every other artist on the list, fine. Still better than that overplayed fake country-pop-crossover piece of garbage.

After a while, however, he gets into the weird, self-mutilation territory that has been a part of Al's repertoire, especially in his early days. "Tie me to a chair/and kick me down the stairs", and "I'd rather have a pitchfork in my brain." Pretty harsh, yes, but still, arguably, more pleasant than another listening of "Achy Breaky".

This brings up an interesting point that I'd like to mention in passing here: Al seems to have a fascination with things being stuck to, driven into, or smashed against his head and/or face. As we continue further down this list, you will hear many other references to things being done to his face. In fact, I'm going to start a counter:

Things being driven into head and/or face counter: 1

Every time we hit a verse that mentions something happening to his head or face, I'll increment the counter. Let's see how high this thing goes.

There isn't much else to say about this song. It sets out to say ""Achy Breaky Heart" is a terrible song" - and it is - "and I really really don't want to listen to it." And it accomplishes that through the use of parody, which means, in a way, we actually are listening to the song we so rabidly, viciously hate. Oh, cruel, cruel irony.

But then we get to the ending... and it's at that point that the song abandons all pretense that this is anything other than an opportunity to openly mock this song, as well as everyone and everything associated with it. Take a listen...

Kazoo and Mockery sounds by JackPowerX

I mean, sure, the belch sounds and hand/armpit farts in the background during the spaces between lyrics gave it a bit of a sting, but this? This is the equivalent of ending a performance of the original with no applause, and one guy in the back yelling "You suck!"

I hope Billy Ray has a good sense of humor, because I'm pretty sure this was not part of the pitch.

Al: "Hey, Billy"

Billy Ray: "Yeah?"

Al: "Can I do a parody of your song, "Achy Breaky Heart"?"

Billy Ray: "What you gonna do with it?"

Al: "Well, I was thinking about giving a laundry list of songs and things that I'd rather suffer through than listening to it. What do you think?"

Billy Ray: "..."

Al: "..."

Billy Ray: "Throw in some people doing that "Na-na-na-na-na-naaaah" thing, and you got yourself a deal!"

Okay, not a whole lot of material on this first one; the song itself took all the good jokes (and that's a good thing). Hopefully, there'll be more to work with on the next song. What song's up next?

Next up: Addicted to Spuds

...aw, crap...

30 Songs in 30 Days - Day 30

Day 30 – Your favorite song at this time last year

"Okkusenman" (author unknown)

I couldn't stop listening to this song back then. Before my life took an abrupt left at Albuquerque, I played this song to death on my mp3 player, and it was good.

This is the best version, imo: a remix of the original version and one of the many commercial releases done by a female J-pop band whose name I can't seem to locate.

Enjoy.

And, yes, I skipped day 23 on purpose, because I'm not sure it will apply to me.

Day 23 – A song that you want to play at your wedding -

/forever alone/

30 Songs in 30 Days - Day 29

Day 29 – A song from your childhood

"Dirty Laundry" by Don Henley

I have no idea what attracted me to this song when I was younger. Maybe it was the beat, the sweet, sweet synth beat, Don Henley's smooth vocals, I don't know, because I certainly didn't understand the meaning of the lyrics until much later.

The song is a scathing attack on television news transforming from information to entertainment. Those of you who keep at least an ear to network and/or cable news understand, as I do, that even though this song was recorded back in 1982, it still holds true, perhaps even moreso, today.

Although, in one way, this song played a vital role in the slow, inexorable corruption of my mind, because of one word: "Crap". "We all know that crap is king," he says, and I giggled. Boy, did I giggle. I was, like, 6-7 at the time, and that word being in a song just blew my mind.

Now, some 30 years later, I can make a lewd reference to the end of the last paragraph with my eyes closed. And I wouldn't have it any other way.

Thanks, Don. In one small way, you helped create a monster.

30 Songs in 30 Days - Day 28

Day 28 – A song that makes you feel guilty

"...Baby One More Time" by Britney Spears

*sigh*

Yes, I totally bought into Britney when she first came out. (musically, I mean. Not as in... "came out", because to my knowledge she hasn't done that yet. ...she's just kissed multiple women.)

I feel ashamed for liking this song when I did. I don't dislike it now, but I don't like it enough to call it a "guilty pleasure". But you know what I'm even more ashamed of?

...I bought the CD.

Yes, folks, I have a copy of ...Baby One More Time sitting on my shelf.

I intend to review it when I get this crate off the ground, but for now, just sheer, unadulterated guilt.

...don't judge me...

30 Songs in 30 Days - Day 27

Day 27 – A song that you wish you could play

"Lady" by Little River Band

The piano and guitar on this song are both amazing. In fact the whole instrumentation melds with the vocals beautifully. This is an incredible song.

Background note: this group is one of two in which I loved more than one of their songs but didn't know who the artist was until much later in life. (Lady, Lonesome Loser, Reminiscing)

The other? Steely Dan. (Rikki Don't Lose That Number, Do It Again, Reelin' in the Years)

Just a bit of randomness about me.