Somehow
At first glance, this little ditty might seem like a bit of a palate cleanser, and I’m okay with that, but I do urge you to take a closer look as well. There’s a lot of buried treasure here. If you like to experience songs without looking under the hood, then turn back now! I’m sure that if I assigned this as a poem in and English class that a few students might pick up on the subtle intricacies.
The first thing you might notice is how many different ways “some” is used. I started with “somehow” but for some reason- wasn’t trying to sneak that in there- I added “somewhere”, “some day”, etc. Makes you kind of wonder what “some” is telling us. It’s kind of like an indefinite article like “a” or “an.” We use indefinite articles when we need something, but we’re not specifying which one. I need an apple. Any apple will do. In English the only indefinite articles are singular. But that’s not true in every language. In French, you can have plural indefinite articles, which get translated as “some”. And yet, the word “some” is often used to reference something singular. “Some” means an indefinite amount, but more than one. “One” just means one. Put ‘em together and what do you get? I’m pretty sure you only get one, which begs the question: what is the “some” doing here?
Consider these two sentences:
One will come.
Someone will come.
Do they mean the same thing? If not, what’s the difference? I suspect your emphasizing the indeterminate nature of who’s coming. I think the overall effect is to emphasize that there is a kind of order to the nature of things, but it’s not clear how that order works. We humans can’t know, but only surmise.
The other thing I did was create an irregular rhyme scheme from verse to verse. The first half of each verse gets longer as the song progresses (from 5 to 6 to 8). Hopefully the effect goes unnoticed (I warned you about looking under the hood). Folk songs often have refrains instead of a strict chorus. Think about Dylan’s “Don’t Think Twice It’s All Right.” There are two distinct musical sections with a refrain at the end of the second section. They are often reprinted as one uninterrupted stanza, but the music changes on “when you’re rooster crows” and the rhyme scheme changes too.
It ain't no use to sit and wonder why, babe
If'n you don't know by now
And it ain't no use to sit and wonder why, babe
It'll never do somehow
When your rooster crows at the break of dawn
Look out your window and I'll be gone
You're the reason I'm a-traveling on
But don't think twice, it's all right
If I were printing these lyrics in a book, I wouldn’t space the A section and B section apart. They are all part of the same stanza. I’m just doing it here, so you can see how the A sections change.
Finally, I love some of the rhymes in this song. I think “answer” and “chance that there’s” might be the slantiest rhyme I’ve ever come up with. So if someone asks me how to write a good song, I’ll just tell ‘em: somehow.
Somehow
Somehow
Somehow I do it
Somehow I get through it
And find the prize on the other side of now
Somewhere there’s an answer
Some day there’s a chance
That there’s some way to keep all of my vows
Somehow
Well, some say,
There’s a rhyme to the reason,
And a rhythm to the heartache and pain
But I know
That through the patterns and seasons
You can still see how the system decays
You gotta crawl up the mountain
Block the tragedy out’n
Fly high while being chained to the ground
Somehow
Someone is going to lift you right up
Someone is going to fill up your cup
And someday you’re gonna be free again
You’re gonna fly high, but until then…
Some nights
We get over the trauma
The storm and the drama
To rest in the calm of the hurricane’s eye
For some time
We’ve been asleep at the wheel
On the wrong end of the deal
Trying to heal the thorn in our side
You gotta crawl through the briars
Past the enemy fire
And stand higher without any doubt
Somehow