Some of my Favorite Songs for Their Lyrics

This is a series where I look at songs I like for their lyrical value and use my fancy degree (in overthinking song lyrics) to analyze the hell out of them. Why is it not called “best songs”? Because I don’t believe music itself can be subjectively analyzed as good or bad. Different melodies hit people in different ways. I also apologize that I don’t have very sophisticated tastes in music to choose songs from. I don’t really listen to anything that’s not directly in front of me and on the Top 40 radio station.

Silent All These Years, Tori Amos-The implication on Genius is that the barking dog and antichrist referenced in the first verse indicate the narrator is an abusive relationship. As Freud said, sometimes a barking dog is a barking dog and an antichrist is just something you throw in to be poetic. The abusive lover theory also doesn’t hold up when you consider that she is upset that this subject is with another woman in the second verse (the one with deep thoughts though I think Tori Amos could give her a run for her money in that department) and strangely seems to be back with him by the end of the verse. There’s also a very clear case of changing subjects: At first it’s a passive observer she wants to trade places with, and it’s very unclear who she wants to stand where she stands when the mother shows up in a nasty dress (although isn’t it superficial to harp on her wardrobe?).

The confusion in narrative focus leads me to believe that the song’s unifying element is what’s there under our very noses: the song title. Amos’…