SA2: "Last Words" Thousnd Foot Crutch

“Last Words” by Thousand Foot Crutch

Shifting from apologetic to instructional tone in “Last Words”, Thousand Foot Crutch incorporates ghostly point of view, letter format, and losing hyperbole in order to warn listeners that “the world is not worth leaving”.

                Thousand Foot Crutch talks from the point of view of a dead loved one who committed suicide so that listeners will be persuaded that regret comes after suicide.  The speaker is “living in a world of regret” after they have committed suicide.  Through a suicide note, the speaker tells the listener they “never meant to hurt [them] dearly”.   The speaker in “Last Words” warns that “life is more than just the games you’re playing” by explaining how “the world is not worth leaving”.  Thousand Foot Crutch wants to convey a story of a person who regrets their choice of suicide and wants to warn their suicidal “loved one” that suicide is not the answer.  The speaker in wished they took “life seriously” and thanked “God in the morning for another day”.  The speaker portrays these things through the next tool, format.

                Thousand Foot Crutch wrote this song in a way such that it portrays the reading of a letter the speaker wrote to encompass the thought of a suicide note being that “last words” one will ever say.  “Last Words” begins with “Dear loved one,” a proper introduction on a letter.  The name is not mentioned due to the multitudes actually addressed in the song.  The speaker, who is actually the writer of this message, says “this might be the last chance [they] get” to say they are sorry.  The speaker continues by apologizing about how they “never meant to hurt” the listener and “there’s so much [the speaker has] done wrong”.  Then they continue with “Listen I’ve got to tell you something/These are the last words/I’m ever gonna get to say to you”.  They mark that they have chosen the path of suicide with this.  However throughout the rest of the song, the speaker warns the listener to not follow in their footsteps and “take life seriously”.  The speaker then asked the listener to “tell [their] mother that [they] love her”, which means this is the only copy of the letter.  The speaker is filled with regret about their decision, but they do not have “what it takes to make it through” “what life pulls [them] through”.  In a way, the letter is a letter to the speaker themself by telling how they should not have committed suicide.  The song does not end like a letter, but Thousand Foot Crutch probably wanted the speaker to remain anonymous for the sake of the listeners.

                Thousand Foot Crutch includes materialistic hyperbole so that the amount lost in committing suicide is presented.  Referring to the listener’s thoughts on life, the speaker says “you can have everything, but have nothing”.  The speaker is introducing the thought that what their “loved one” has amounts to nothing.  The speaker tells the listener that “when everything falls away from [them]” to “know the world is not worth leaving”.  This hyperbole embodies the feelings a depressed person has, feelings in which they feel they “have nothing”.  The speaker is relating to the reader by remembering how it felt to feel like absolutely no one wants them anymore.  The use of this device helps non-suicidal listeners feel how others feel and reminds suicidal listeners that in reality “everything [doesn’t fall] away from you”.

                With the use of paranormal point of view, message format, and greedy hyperbole, Thousand Foot Crutch communicates the idea of “living in a world of regret” after suicide.

Youtube video with lyrics: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-HnW3UdJhZg&feature=watch_response

Song Analysis One/SA1

               Shifting from first to second person, as well as questioning to answering, point of view in “Someone Worth Dying For”, Mikeschair utilizes contradictory assonance, persuasive repetition, and worried characterization to portray the idea that even though one might think they are “just some wandering soul” and have no purpose in life, they must remember that God created them for a reason and Jesus paid for their sins on the cross.

                The pairs of lines using assonance in this song seem to challenge each other.  In the lines “Am I more than flesh and bone?/Am I really something beautiful?” the word “bone”, a repulsive and sickly object, is paired with “beautiful”, the adjective used for describing visually appeasing objects.  The speaker is comparing what they think of themselves with what they hope God thinks of them.  Another contradiction is found in the lines “I’m not just some wandering soul/That you don’t see and you don’t know.”  Souls are not scientifically known to exist.  When the other words are added, the sentence becomes more understandable because “some wandering soul” that “you don’t know” is unknown and therefore logical even though this song deals with religion.  Assonance in the lines “I know you’ve heard that truth that God has set you free/But you think you’re the one that grace could never reach” pairs being able to do anything with trying for something you will never obtain.  The contradictory assonance in “Someone Worth Dying For” is necessary due to its contribution of contemplating who one really is.  This assonance will be swayed to one option with the use of the next device, repetition.

                When people repeat things over and over, they remember them better.  They will start believing it as fact if they hear it enough times.  The repetition used in “Someone Worth Dying For” first tries to show that the struggling people in the world want to believe they are worth more with “Yeah I wanna believe, I wanna believe”.  After this line, the repetition changing to persuading the worried into believing they are in fact worth something.  The line “Yeah you gotta believe, you gotta believe” is repeated not only in the line itself but also in the song twice.  “He wants you to see, He wants you to see/That you’re not just some wandering soul” repeats the fact the God Himself wants them to know they have purpose.  The songs ends with “You’re someone worth dying for” repeated twice.  These repetitions are making sure the self-proclaimed worthless people never forget that they are worth dying for.

                The speaker begins the song with stating different types of people that could be or may become the listener.  “You might be the wife/Waiting up at night” portrays a woman who is so worried about her life that she cannot even sleep.  Characterized in the lines “You might be the man/Struggling to provide/Feeling like it’s hopeless”, this man feels so worthless that he does not want to try anymore to support his family because “it’s hopeless”.  The second verse of “Someone Worth Dying For” portrays two other types of people.  “Maybe you’re the son/Who chose a broken road” represents a son shunned by his family due to his mistakes in life.  The lines “Maybe you’re the girl/Thinking you’ll end up alone” tell of a girl afraid to become an old maid because no men want her.  All these different kinds of characterizations are calling towards all different types of listeners.  Unspecific toward gender or age, this song is more relatable and helpful for those who believe they are not “someone worth dying for”.

                Mikeschair conveys the thought that everyone is “someone worth dying for” with the help of self-challenging assonance, bias repetition, and struggling characterization.  This song reminds listeners that even though they feel unwanted, God wants them to do something in life and any mistakes they make along the way have already been forgiven through Jesus’ death.

Lyrics

You might be the wife,
Waiting up at night
You might be the man,
Struggling to provide
Feeling like it’s hopeless

And maybe you’re the son,
Who chose a broken road
Maybe you’re the girl,
Thinking you’ll end up alone
Praying God can you hear me?
Oh God are you listening?

Am I more than Flesh and bone?
Am I really something beautiful
And I wanna believe, I wanna believe
I’m not just a wandering soul
That you don’t see it and you don’t know
And I wanna believe, Jesus help me believe that I
Am someone worth dying for

I know you found the truth
That God has send you free
If you think you’re the one
That grace will never reach
So you just keep asking,
Oh what everybody’s asking

Am I more than flesh and bone?
Am I really something beautiful?
And I wanna believe, I wanna believe
I’m not just a wandering soul
As you don’t see it and you don’t know
And I wanna believe, Jesus help me believe that I
Am someone worth dying for

You’re worth it
You can’t earn it
That the cross has proven
That you’re sacred and blameless
Your life has purpose

And you are more than flesh and bone
Can’t you see you’re something beautiful
Yes you gotta believe
You gotta believe
He wants you to see
He wants you to see
That’s you’re not just some wandering soul
That can’t be seen and can’t be known
Cause you gotta believe
You gotta believe that you are
Someone worth dying for, oh


You’re someone worth dying for, oh
You’re someone worth dying for

Oxymoron, Irony, and Paradox in Song Analysis

Shifting from a bored to happy mood in “Escape”, Rupert Holmes utilizes romantic irony, musical simile, and suburban imagery to convey the idea that it is necessary to escape the “same old dull routine” in order to remember the purpose of life-changing events.

“Escape” is about a man who is sick of his wife and wants someone new.  He sees a personal ad and replies with hopes of meeting her.  When he does, he finds his own wife.  In the line “I didn’t think about my lady, I know that sounds kind of mean” the man clearly does not want to have anything to do with his wife.  The irony comes into play in the lines “I knew her smile in an instant, I knew the curve of her face/It was my own lovely lady, and she said ‘Oh, it’s you.’”  The man was expecting a beautiful woman he has never met to walk into the bar, but instead he sees his own wife.   The irony is also comedic because the couple just goes with it; they laugh and plan their escape despite finding out they both attempted to cheat on one another.  The irony in this song shows that he needed to escape his daily routine to realize that he actually loves his wife who he described using a less important but still necessary device, simile.

The man in “Escape” claims that his wife was “like a worn-out recording, of a favorite song.”  The “worn-out recording” term can also be applied to his routine.  Everything in this man’s life is repetitive and boring.  He wanted to break free from it, which is the whole reason why he replied to the ad in the newspaper.  To become worn-out, a song must be played so many times.  This shows that his life and conversations with his wife were expected and uninteresting.  Had his lifestyle been on the boring side of normal instead of repetitive, the man would have never have replied to his wife’s ad, and he would have never escaped and fell in love with his wife again.

The suburban imagery used in this song gives it a story many people can relate to.  In the line “I read the paper in bed” the man is portrayed as a normal husband most likely in an average house.  The man asks the woman, unknown to him as his wife, to meet him “at a bar called O’Malley’s” to plan their escape.  This relates to a lot of people because many couples meet in bars.  The descriptions they give of themselves shows that they are like most suburban people.  Like many people, the man is “not much into health food”.  In the line “if you have half-a-brain”, the woman shows that she wants an average suburban man.  She doesn’t want to escape with a college professor nor someone who had not even graduated high school.  These lines are important to the song’s story sounding like it could actually happen to a couple.

In “Escape”, Rupert Holmes tells of a couple’s journey to rekindle their love through the use of comedic irony, cliché simile, and relatable imagery.  These devices help Holmes’s idea of changing up one’s daily life to remember the good things in life and why certain things were chosen over others to be portrayed in the fun and casual manner used in “Escape”.

Song Thesis Statement 1

Thesis Statement:

In "Does Anybody Hear Her", the Casting Crowns uses athletic hyperbole, damaging metaphor, and sorrowful characterization to convey the idea that we must look beyond ourselves, our circle of familiars, and rumors or gossip to help someone who really needs it.

Lyrics:

She is running
A hundred miles an hour in the wrong direction
She is trying
But the canyon's ever widening
In the depths of her cold heart
So she sets out on another misadventure just to find
She's another two years older
And she's three more steps behind

Does anybody hear her? Can anybody see?
Or does anybody even know she's going down today
Under the shadow of our steeple
With all the lost and lonely people
Searching for the hope that's tucked away in you and me
Does anybody hear her? Can anybody see?

She is yearning
For shelter and affection
That she never found at home
She is searching
For a hero to ride in
To ride in and save the day
And in walks her prince charming
And he knows just what to say
Momentary lapse of reason
And she gives herself away

Does anybody hear her? Can anybody see?
Or does anybody even know she's going down today
Under the shadow of our steeple
With all the lost and lonely people
Searching for the hope that's tucked away in you and me
Does anybody hear her? Can anybody see?

If judgment looms under every steeple
If lofty glances from lofty people
Can't see past her scarlet letter
And we've never even met her

If judgment looms under every steeple
If lofty glances from lofty people
Can't see past her scarlet letter
And we've never even met her

Never even met her
(Never Even Met her)

(Ohhhhh)Does anybody hear her? Does anybody see?
Or does anybody even know she's going down today
Under the shadow of our steeple
With all the lost and lonely people
Searching for the hope that's tucked away in you and me

Does anybody hear her? (Does anybody hear her?) Does anybody see? (Does anybody See?)
Does anybody even know she's going down today?
Under the shadow of our steeple (shadow of her steeple)
With all the lost and lonely people (Lost and Lonely people)
Searching for the hope that's tucked away in you and me
Does anybody hear her? Does anybody see?

She is running a hundred miles an hour in the wrong direction