| Punch Brothers – Clara Lyrics | 5 years ago |
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This song is incredibly complex and I've been trying to decipher it for some time now. It's important with music from complex artists like Chris Thile to lean hard into the choice of chords, and this song is a great example of how the musician uses chords to tell the story in how to feel and sense the message, beyond just what the words might be. Thile loves to play with dichotomies and contrast in his music. The song is predominantly major chords with a playful, light melody, until at the end of each verse it turns dark and the chords jump to minor. This is the bait and switch approach, the listener trods along with a mostly harmless and happy message until the message turns from innocent to maleficent. I'll break this down by verse: "Someday don't wake up I want you to get some rest Someday if she's hungry I'll bring her to you Clara once upon a time your mother didn't love your father the best But he made believe that she did one day it was true" This is an active perspective from that of someone looking over another person, specifically a conscious person overlooking an unconscious person (it's only later in the song we realize that "unconscious" means "dead", bait and switch). The "didn't love your father the best" is the nod to a selfish motive. The interesting thing is the "made believe" line where it seems the father is looking to get something out of this new relationship without the mother in the picture. This plays well into the next verse. "Someday I wake up and she's still a song to play Someday but you're ready to hear it's for you Clara once upon a time your father knew he'd scare your mother away Singing lovers live in a dream that keeps coming true" This feels like a confession. Whether in this life or after death (see chorus). "a song to play" is manipulative, controlling. "ready to hear it's for you" is redirection of the first verse, which leads me to think at this point the father is at least considering killing the daughter. And the next two lines are his justification for his actions, contributing to the confession. I skipped the chorus on purpose, because I think it changes meaning as the father decides to take his own life, and as Thile uses it first as an innocent statement, moves on to maleficent, and concludes with suicidal. Each line has a weight that changes with the context of the previous verse and the listener's thoughts to the father's intentions. The patterning of the last verse is incredibly interesting to me. The repetition suggests a look back at the fathers actions, as if recounting what he has done in killing both his wife and then his daughter. The last lines break the cycle of 2-1-2-1 to 3-1, the third in the last is the self-realization of the father of his actions. The first eyes that are not a window are his wife's. The second his daughter's. The third his own, a one way mirror to his soul. And he takes his life with the same words he's used to justify the taking of the lives of his family. "someday don't wake up I want you to get some rest", but this time the context is that of somebody who can no longer live with themselves and their actions, rather than that of a loving father figure. |
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