While you would never equate them with the works of Shakespeare or your other favorite poet, songs are at their essence poems set to music. While this may be very shaky ground, going out on a limb, (insert your favorite other cliché here), etc., one of the things we can do with poetry is interpret it.
Have you ever had a song that you've listened to for years, yet one day you notice a particular line that has been there all along that just went right by you until just now? I had this happen with a song that I've only been listening to for about 24 years! In the last verse of Cyndi Lauper's hit Time After Time we get the following last line: "The drum beats out of time".
For some reason when I heard this yesterday, I thought to myself, "I wonder what that means?" The obvious choice would be that the drum is not keeping rhythm with everything else. I continued in my inner monologue, "Well that's not very interesting." So I tried to see if I could see anything beyond that. Perhaps it is a reference to the end of time or life. If you prefer something less dramatic, maybe it is the end of a relationship or some other significant event. Considering that the song deals with a relationship, I think this is probably the intent.
Whew! Was that as scary for you as it was for me? Let's turn to Freud for our closing thought: "Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar." Pop music probably isn't intended for analysis anyway.
Until next time...
PH
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2 comments:
Maybe it means she marches to a different drummer. Mom.
Either she marches to the beat of a different drummer or it means "time's up!" I googled the phrase and found it used in a few other places with that meaning...
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