LYRICAL ANALYSIS

I'm happy to present a new Poplicks feature -- LYRICAL ANALYSIS -- in which I will use my formal training in literary criticism to dissect the sophisticated and labyrinthine messages embedded in today's popular music for the benefit of the layman.

The lyrical passages I've chosen below are from current Top 40 hits that an untrained listener cannot fully comprehend without my help.


KELLY CLARKSON - "BEHIND THESE HAZEL EYES"

Here I am, once again
I'm torn into pieces
Can't deny it, can't pretend
Just thought you were the one
Broken up, deep inside
But you won't get to see the tears I cry
Behind these hazel eyes

In this confessional chorus, Ms. Clarkson is subtly revealing her struggle with Diabetic Retinopathy, which is an eye condition that results in the deeper portions of her cornea being "torn into pieces" and "broken up," thereby causing her to cry tears that flow behind her eyes, unlike most of us who cry tears in front of our eyes. Perhaps now you can appreciate that Ms. Clarkson is not only an American idol, but a brave disabled American hero.


MIKE JONES - "STILL TIPPIN'"

Four fours I'm tippin'
Wood grain I'm gripping
Catch me lane switching with the paint dripping
Turn your neck and your dame missing

In this song, Mr. Jones is explaining proper etiquette to any listeners who visit his hometown of Houston, Texas. In the first line, Mr. Jones informs the listener that it is customary dining etiquette to generously tip one's waiter in Houston as if he or she were in Great Britain. "Tipping a four four" is thus a reference to 44, the international direct dial code for the UK. Similarly, when Mr. Jones is gripping the "wood grain," he is referring to the carved driftwood forks he squeezes to convey to a Texan diner's waitstaff that he is satisfied with his meal.

In the third line, Mr. Jones addresses driving etiquette. He informs us that while switching lanes in Houston, one is expected to "drip paint," which refers to the antediluvian practice of sprinkling tempera paint on to the road in order to signal a lane change. A failure to do this might result in your "dame," her highness, being ejected from your car.

In the remainder of the song, Mr. Jones reminds visitors that it is considered polite to repeatedly remind people of one's name and one's phone number, which in Mr. Jones' case is (281) 330-8004. Indeed, armed with good etiquette, Mr. Jones is still tipping and constantly paying it forward.


HOT HOT HEAT - "MIDDLE OF NOWHERE"

But you're waiting at the door where everybody's hanging out
just like they hung out before.
You didn't have to do it but you did it to say
that you didn't have to do it but you would anyway.
To give you something to go on when I go off back to the Middle of Nowhere.
To give you something to go on when I go off back to the Middle of Nowhere.

In this song, the speaker is telling his lover that he will soon be leaving her so that he can return to listening to Hanson's classic debut album, "Middle of Nowhere." Indeed, he will be leaving her in a MMMBop.


BLACK EYED PEAS - "MY HUMPS"

What you gon' do with all that junk? All that junk inside your trunk?
I'ma get, get, get, get, you drunk, get you love drunk off my hump.
My hump, my hump, my hump, my hump, my hump, my hump, my hump, my hump.
My lovely little lumps!

In this complicated musical dissertation, the Black Eyed Peas present a ratiocinative thesis on the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. BEP challenges the notion that the United States honored its agreement after it acquired Mexico's "humps" and "lumps" of land, now part of the southwest portion of the US, in light of credible evidence that the $15 million promised inside the treasure "trunk" was merely "junk" that ... oh, never mind, you wouldn't understand.

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If you have any song requests for future lyrical analysis, please email your suggestions here.

--Junichi