Dual Analysis of "Rock n' Band" and "Have a Cigar"

Though both "Rock n' Roll Band" and "Have a Cigar" share the same idea of rise to fame, becoming the "sell-out," "Rock n' Roll Band" incorporates upbeat tone, and crazy imagery to remenisce upon the "streets of Hyannis," while "Have a Cigar" displays cynical tone, and hollow imagery to sarcastically mock the record industry and riding the "Gravy Train."

Boston incorporates tone into their song to represent how they feel about their past and how "people came alive" when they were playing gigs. They remenisce about sleeping in their "cars" and "playin' all the bars," in an upbeat manner, almost as if they're trying to say that their rise to success was "getting' crazy." However, Pink Floyd's approach to their tone is not only to explain the road they took to gain wealth, but to criticize record companies, as they are a "monster" that is "just green;" only made out of money. They prove their tone to be sarcastic and critical in the "most sincere" way possible, as that is "really what [they] think." Boston and Pink Floyd utilize tone to amplify the meaning of their rise to fame, but also to speak of their own smaller accounts.

Boston further provides meaning to their song through their "anticipating" imagery of their lives, aiding in explaing their pasts. Their description of the man who "smoked a big cigar" and "drove a Cadillac car" is a representation of wealth and success that they wanted, and the man gave it to them. Pink Floyd provides a smililar descriptive nature towards the "cigar" being symbolic of wealth, but also use it and the "chart" to say that the record company only wanted them for more money for themselves. They further state their definition as criticizing the company for "riding the Gravy Train," taking the easy way out and using others for their own dirty work of getting money. Although both songs are similar to one another in terms of what they display, they both have different, deeper meanings from what they experienced on their rise to fame.

"Funny the Way it is" by Dave Matthews Band

Transitioning between the many broad situations of life in "Funny the Way it is," Dave Matthews Band illuminates the idea of life being "funny the way it is" with the moments in time it provides us with, through daily irony, depressing paradoxes, and dark imagery.

The band utilizes irony in such a way that it describes every normal "beautiful day" and how someone's "house is burning down on a day" as such. During this beautiful day, the band also ironically states that somebody's "going hungry" while "someone else is eating out," serving to show the ironic poverty of today's world. Dave Matthews Band further indicates life's acts of irony through a kid who "walks 10 miles to school, while "another's dropping out," also saying that life isn't easy, but rather rigorous for some of us.The band also comes to say that the man will "never catch her, but he can't stop trying," pointing out that although he has a strong will to win this woman, his efforts are ironically in vain. The band comes to say that irony isn't magic, but rather a daily thing, whether it be literally or figurtively, which also leads into the use of another critical tool: paradox.

The Dave Matthews Band's primary product of providing paradox is to prove that, along with irony, paradoxical situations occur everyday. Many of which is on a "soldier's last breath his baby's being born," serving not only as a paradox, but meaning that with death comes new life. The band also states when somebody's "heart is broken and it becomes your favorite song" as an everyday paradox, especially since someone's sorrow through a song is possibly another's favorite thing to listen to; complete contradiction that is reality. The band further utilizes paradox to say the "world is small," to figuratively speak the idea that the world seems so much more closed off, regardless of how connected each nation is to one another, and that there was so much more to Earth when it was just "mountains and oceans and rivers and stars." Dave Matthews Band illustrates to listeners the extent of paradoxes not only in everyday life, but through figurative use and thought. The effect of paradox also serves the prupose of merging into yet another crucial tool: imagery.

Dave Matthews Band portrays imagery through daily life activities, and serves the purpose of being the basis of ironic and paradoxical situations too. The "sunshine in the grass, and the children play" depicts that everything is as it should be in a normal day, yet a house is "burning down" on the beautiful day; the imagery serves to show that everything can completely go wrong on a perfect day. The imagery is further revealed as defining the means of paradox; as a soldier's breath reaches the end, "his baby's being born," saying that death brings new life, and life contradicts itself and defies intuition. Dave Matthews Band's utilization of imagery strictly defines the irony and paradoxes throughout the song, which is similar to an outer shell, protecting and hiding the more subtle and important pieces. Dave Matthews Band alludes to the idea that life is oddly ironic and paradoxical to those who live in it.