This may come as a shock to people that know me, but it’s about time I came clean. I have been involved in a 15-year love affair with John Mayer. It started the summer before my freshman year in high school and had burned like an eternal flame ever since. Our relationship hasn’t been easy, let me tell you.
That stupid Playboy interview caused a substantial amount of grief between my sister and I; she was team “John Mayer is racist” and I was team “John Mayer was trying to be witty and failed.” I mean come on, “My Stupid Mouth” is a song about him always saying the wrong thing and wishing he could take it back. Seven years later the air is still salty between my sister and I on the topic of Mr. Mayer as a person, but we can agree that his lyrics are gold and reach deep down into the souls of his socially awkward, angst, and anxiety filled fans.
John Mayer is a lyrical genius that is rarely seen in today’s music industry, and I have 10 John Mayer lyrics to prove it:
1. "So the good boys and girls take the so called right track. Faded white hats. Grabbing credits. Maybe transfers; they read all the books but they can't find the answers" (No Such Thing- Rooms for Squares).
2."Friday evening, we've been drinking 2 AM, I swear I might propose but we close the tab split a cab and call each other up when we get home falling asleep to the sound of sirens" (City Love- Room For Squares)
3. "-You can be mad in the morning. Or the afternoon instead. But don't leave me 98 and 6 degrees of separation from you baby.Come back to bed." (Come Back to Bed-Heavier Things)
people called “six degrees of separation.” Mayer cleverly combines to the two into a heart melting plea for his lover to come back to him.They probably were fighting over something stupid he said, which leads us to number four.
4."One more thing. Why is it my fault? So maybe I try too hard. But it's all because of this desire, Just wanna be liked,Just wanna be funny.Looks like the joke's on me,So call me "Captain Backfire" (My Stupid Mouth- Room For Squares)
The beauty behind these lyrics are their pure honesty. We’ve all had moment where we try way too hard to impress someone we like. Typically, we end up looking like idiots and wishing we could either have a redo or completely erasing that moment from all existence. It was these very lyrics that made me able to overlook the racist comments John made in Playboy. Were his comments completely inappropriate? Absolutely! Do I think he was trying to answer basic questions cleverly and failed miserably? Absolutely! But one of the hazards of being a wordsmith, is you feel like people always expect you to say something witty or incredibly insightful, and occasionally you fail.
5. "Now if we had the power to bring our neighbors home from war, they would have never missed a Christmas. No more ribbons on their door. And when you trust your television, what you get is what you got. Cause when they own the information, oh they can bend it all they want. That's why we're waiting. Waiting on the world to change." (Waiting on The World to Change- Continuum)
6."Maybe I'll tangle in the power lines. And it might be over in a second's time. But I'll gladly go down in a flame, if the flame's what it takes to remember my name." (Bigger Than My Body- Heavier Things)
7. "On behalf of every man looking out for every girl, you are the god and the weight of her world. So fathers, be good to your daughters. Daughters will love like you do." (Daughters- Heavier Things)
likely pattern themselves after the examples set by their fathers, and their mothers too.
8. "I'm dizzy from the shopping malls. I searched for joy, but I bought it all. It doesn't help the hunger pains and a thirst I'd have to drown first to ever satiate." (Something's Missing- Heavier Things)
First off, mad props to John for using “satiate” so casually. Secondly, the song addresses the problem with materialism. We live in a world where people look to possessions to fill a void in their lives, and while the shopping high temporarily dulls the pain, that high eventually fades away. Then you’re left with that empty feeling that you’re too afraid to explore, so you go out and buy more.
9. "It's not a silly little moment, it's not the storm before the calm. This is the deep and dying breath of this love that we've been working on." (Slow Dancing in a Burning Room- Continuum)
10. "I'm so alive. I'm so enlightened. I can barely survive a night in my mind." (New Deep -Heavier Things)
If this song isn’t an anthem for intelligent people with some form of anxiety and/or depression issue, it needs to be. Have you ever encountered a extremely smart person and said “Man you’re always such a downer,” or better yet have you had that phrase said to you? If you answered yes to either of those questions, then you should really listen to and internalize the words of this song.It tries to explain how hard it is to have certain expectations of the world and yourself and to be let down repeatedly. They say, “ignorance is bliss” and John is suggesting numbness as the new form of ignorance.
