When I saw the prompt for this blog entry, I immediately thought of Jack Johnson, who is, in my opinion, one of the most romantic singers of the current time period. His lyrics are simple, to the point, and of course, romantic. Combined with the pleasant and upbeat music, his songs warm my heart (as corny as that sounds) and make me believe that there really are true romantics left in this world. One of my current favorite songs is Do You Remember (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Y5kxOGhqrw&feature=related). This song is basically a love song to his wife. He combines snippets of the two of them falling in love (Do you remember when we first met? I sure do. It was sometime in early September) with reflection on how time flies (Well, all these times they come and go, and alone don’t seem so long. Over ten years have gone by….), and memories from in between (Do you remember when we first moved in together). Although I truly do love all Jack Johnson songs, this song is one of my favorites because of the specifics it includes. The specific parts of the ‘story’ told by this song closely relate it to one person, which adds to the romance of it.
Like any other song that Jack Johnson performs, the main feeling that he wants you to experience is happiness. However, happiness is a broad feeling, which can be broken down into many different emotions. What is making you happy? Being happy because you got an A on a paper or passed your midterm is a completely different happy than if your team won the big game , and feeling happy because someone took the time to tell you how they really feel, much less through a song, is completely different than that! The goal of “Do You Remember” is, as the title suggests, to make sure you remember all the wonderful times you have had with each other, and so that you can always remember exactly how he feels about you, so you can feel the same way too. Remembering this feeling should make the listener happy. Jack Johnson, a laid back former surfer, has the power to simple feelings into songs, bringing out the romantic side in the best of us.
(Full lyrics- http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/jackjohnson/doyouremember.html)
Great post. I'm a moderate listener of Jack Johnson but the song you picked has meaning to me so I can relate to how he reaches out to his listeners. It is pretty neat to think that so many people trace this song back to something or someone in their life and that is truly a beautiful thing. Yes, he does want to portray a broad feeling of happiness, but in a deeper sense the song focuses on the happiness that comes from being with someone and sharing a love with them. It almost seems cliche that Jack Johnson is a "laid back former surfer" and is writing romantic music, probably on a beach somewhere sitting around a fire.
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