Damien Rice - "The Blower's Daughter"
From O
Released 2002
Recommended Age Group: High School to College
Two years before releasing his superhero magnum opus, The Dark Knight, Christopher Nolan released the criminally underrated Prestige. The film, a trick wrapped inside of itself, starts with a flowing shot of top hats in the woods and voice over asking the audience, "Are you watching closely?" The Prestige, like many of Nolan's other films, could be studied for the use of music alone (Prestige wraps its credits in Thom Yorke "Analyze" or how Joker is always signaled by just the smallest high pitch squeal), but this opening line has always stuck with me. This was one of the first films to really challenge my own ability to guess what was going to happen. I started seriously studying English when I was in my middle teens and once I understood the idea of a trope, I was able to spot one from a mile away, but not in Nolan's film. It had me guessing and watching till the final reveal (don't worry, no spoilers). What added to the sweetness of that first viewing was being able to return to it again and again catching little glimpses into the story and how Nolan constructed the details.
A few years prior Damien Rice released another modern masterpiece: O. Before I get too deep, caveat emptor dear reader: I have listened to this album more than almost any other album I have ever purchased. Maybe it is due to the romantic inside me, or the cello, or Lisa Hannigan's beautiful compliment to Damien's songwriting, whatever it is I have listened to this so many times that it is just buried in my subconscious. What it gives me is something similar to the Prestige: a desire to mine its deep cultural references again and again at different stages in my life. Damien and company's songwriting lends itself to being examined throughout one's life as the themes and ideas hinge on their repeating nature throughout everyone's lives; themes of broken hearts, failure, addition, hopelessness, hope, and, ultimately, redemption all weave themselves throughout the ten songs.
At the center is "The Blower's Daughter." At its core we have a romantic song. The chorus of repeated "I can't take my eyes off of you" is consciously powerful whether it is semi-shouted or whispered, by Damien or Lisa, and we get a sense of what the character is feeling: desire for someone deeply loved, known or not. Inevitably when I share this song with new people they respond to the almost romance and that is completely understandable, but like any great trick: reality is hidden by a few layers. First off, a second listen shows the deeper, somewhat unsettling nature of the relationship between these two people. Almost venomously, the first few lines of the song show a striking distance between these two people:
"And so it is just like you said it would be
Life goes easy on me"
These lines are from a past conversation with their loved one and delivered as if the person is having dinner with their new partner across the room. In short, you were right about me and I continue to be frustrated be how well you knew me and what I could do in life, despite my best effort. So that key line, "I can't take my eyes off of you," morphs from a romantically entangled line to being a line said out of spite, spat out of the singer's mouth. Then it further changes when listeners understand Lisa's bridge refrain,
"Did I say that I loathe you?
Did I say that I want to leave it all behind?"
Again, almost as if seeing each other after years, this couple seethe at each and remind each other of the pain their relationship brought to their lives. However, it also paints both characters as grateful for the relationship and, again despite their best efforts, still entwined with each other; they still cannot take their mind off the other.
It all changes again if you turn the volume up and, perhaps, put on a pair of headphones. As the chords die and the voices quiet, Damien whispers the hammering line,
"Till I find someone new"
So after all the pain and loss, the pleasure long lost, we find this character asking to be broken again by someone new. They are ready to move on and try and have a new relationship with some unknown new person. This is the greatest twist of all: after exploding how focused they are on this single person, the character relents and admits that they are ready to change their focus. As a listener, you are rewarded for really listening again and again to what is being said, how and why throughout the piece. Depending on your mood and age, this can present different meanings, and like great pieces of literature, you can argue you point of view. Also like a great piece of literature it rewards repeat customers.
However, "The Blower's Daughter" shows something amazing about writing a great argument. If Damien yelled the last line at the same volume as the rest of the chorus, then the song would not have been as impactful; similarly if he would have ended each chorus with the last line it would have demeaned the impact as well; it would take a masterful modern folk song and turned it into radio pop. However, because of the placement and volume, the line becomes the argument and focal point after repeated listens. A good essay does the same thing. Too often writers are entrenched in the five paragraph model of writing essays: intro, thesis, body, conclusion. While there is certainly a place for this type of writing, the reality is that good writing is much more responsive to the argument being created. Depending on audience, style, occasion, or purpose the argument could be much later in the essay or right at the beginning of the essay, or in the middle. It could have red lights around it, or it could be no louder than a whisper. Getting a student writing and understanding the main components of writing is essential, but we often lose the equally important moment of teaching students that they need to be able to use the components of good writing to explore alternative ways of constructing a text. In other words, if we taught students only scales in music or paint by numbers in art, they would never create. In the end, getting your audience to pay close attention is the main goal of being creative, but getting audiences to come back again and again is a rare thing in life.
