"Funny the way it is" Analysis

                                                                                                                                                Amanda Paulhus             

                                                                                                                                                3/29/12

                                                                                                                                                G block P.O.S.

                                                                                                                                                Mr.Kefor

Dave Matthews Band combines multiple devices in order to employ their ideas. They use hidden devices that allude to other devices throughout the song. They use many oxymoronic phrases, irony and paradoxes to add to their ideas.  Speaking in a  contradictory fashion , in “Funny the Way It Is”, Dave Matthews Band combines ironic imagery, mood departure as a chorus, and interpretive paradox in order  to convey how “Funny the way it is, if you think about it”.

                Imagery, language evoking sensory images, is utilized by Dave Matthews Band throughout their song “Funny the Way It Is”.  They start off creating imagery of “lying in the park on a beautiful day\sunshine in the grass, and the children [playing]”.  Then the imagery drastically changes to that of “siren’s passing, fire engine red” and “someone’s house… burning down”.  This idea of imagery is ironic because one usually does not think of beautiful days and houses burning down consecutively. The contrast between the two examples is important. Another example of ironic imagery is in the third verse when he sings”somebody’s going hungry and someone else is eating out”. This quote crates imagery of someone, a happy person, eating out with their family or significant other enjoying their meal. But then the imagery changes to someone who is starving and has no food to eat such as a homeless person. The last example of strong ironic imagery in the song “Funny the Way It Is” is in the 6^th stanza. It creates imagery of “one kid [walking] 10 miles to school” and “another’s dropping out”.

                Mood is a somewhat long lasting emotional state differing from simple emotions in that they are less specific and less intense. The chorus creates a mood departure by changing the melody of the music and the ideas given and compares them to today. The chorus occurs both halfway through the song and towards the end. It changes the mood completely because the music becomes more rapid and the words are sang closer together in order to imply that there is a lot to say in little time. Dave Matthews Band’s line “ standing on a bridge, watch the water passing under me \ It must’ve been much harder when there was no bridge just water” not only creates imagery but alludes to this idea that the world has evolved from what it used to be. The idea comes up and makes you wonder how it was “when there was no bridge just water”.  Saying that “now the world is small” contributes to the mood change because when one thinks about the world they wouldn’t think “small” but truly if one compares the world today to the world illustrated earlier in the song it seems small. Though the departure is brief, the mood changes drastically and is indeed important to the mood of the song; it causes the listener to stop and think.

                An inherently contradictory statement which may be construed as true or possible, or paradox, is employed throughout Dave Matthews Band’s song “Funny the Way It Is”. When one first approaches this they would think “No! That’s not right!” but after looking into it and really thinking deeply about how the two ideas expressed can be equal or compared one thinks “ oh, this makes sense!”; that is a paradox for a lack of better terms.  The idea that a “war song is playing” and yet this song is well-known as a war song, it is saying “why can’t we be friends?” is a paradox. Because it is a war song one would expect it to be angry and demonic sounding but they’re just simply asking why they cannot be friends. But when one thinks deeper you can figure that if “they” are asking to be friends don’t they have to be enemies at this time? Otherwise why would they ask? A second paradox in their song appears just before the first chorus and alludes to “a soldier’s last breath” being the exact moment when “his baby’s being born”. When looking at this line one thinks that it would be coincidence and unusual for a soldier’s baby to be born the moment he is passing. But really the deeper meaning is that the baby itself is replacing the passing soldier and almost filling his place. The last example of paradox in the song is, in an aforementioned line, “Now the world is small”. The idea of something as large as the world being small appears absurd at first glance. After processing this idea one sees that there are things such as the universe and solar system which are larger than the world in a sense and that there must always be something larger.

                Dave Matthews Band utilizes many hidden devices throughout their song “Funny the Way It Is”. Thinking about paradoxes and how they have true attributes and require a lot of thought at times is employed in their song. Their song itself could be considered a paradox because it contains so much irony and paradox just to help explain their ideas. The examples they use are vivid and though they are somewhat easier to pick out, they are still important and truly impact the song. Speaking in a contradictory fashion , in “Funny the Way It Is”, Dave Matthews Band combines ironic imagery, mood departure as a chorus, and interpretive paradox in order  to convey how “Funny the way it is, if you think about it”.