ON HURRICANES AND TIME ZONES, PART ONE
Make it a Hurricane before I go insane.
All of my friends know how much I love listening to musicals. Some of them also know my guilty pleasure of listening to country music, and many of them know I’m a bit of a Parrothead, too. So a few years ago when Alan Jackson posed the question, “…What would Jimmy Buffett do?” and was answered by Jimmy’s Gulf-Western twang chiming into his duet, my friends weren’t surprised that this musical theater/country music-loving Parrothead wanted to grab a cocktail and sing along.
IT’S ONLY HALF PAST TWELVE, BUT I DON’T CARE:
IT’S FIVE O’CLOCK SOMEWHERE
But – wait a second! That can’t be right. I mean, I get the spirit of the song. A guy has had a tough day at work, frustrated by his boss and the stress of the work day, and he heads out to an early lunch. Deciding whether to return to work for the afternoon, or chuck it all and stay at the local watering hole … he decides to stay and have the bartender pour him another drink. I get it. Millions of other music fans got it, too. The song was a huge hit, reaching number 1 on the Billboard charts, selling over a million copies, and becoming the anthem of at least one summer. An infectious song. A huge hit.
So maybe it was just me. Because you really can’t argue with success like that.
...it's 5:30 somewhere.
But … well … words matter to me. The MEANING of words matters. And – darn it – if it’s 12:30pm where I am then no, it ISN’T five o’clock somewhere. It’s five thirty somewhere, but it’s not five o’clock anywhere. That summer, I would argue with whoever would listen to me … “no it’s not! It’s not five o’clock ANYWHERE!” Not many people would listen to me, but I continued my private rant every time Alan and Jimmy launched into the refrain.
Pop songs, as a rule, have veered away from the strict lyric-writing guidelines that continue – most of the time – to rule in the world of lyric writing for the theater. So usually I am forgiving of such strays from perfection in a lyric when it’s not a theater song. But with this song, the offending lyric was so blatant, and in such a prominent part of the song, I just couldn’t accept it.
Words matter. Well-chosen words can convey nuances of emotion as well as exact, specific information. When writing a song, in addition to the meaning he is trying to convey, the lyric writer gives himself a set structure for the words – rhythm, rhyme, repetition of stanzas, and so forth. The words chosen for a lyric have to fit into the song structure – a difficult enough task – but also should be expected to convey the right meaning & emotion. The words must suit the mood, the setting, the character who sings them, and they have to convey exactly what is intended. When a lyric is vague or when a lyric gives inadequate or incorrect information, it can leave the listener confused and likely to “tune out” from the intended purpose of the song. Like me, frustrated over the accuracy of the time on the clock … and therefore immediately removed from the mood of the song. A song I WANTED to enjoy, but I just couldn’t get past 12:30.
Maybe it’s just me. No, actually, I’m SURE it’s just me. But, please do leave a comment to let me know if the “5 O’Clock Somewhere” lyric ever struck you as odd – just to let me know I’m not alone.
And stay tuned for my next article later this week, to find out how I finally found peace with the Alan Jackson hit song’s lyric.