| Alice in Chains – Nutshell Lyrics | 19 years ago |
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i wanna just start this out as being a thank you letter to who ever thought of websites like this. it has help me write this humanities essay. The Reality of Alice in Chains, "Nutshell" By: Nicholas Tuminello The reality being portrayed through Alice in Chains “Nutshell,” is about how the lead singer, Layne Staley, has come to being a rock star and how it isn’t all he had dreamed it to be. Lyrically, through the notes, and the rhythm of this song, these portray Staley’s life as a rock star. Looking at the lyrics first off, We chase misprinted lies We face the path of time And yet I fight And yet I fight This battle all alone No one to cry to No place to call home Oooh...Oooh... Oooh...Oooh... My gift of self is raped My privacy is raked And yet I find And yet I find Repeating in my head If I can't be my own I'd feel better dead Oooh...Oooh... Oooh...Oooh... “We chase misprinted lies,” this is a flash back of his child hood. Him reading magazines and articles with the images of rock stars having a great lavish life, which he wants to “chase” to live that type of life. He labels the magazines and articles as “misprinted lies,” this is because now that he is a rock star he has not experienced any of the “great lavish life,” but one of great depression. “We face the path of time,” this meaning it takes time to become good at something in this case singing and writing and that we only have so much time to do it in. “And yet I fight, and yet I fight this battle all alone” being repeated, emphasizing that it is a long struggle to get where you want to go and no one is there to help you. “Oooh…” is the agony, sweat, pain, that he has gone through. “My gift of self is raped,” this meaning the thing he wished most of being a rock star, has caused him a feeling of being constantly violated to business associates and fans. “My privacy is raked,” this is from his fans and the media constantly wanting to know what he is doing and violating his personal space. “And yet I find repeating in my head, if I cant be my own, I’d feel better dead,” this meaning that his fans expect a certain persona from him and he just wants to be his own, a non conforming vision. “Oooh,” the agony he feels. In most of Alice in Chains’s songs, the musical tone or notes are tuned in E flat; causing a dark melody. This is Staley’s feeling of his life, dark and depressing. It is also the slow movement of time. When in a depressive state, it is as if the world around moves much slower and has this teeter tauter swaying. As if walking through life on a thin rope, swaying along this rope very loosely not caring if Staley falls to his death. Along with his voice, long strenuous flat notes. This is Staley exaggerating the depressive dark feelings that he feels. At the end each verse there is a riff with a note bend, this is the weeping of Staley. His weeping of seeking a dream that never gave him happiness. At the end of the song, the solo at the end is Staley’s drug addiction due to his depression of not reaching the blissfulness he sought after his whole career. The preparation of raping the fabric around his arm to cut the circulation, getting ready to inject him self with the only essence he knows of that brings him life clarification. The rhythm is 60 beats per second, a very mellow dramatic composition. Songs with this slow beat are usually referenced into a dark sedated type of sound giving off the aggressive feeling that Staley is trying to convey to the audience. In the drumbeat, there is a blues beat. The drummer uses a wire brush and a drumstick. The wire brush on the snare is used to portray Staley’s scattered heartbeat of his lonesome depression. The drumstick hitting the snare is Staley’s march on through his life, a slow walk, his head looking down and his feat drenched with sorrow. The song represents Staley’s life, from his childhood, to his stardom point in his life as a rock star. Lyrically, through the notes, and the rhythm of this song, these portray Staley’s life as a rock star. This also foreshadows Staley’s death; due to his drug usage from his depression, he died April 15, 2002, the same day Kurt Kobain died eight years earlier. |
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