Joyce Alcantara (G00830834)
English 101-113
Professor Lisa Photos
April 7th, 2014
Decisions: Perpend, Ponder, and Plan Have you ever listened to a song where you immediately thought to yourself, “I can totally relate!”? Have you ever analyzed lyrics in your head, and completely understood every solitary piece of the message that the song is trying to convey? The song “Lucy,” by a rock band named Skillet, resonates with many people in various ways, as it starts off in a slow, symphonic playing of the keyboard. The initiation of the song includes a silvery tuning of the piano keys, and then it transitions into the entering of the harmonic pieces of the electric guitars and drums. This transition, along with the screaming elements used by the vocalist, the low-spirited tuning of the song, and the sounds of the percussion, are tools that are used to emphasize the song’s message. These tools incorporate with the emotions that the lyrics are trying to render. In other words, the theme of the song, which talks about the pain and regrets that can follow abortion, ties with the sounds of the percussion instruments played. The theme emphasizes that any decision, whether big or small, can affect one’s future, and can be life-changing. Therefore, well-thought decisions are significant and are highly accentuated in this heart-warming composition. The song “Lucy” is a musical artwork in which parents or couples that have gone through abortion relate to. There are plenty of different interpretations that can be taken from this song. However, although the lyrics specifically tell a story about a couple who have gone through abortion, then followed by their experiences of pain and regretting their decisions, the theme of the song can also point to a different interpretation. It generally focuses on the pain and regrets that people experience in any life-changing situations and the decisions that they make. It emphasizes that a person can easily say “what’s done has been done” and “it’s time to move on.” However, in reality, moving on from any emotional scarring experiences is not at all child’s play. As quoted from the song, “…here we are from a brand new start; Got to live with the choices I’ve made, and I can’t live with myself today,” this verse strongly emphasizes that even though an individual has accepted that his/her actions have already been done, there are still consequences that follow, and sometimes remain. These consequences involve emotional astray such as feeling regretful of one’s actions, living a life full of pain, and even constantly wishing he/she had done things another way. As for the song “Lucy,” it deals with a heartbreaking loss of a couple’s unborn baby named Lucy, due to a regretful decision, as well as mourning that loss, and getting through the emotional scars that follow it. As written in the chorus, “Now that it’s over, I just wanna hold her; I’d give up all the world to see that little piece of heaven looking back at me,” these lines heavily accentuates the flow of emotions and great regrets that the theme is emphasizing. Furthermore, there are tools used to stress this message and the emotions carried in the song. One of the tools used is a gradual transition of the percussion, which is palpable that it fully expresses the point that the song is trying to deliver. The musical stylings of “Lucy,” where the transition includes the entering of the electric guitars and drums, introduces a change of tone of the lyrics’ message. For instance, in the beginning of the song, the lyrics starts off slowly and melancholy as the silvery tuning of the piano keys are being played. As the song progresses towards the first verse and the first chorus, the symphonic playing of the keyboard gradually introduces the sounds of the electric guitars and drums. This musical transition incorporates with the lyrics, by representing symbolic meaning within the song, which is the abrupt change of a decision that an individual has made in their life. Another tool used in this song is a screaming element. As the song reaches the bridge, the lines “I’ll see you in another life; In Heaven where we never say goodbye,” are sang with a screaming principle, and not only it magnified the emotions to a whole new level, but it doubled the emphasis of the song’s theme. The screaming element displays all the negative emotions reeling throughout the whole song, and vastly highlight the song’s point that one should think his/her decisions through, as anything could change his/her future minimally or largely. There are many mechanisms used to explain and emphasize the technical stylings and features of the song “Lucy” by Skillet. These mechanisms include the way that the theme is conveyed, and how its musical stylings loosely connects to the message of the song. As stated before, “Lucy” is a song that is relatable to many, if not most, people who have made life-changing decisions in which impacted them negatively. It conveys an empathetic message to its audience, because difficult experiences in life are what everyone goes through at some point in life, regardless of the differences of the situation. Its musical styling may vary from an individual’s music taste to another, but the heart-warming lyrics of the song’s composition express a strong message, and is accentuated using different tools such as the screaming element and the gradual transition of the percussion. It is one of those songs that can make an individual stop and ponder about their wrongdoings in the past, and think if they are living their life regretfully as a result.