Lyrical Analysis – You’re Beautiful
This one is gonna be pretty scathing. Actually I think it’s the meanest thing I have written here so far!
PLEASE TAKE HEED!!! If this song is genuinely important to you, PLEASE DON’T READ ANY FURTHER. I have zero interest in taking from you something that adds value to your life!
In the tragicomedy that is society, often the most successful commercial art appears (to me) to be efforts that are haphazard, less-than-wholehearted, hackneyed, and unremarkable.
But occasionally, they are works of such dreadful laziness that I experience genuine shock. In fact, it can be quite hard for me to navigate from total revulsion to mirth! (I am hopeful that this exercise will allow me to make just such a transition).
[It’s possible I wouldn’t find this song as appalling as I do, but a wonderful person whom I care about, and who should really know better [she saw The Beatles in concert!!!], actually LIKES this song. She knows my feelings on it and taunts me when she hears it by reminding me of its existence via text].
So without further ado – submitted for your (dis)approval, let’s consider –
Lyrical Analysis – You’re Beautiful
You’re Beautiful – James Blunt
Let’s look at the lyrics of the “explicit” version, simply because it may give us something to sink our teeth into. And we will be taking these lyrics at face value to start, without any additional context to inform our critique.
My life is brilliant, my love is pure
I saw an angel, of that I’m sure
She smiled at me on the subway, she was with another man
But I won’t lose no sleep on that ’cause I’ve got a plan
You’re beautiful, you’re beautiful, you’re beautiful, it’s true
I saw your face in a crowded place
And I don’t know what to do
‘Cause I’ll never be with you
Yeah she caught my eye as I walked on by
She could see from my face that I was fucking high
And I don’t think that I’ll see her again
But we shared a moment that will last ’til the end
There must be an angel with a smile on her face
When she thought up that I should be with you
But it’s time to face the truth
I will never be with you
First Impressions
Sigh. Look, frankly these lyrics just don’t bear contemplation. I get the profound impression that they only exist so that his tongue and vocal chords have something more varied to work with than a “la” sound. Though personally I think this song would be more interesting if he were just ad-libbing random noises.
But before we dig into the lyrics, let’s remember that this is a song, not a poem, and first and foremost it has to carry its weight as a musical experience. In the interest of constructive criticism I’d like to find something positive to say about it, so I have just subjected myself to it again for reference.
I think this dude has a unique voice. It has a high, clear quality that sets it apart, and which I honestly like. I don’t care for his style of vibrato, but that’s down to taste. The song certainly stands out for the distinctive vocal qualities alone, and in the interest of charity let’s allow that this is a big contributor to why humans have paid it any heed.
Lyrical Analysis – You’re Beautiful
Musical Composition
Musically, the kindest adjective I can come up with is “benign.” Like an exhausted old horse, its decrepitude and incontinence aren’t much of an issue because horses perform their bodily functions at will anyway. This is part of why we make them spend their lives outside and in easy-to-clean stables.
Maybe it’s just a personal pathology, but I struggle to understand our tolerance for songs built entirely around such wearied and beflogged chord progressions. Do you guys find them comforting? Reassuring? I find them noxious, but they are apparently inoffensive to most everybody else.
The execution of those chord progressions is also without any sort of unique contribution. Again, start to finish, this whole affair seems to exist only to provide a medium through which the singer’s voice can transit.
Alright, I guess I’ve delayed it as long as I can.
Lyrical Analysis – You’re Beautiful
Let’s Dig In
- My life is brilliant
- Hey! I don’t think I have ever encountered the phrase “my life is brilliant” before! It sounds a bit arrogant and puffed up to me, but he’s British and they really love the word “brilliant.” I think for them it just means “great.” If he is saying, “my life is great,” that’s not very interesting. But I’m going to give him one point for originality of unique phrasing!
- My love is pure
- Ouch. That’s a setback. I’ve heard love described as “pure” a lot. But what do we mean by that? Open, trusting, and childlike? Faithful and unalloyed by attraction to anyone besides a partner? Uncompromised by negative sentiment? Hard to say, it’s a very vague statement that really doesn’t say anything specific, especially without some other contextual clues
- I saw an angel
- Uh oh. When angels make appearances in songs are almost universally disappointing. Biblical angels are mysterious, powerful, fearsome creatures with such amazing potential as carriers of meaning and imagery! But when they show up in popular culture they are always just pretty people (almost always female, for some reason?). Oh, and they also have wings. I’m gonna step out on a limb here and assume the person he saw didn’t have wings. So…he saw a pretty lady
- Of that I’m sure
- Well fuck me. Your love is “pure?” Of that you’re “sure?” Of THIS I’M sure – these lyrics are getting really lazy, really fast
Lyrical Analysis – You’re Beautiful
- She smiled at me on the subway, she was with another man
- After the last line, this is refreshing! A subway is something I can visualize! And the pretty lady was with a man! Oooh! Potential for intrigue!
- But I won’t lose no sleep on that ’cause I’ve got a plan
- Alright! Now we’re getting somewhere! I wonder what this plan is! We were off to a rocky start but maybe we get lucky and it’s something interesting!
Something Else
- You’re beautiful, you’re beautiful, you’re beautiful, it’s true
- Oh, fuck right the fuck OFF! Are you KIDDING me!?!? I challenge ANYONE to come up with a lazier, more meaningless line than that. I can think of precisely ONE – “Oh yeah!”
- I saw your face in a crowded place
- Whatever. You’re on a subway. I’m still WAY too irritated by the last line to care
- And I don’t know what to do
- WHAT!?!? You literally JUST told me you have a plan! (Alright, maybe there IS another line more meaningless than the first line of the chorus…)
- ‘Cause I’ll never be with you
- Oh! I see. You “don’t know what to do” because it rhymes with “never be with you“
Lyrical Analysis – You’re Beautiful
Sigh. Okay, I get it. It’s “love at first sight,” and it’s “having a crush on a pretty person you don’t stand a chance with.” I don’t buy the “love at first sight” thing, but I guess other people do. And having a one sided crush on someone pretty looking is a universal human experience. You have tapped into a common facet of human life. Maybe what is happening here for people is that when they hear this line they suddenly reflect on a specific instance where this happened to them? But that is just speculation.
- Yeah she caught my eye as I walked on by
- Okay, so you saw her. And you like to rhyme (from time to time)
- She could see from my face that I was fucking high
- Hey! That’s kinda interesting! You don’t usually hear that in a pop song! (And in fact you DON’T in the radio version, in which he sings “I was flying high”)
- And I don’t think that I’ll see her again, but we shared a moment that will last ’til the end
- Okay dude. You’re going to reflect on this moment for the rest of your life, huh? I don’t buy it for a second, but whatever
Lyrical Analysis – You’re Beautiful
- There must be an angel with a smile on her face when she thought up that I should be with you
- Why are you doing this to me!? Why are you introducing another angel?! And why is this angel smiling if you’ll never be with the subway angel!? Is this other angel Lucifer? Doubtful – Lucifer is decidedly masculine. Also, this angel didn’t imagine you together with the subway angel; she has “thought up” that you should be together. This implies directing a course of action. But angels are not directors, they are executors! Why are you imputing godlike characteristics on an angel?! IS this actually Satan!? It would be terribly interesting if it were, but I am quite certain it is not!
- But it’s time to face the truth, I will never be with you
- Yeah whatever, rhyme rhyme rhyme, rhyme rhyme rhyme, shut the fuck up already
How Many Songwriters Does It Take to Screw Up A Hit Song?
So with the listening experience of the lyrics out of the way, what can we learn about this song through research?
Egad! Somehow this only makes matters worse! Apparently, this cultural embarrassment is the product of not one, not two, BUT THREE CREDITED SONGWRITERS (James Blunt, Sacha Skarbek, and Amanda Ghost)!!!
How can this be!?
One Author’s Contribution To Our Understanding
Alright, what does the primary author (Blunt) have to contribute to our understanding? Here is a quote per Wikipedia.
[I will insert my own commentary contained within brackets and in bold].
Blunt said of the song, “It’s kind of miserable. [We can certainly agree on that point!] It was about seeing my ex-girlfriend on the Underground in London with her new man, who I didn’t know existed. [What? I didn’t pick that up at all. It is written as if about someone otherwise completely unknown to the singer. If I review the lyrics, the only possible clue is that the “angel” was with “another” man, rather than “a” man]. She and I caught eyes and lived a lifetime in that moment [No, you really didn’t], but didn’t do anything about it and haven’t seen each other since.”[7]
According to Blunt, he wrote the lyrics of the song at home in two minutes after meeting her [NOW things are beginning to add up], and then finished the song with Sacha Skarbek in Los Angeles, and with Amanda Ghost also credited as a co-writer.[8] [*Sigh] Blunt said of the song: “It’s always been portrayed as romantic, but it’s actually a bit creepy. It’s about a guy (me) who’s high and stalking someone else’s girlfriend on the subway. And then the stalker kills himself.”
Indignation
I have to lodge a strong objection. Lyric writers seem to do this – they write one thing, and while they are writing it they are thinking about something else. But if you don’t include the slightest hint of the thing you are thinking about in those lyrics, or else somehow encode that meaning into the song such that, with the proper “key,” the true “meaning” of the song is revealed, it’s a pretty dick move to assert that the song “means” something beyond what you have expressed in the lyrics. If the song “means” something to you outside of that, I would prefer you keep it to yourself. In this case it just feels like you know how lame your lyrics are and you are trying to redeem them by trying to dress them in a black sweater ex post facto
ALSO! If this dude really was going to kill himself, how hard would it have been to encode that into the song?! The pitch is right across the plate! You are on a subway! And you keep talking about angels! People kill themselves via subway regularly, and angels are literally the first thing people think they will see after they die. How hard would it have been to say something like, “Going back to the station tonight, I hope to meet an angel if I do it right” – or anything to that effect?
Lyrical Analysis – You’re Beautiful
Sublimation
Alright! Big sigh of relief over here. I don’t know about you, but I feel better! I have said it before and I will say it again – feelings are dumb, BUT you have to listen to them and let them express themselves before you can move on. Hopefully this expression has purged me of some of the distress that this song causes me, and now I will be able to laugh at it more freely!
🙂
