Lyric Analysis (SSTR #5)

Have you ever had a song stuck in your head and it just won't come out? There are some songs that fall under that category for me, and sometimes it gets annoying because you may not even like the song. But other times, a song I really like and feel passionate about gets stuck in my head and I can't stop thinking about it. I decided to look and analyze the song 'Say It Ain't So' by the band Weezer. I really love this band and this song relates to me on a very personal level. I think this song is about the separation of someone's parents, probably the songwriter's parents. The separation was probably due to his Father drinking and being an alcoholic. This song evokes a sad emotional response because the person notices beer in the house which is a connection to when his Father left. His Father abandoned him and his mother at a young age and started a new life. Seeing beer in the fridge is sad because the kid knows his Stepfather will soon do the same thing his Father did.

The message in this song that the songwriter was trying to convey was to be conscious of what's happening. If the song writer hadn't noticed the beer in the fridge, he wouldn't have known about his Stepfather's plans to leave the family so early on. Just like his Father, before he left there was beer in the fridge so the songwriter assumed his Stepfather was doing the same thing. Without being aware of his surroundings, I believe the songwriter's Stepfather leaving would have been a lot harder to deal with. There's only one poetic device in this song and it's a personification. The line "Your drug is a heart breaker" is a personification. This line of the song is a personification because it expresses how his Father's drug (alcohol) is breaking his heart. A drug cannot physically break someone's heart because that is a human characteristic. This is why the line is a personification.

The actual message of the song was to be aware of your surroundings. The songwriter was deserted by his Father and his Father believed he was having a better life without his son in it. The songwriter wants his Father to feel the pain he went through all the years he was gone, enjoying his new life. Alcoholism tore the family apart piece by piece. The songwriter was mindful of the situation with the fridge and because of that, he knew ahead of time what was going to happen with his Stepfather. I do believe the message of the song is relevant today in everyday life, like in your community. I think this because being aware or conscious of your surroundings can help you out a lot. For example, the songwriter was aware of the connection between alcohol and both his Stepfather and Father so he knew what was going to happen. The message of this song could be helpful in many ways and in this case, the songwriter was probably more emotionally stable than he would've been without knowing what he knew.

Lines in this song that I personally relate to are "I can't confront you", "I never could do", "That which might hurt you" because I feel like I can't confront my own family member about something so serious either. I also relate to the line "Your drug is a heart breaker" because my dad drinks a lot and his "drug" or alcohol, is a heart breaker because of how different he acts when he does drink and just how heart breaking the whole situation is. An alternate title for the song could be 'Not Again'. I believe this could be an alternate title for this song because this song is letting the songwriter express his feelings of how his Stepfather will soon do what his Father did. The title ‘Not Again’ would still express how the songwriter feels and I honestly think it is easier for others to understand the song with this title. 

http://www.metrolyrics.com/say-it-aint-so-lyrics-weezer.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ENXvZ9YRjbo