"There's a phenomenon in film called the Kuleshov effect... The underlying idea is that more meaning is created from the interaction of two shots than a single shot in isolation."
- Dan Olson, "The Art of Editing and Suicide Squad"
A quote from a film critic may seem like a strange way to start an examination of some song lyrics, but a mangled version of the Kuleshov Effect is a tool I definitely keep in mind when writing. Beemo's "Better Now" is a good case study of this idea in practice. (Olson has an excellent short video talking specifically about the Kuleshov effect that I would recommend watching if you're interested in the non-mangled version of the concept).
Death of the Author Disclaimer
One small digression / disclaimer: I am firmly a Death of the Author person, meaning that the way I see it, at the end of the day even though I wrote the song, my interpretation of its meaning is not more authoritative than anyone else's. What I'm about to describe is what I was thinking when I wrote the "Better Now" verses, but if you hear them and you have a different interpretation that's totally valid, too. If you think it's about Chile in the aftermath of Augusto Pinochet's death, then whatever. I don't care that it wasn't my author's intent, I only "care" that you muster interesting / plausible textual or emotional support for that interpretation.
(And if you do muster support for a Chilean interpretation of the song, PLEASE send it to me. I would love to read it.)
Background
"Better Now" is a Beemo song from the Bustin' Out album that I wrote with Matt Tonner (of The 502s and Tonner) in early 2017. I had verse music worked out but was having a little trouble finding the lyrics of the song. I didn't have a story I was working toward or any substantive lyrics, I just had the tag at the end of the verse: "all better now."
I asked Matt, who was producing the album, if he could me help get the song out. We got together and I played the guitar part while we sort of scatted out melodies and improvised lyric fragments. At some point I sang the line "I was wondering what happened to him? I thought I would ask, since we're all better now" and it became clear that I'd stumbled on the thread. I just needed to start tugging at it.
We talked about a potential narrative and Matt came up with the chorus. I went off and took a first cut at the lyrics, then made some tweaks for interest, clarity, and singability after Matt pointed out some weaknesses in the draft.
"Better Now" is a little unusual for me in that I didn't write a "prose version" before I wrote out the lyrics in detail. Usually I'll write the song's verses in story form first, without bothering to worry about meter, melody, or rhyme just to get my arms around the narrative. This helps me figure out the voice, get natural flow, define a consistent set of images I can pull from, and work out where any planting and payoff or foreshadowing I want to use should go. Then after I have the melody worked out and know the meter and roughly know the number of syllables per line, I start to craft the lyrics, using the prose version as a roadmap.
I didn't do that for this one, though I guess the conversation I had with Matt fulfilled a similar function.
The Final Verses
"Better Now" is a direct address to another person and the narrative is basically entirely contained in the verses:
Verse 1
It’s so good to see you again
I was wondering where have you been
It’s been too long since we were together now
The time’s flown since I can’t say when
You checked out, found yourself again
But the past never lasts and I’m glad that we’re better now
Verse 2
It’s so good to see you my friend
I was wondering what happened to him?
I thought I would ask since we’re all better now
I heard that he took off when
You said how, how much you loved him
It’s just too bad you’re not together now
Verse 3
I’m so glad that we can be friends
So the next time you’re alone here again
I’ll say “There there, I’m sure it will heal somehow”
I’ll say “So long, but I’m glad that we’re better now”
The chorus happens twice, after Verse 1 and Verse 2:
Oh, if you could know what I've been doing here on my own
Walking this strange road, now I'm feeling right at home.
The "Kuleshov" Effect and Recontextualization
In general when I write, I try to make it so all the verses contribute and their order is important. If i can rearrange the verse order and nothing changes, then I start to think maybe I need another cut at it. (This is not a litmus test for if lyrics are "good" it's just a parameter I tend to impose on myself when I'm writing.)
For my songwriting style, a song's chorus is extremely important, but that doesn't make the verses just a perfunctory thing that we just have to power through to get to the hook.
The main narrative idea I wanted to focus on for "Better Now" was that each verse would re-contextualize the one before it so the listener, and the theoretical character hearing the direct address, would only realize the full implication at the end. Each verse works in isolation, but the overall meaning appears when they're all taken together.
So: mangled Kuleshov Effect.
"Better Now" is a "f*ck you" song, but it's a particular kind of "f*ck you." (I'll get to it.)
Verse 1 in isolation is kind of wistful:
It’s so good to see you again
I was wondering where have you been
It’s been too long since we were together now
The time’s flown since I can’t say when
You checked out, found yourself again
But the past never lasts and I’m glad that we’re better now
By itself it seems like an old friend happy to connect after a long time apart, though "you checked out" is ever so slightly accusatory and gives a hint that maybe the separation wasn't the narrator's idea and "I was wondering where have you been" implies it was a sudden surprise. The last line hints at reconciliation and making peace with what happened.
(My original last line was "I'm glad you've come back and we're all better now". It was vaguely the same sentiment as what I ended up with but it was really inartful and plain. Matt made the suggestion of trying an internal rhyme and I came up with this final version. It was a fantastic suggestion; the new line flows better, has more interesting diction, and ties more strongly into the theme I was going for.)
Verse 2 in isolation could read as concerned.
It’s so good to see you my friend
I was wondering what happened to him?
I thought I would ask since we’re all better now
I heard that he took off when
You said how, how much you loved him
It’s just too bad you’re not together now
In a song meant to make someone feel better about being dumped this could work as a sincere, if maybe a little tone deaf, sentiment. But combined with some of the implications in Verse 1, it's at best patronizing and at worst a little mean. To quote Melvin Udall in As Good as it Gets, "I'm drowning here, and you're describing the water!"
This kind of deliberate meanness could be read as bitterness on the part of the jilted narrator, but in Verse 3 there's a slight shift:
I’m so glad that we can be friends
So the next time you’re alone here again
I’ll say “There there, I’m sure it will heal somehow”
I’ll say “So long, but I’m glad that we’re better now”
This narrator isn't angry; they're amused. The last line in Verse 1, "But the past never lasts and I’m glad that we’re better now" was foreshadowing. The narrator was hurt, but the past never lasts; they got over it a long time ago. As the chorus says, now they're "feeling right at home." It turns out verse 1's closing line was about reconciliation, but an internal one.
If you really squinted, in isolation this verse could be another tone deaf affirmation by a vaguely oblivious friend, but in conjunction with all the rest, it's obviously a sardonic twist of the knife.
The narrator uses the words "alone" and "heal somehow" to really rub some salt into the wound and then drops the cliche pablum "there, there," the equivalent to a nice "aw, bless your heart."
Paraphrased: "The next time this happens, and there will be a next time, I'm sure it will eventually be fine. I don't know how, this seems really painful, but good luck with that. Chin up, buddy."
The narrator doesn't care at all what happens next and I imagine them whistling cheerfully as they walk away.
Also, not having the chorus come back was deliberate from both an impact and a narrative perspective. The climax of the song is the "So long, but I'm glad that we're better now." It's the coup de grace, and I didn't want to weaken it by having it not be the last word on the drama.
And narratively, there's no need for it. The narrator already did the work and got their closure. They don't need to reiterate they are fine now, at this point it's blindingly obvious.
It's a f*ck you, said not with anger but with dismissiveness.
Lyrical Escalation and Modulation
Something I try to do when I'm writing is to present a sense of escalation. Songs can have multiple vectors for escalation via the lyrics, tempo, dynamics, and/or arrangement. Here I'm specifically talking about the lyrics. ("Better Now" does have escalation via the arrangement as well, most obviously in the differences in the percussion and the lead guitar parts, which both get more elaborate and layered as the song progresses.)
I always want to make sure my songs don't feel like they're stuck in neutral or spinning their wheels and I generally want to generate some sort of narrative momentum.
For "Better Now" I tried to keep the lyrics in verse 1 feeling almost guarded, like the narrator is tentative or wary in the encounter. This will be revealed later to not have been caution, but more akin to a false peace offering to cover a windup for a verbal smackdown.
Verse 2 starts with the same structure as verse 1, with "It's so good to see you" though the end of the line changes from "again" to "my friend," baiting the recipient into a closer intimacy. Another false olive branch. The second line starts the same way as verse 1's second line with "I was wondering" before referencing a third character and kicking off the mockery.
Verse 3 jettisons the formulas that started verse 1 and 2 and goes in for the kill. It also firmly goes into active first person, with the last two lines starting with "I'll say," a shift from the more passive constructions like "I was wondering" and "I thought I would ask" that the song previously used. I did this to reinforce the idea that the apparent tentativeness in verse 1 and 2 was a feint; the mask is off and narrator has been in control for the entire interaction.
This is less noticeable, but I also put some temporal escalation in the verses, with verse 1 firmly in the past, verse 2 being more in the present, and verse 3 talking about the future.
Conclusion
I occasionally get asked about songwriting and talking about it is both something I enjoy and something I think helps me hone my own process. It's like a forensic examination that I can learn from and I hope this kind of de-mystifying deep dive into the process is interesting and helpful, even to someone who isn't inclined to try their hand at songwriting.
Overall, I'm pretty happy with how "Better Now" came out. After Beemo's first show at the Plaza in 2021, a woman came up to me and asked which of us wrote the lyrics to it. When I told her it was me she smirked and said "I like them a lot. They're just so damn mean." So: mission accomplished.
Thanks for reading.
- m
Commenti