The Soundtrack of Our Lives

Music plays a fairly major role in most of our lives, whether we realise it or not. Apparently, scientists have ranked the sense of hearing last in terms of the senses abilities to recall memories. And yet when so many of us reminisce about days gone by, we attach songs, indeed even entire soundtracks to periods of our lives. Maybe music isn’t fantastic for triggering a single intense memory, but it can instantly transport us back to our teenage years and the mischief we got into with our friends.

Ah, those were the days.

Even if science says Music is not all that significant when it comes to memory, it is incredibly important to us as a species. A bride will spend hours agonising over the song the happy couple will have their first dance to. A friend of mine recently fondly remembered the song playing when she and her husband first kissed when they were dating. A work party is really just an informal meeting with music. I hate driving anywhere without music, even if it’s just for a couple minutes.

It is probably my habit of always having music playing and as often as not, singing along with it, that prompted my son to start asking me what songs mean. He has for a long time listened and heard more than I thought he did. Thank you very much radio advertising for the erectile dysfunction ad that led to me having to define the word erection to my 4yr old. Thanks to some quick thinking, I explained to him erection meant to build or put something up. The other meaning was definitely a conversation for another day.

I love that he and I have these conversations about what things mean and that he realises there can be a deeper meaning to something rather than just taking the surface meaning or not even really hearing the words he is listening to, even if he doesn’t understand them yet. He is my inspiration for this blog.

We have a Spotify playlist we’ve named ‘Mum and Me’. The rules are pretty simple. We both get represented in the playlist equally. There are songs I want him to know, like American Pie and The Piano Man and songs he loves like What Does The Fox say. God help me, that song drives me crazy. WE KNOW WHAT A FOX SAYS, GOOGLE IT FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THINGS GOOD IN THE WORLD!!!

Truth be told, I think he likes my reaction to the song more than the song itself.

Anyway, moving on....

I added a song to the playlist he loved when he was younger and has grown out of a little. Queen’s, We Will Rock You. We all know it.

StompStomp, Clap. StompStomp, Clap.

Tell me you arn't hearing the opening refrains in your head right now.

It’s a fun piece of music to listen to, even if the only words you know are ‘We will, we will, Rock You!’ Who gives a damn who Buddy is or what he is doing, as long the chorus is that catchy!

But is the song really just an empty, fun, catchy tune?

When my son asked, ‘What’s this song about?’ I could answer his question for the most part.

Listening to the lyrics, there are 2 ways this could go. Either the song looks at 3 different people, males, at 3 different phases of their lives: childhood, youth and aged; or the same man at 3 different stages of his life. I get the impression it’s the same man at 3 different stages of life. I could be wrong.

Either way, it piqued my curiosity on what the meaning behind the lyrics, so I went looking for more information.

The lyrics themselves seemed like a good start.

Buddy, you're a boy, make a big noise

Playing in the street, gonna be a big man someday

You got mud on your face, you big disgrace

Kicking your can all over the place, singin'

We will, we will rock you

We will, we will rock you

Buddy, you're a young man, hard man

Shouting in the street, gonna take on the world someday

You got blood on your face, you big disgrace

Waving your banner all over the place

We will, we will rock you, sing it!

We will, we will rock you, yeah

Buddy, you're an old man, poor man

Pleading with your eyes, gonna get you some peace someday

You got mud on your face, big disgrace

Somebody better put you back into your place, do it!

We will, we will rock you, yeah, yeah, come on

We will, we will rock you, alright, louder!

We will, we will rock you, one more time

We will, we will rock you

Yeah

Source: LyricFind

Songwriters: Brian Harold May

We Will Rock You lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC

(sourced from Google.com.)

Overall, the lyrics don’t change the initial impression that the story is about the 3 stages of life though wether about a single person or three really isn’t any clearer. Buddy could be the name of the guy or just a generalised greeting.

What we do get out of the lyrics is that Buddy has a drive to do something with his life and isn’t afraid to fly in the face of what others expect of him. He does his best to become ‘the big man’ it’s predicted he will be and ‘take on the world’.

But does something go wrong?

He is described as a big disgrace all the way through. In the first and last verses though, he has mud on his face. In the middle, it’s blood. It makes me wonder, is it being implied that, like so many others who stand out from the crowd and make waves, Buddy has had his fair share of proverbial mud slung at him? Has some of it stuck? It certainly sounds as though he chose a cause to stand up for, maybe even demonstrate or protest for. Maybe Buddy was an activist for his cause.

Could he have literally or figuratively bloodied someone or a group in the middle stage? Is the blood on his face his own from retaliation or maybe someone else’s in a twist on the metaphor of ‘blood on his hands’? Either way, the third verse finds him old, poor and pleading.

In researching the meaning of We Will Rock You, I found very few quotes from Brian May on the meaning of his song. One quote simply stated he had told an interviewer that the song was ‘depressing’. It may be that Buddy spent his whole life fighting to further a cause and in the end is no better off for it. The reality is that when we stand up for something we believe in, we often make ourselves targets for those who become our opposition. The more noise we make, the bigger target we become.

The lyrics when read in the light of May’s comment about the song being depressing, gives the impression the Buddy feels like he has lost a lot and is pleading for peace.

It’s not the way I see it though. Even if he intended for it to be interpreted that way, I see it a little differently.

When I read the line ‘Pleading with your eyes, gonna get you some peace someday’, I get the impression that he continues to support his cause, he just does it with a little less noise and with a wisdom that comes with age and experience. He dosnt achieve the goal he set out to, but he never gives up and does what he can to encourage others to take up the banner. I interpret the chorus as backing up that theory. We will rock you to me sounds like a promise from Queen to show the audience a good time, but in keeping with the rest of the lyrics makes more sense as a threat to whomever is Buddy's opposition.

I was interested to read another interview with May explaining where the idea for the song originated. The band members had been at a sporting stadium and witnessed the audience clap and sing a song, winding themselves up to support their team which inspired them to come up with their own stirring song. May and Mercury had a little competition to write the piece they would record, ending up with We Will Rock You (written by May) and We Are The Champions (written by Mercury). The songs became companion songs, both stand-alone pieces but often played together.

Could the origin of the motivation behind the song lend a bit of support to the theory that despite not achieving exactly what he wanted to, Buddy as the subject of the song, in the end is still trying to stir support for a cause?

I read a lot of personal opinions on the meaning of the song while I was researching, and the song means a lot of different things to different people including a sporting war cry and a LGBT+ anthem. On the flip side, many people interpreted the song as being as depressing as May is supposed to have said it is.

It is possible I just didn't find Brian May’s explanation of the meaning of We Will Rock You. It’s also possible he hasn’t given an explanation. What I love about lyrics is the way meaning is often subjective and open to interpretation. Even if the writer intended it to have one particular meaning, as individuals we take something different from the music to next person. I’ll concede that it’s sad Buddy dosnt get where he wanted to be by the end of his life. But I actually find We Will Rock You to be encouraging. Both in lyrics and as an energetic anthem.

I hope you’ve enjoyed reading my little tip of the hat to a major part of our experience of life!

I’ll be looking for new songs to research and write about. If you have any songs you’d like me to look at, leave a message in the comments!