I jump from glittery glam in Eurovision Song Contest where Sweden went to the finals this Saturday with our worst song ever (Eric Saade’s *barf* ”Popular”, yuck) to represent us to something a little more worth anyone’s time.
Tonight, the artist I’m grumpy about not having been able to see when he recently visited Dramaten for a show is M. Ward. Listening to Daniel Johnston’s To Go Home is a downright shocking experience. His often very dodgy and odd lo-fi home recordings range leave you either deeply touched or simply confused and frustrated. To Go Home was one of those rare moments when his songwriting all of a sudden appeared crystal clear, a fully functional pop song full of heartfelt sentiment everyone can relate to. I have to admit I heard M. Ward’s version before the original, but I’m 100% confident that Ward hears the same qualities as me in To Go Home. Because it’s all there, in M. Ward’s life-affirming cover that is probably the best cover ever recorded. Everything is in its right place and the song is performed the way it was always destined to be performed.
I’m too young and inexperienced to tell you exactly what old-timey 60′s and 70′s bands M. Ward’s arrangement is influenced by but I know that in the other end is a gripping pop song traveling at high velocity. Ward’s guitar sounds like a horse wagon darting its way across the American plains, everytime he hits the piano it’s sprinkling stars on the night sky and his voice is smokey but warm and sincere.
Reading Johnston’s lyrics it’s evident that he pays attention to details that makes the song come alive and all the better for it. Reading between the lines it’s a sign of Johnston appreciating the little things in life which is astonishing considering Johnston’s history of manic depression. Read ‘em and weep:
Dark night on a long highway
Little lights in the houses say
There’s somebody staying up late
The song seems to be about driving home in the middle of night but is also addressing a loved one in the chorus where Ward is beautifully accompanied by a female choir:
I’ll be true
to you, oh yeah, you know I will
I’ll be true
to you forever or until
I go home
The line ”or until I go home” brings some mystique, confusion and ambiguity to the song. Is he indeed driving home from his love, perhaps a breakup has been imminent and the chorus is a bunch of promises from the beginning of the relationship? It’s easy to speculate and probably straying far away from Johnston’s own interpretation of his lyrics. But that just adds to the beauty of this and many other songs that are open for interpretation. Further clues or perhaps confusion and a glimpse of darkness among the euphoria are given in the second verse:
And if I ever treated you mean
You know that it was only because I’m sorry I couldn’t have you for my own
But the lines, that are probably the best lyrics ever written, that catches me off my guard regardless of how many times I’ve heard them and give my goosebumps and chills up my spine and brings tears to my eyes are these below:
God, it’s great to be alive
takes the skin right off my hide
to think I’ll have to give it all up someday
Johnston has a history of bipolar disorder, which roughly can be translated to being thrown between periods of mania or happiness and depression and a mix of it all, and these lines are probably taken from a period of manic happiness and euphoria. But not for one second do I believe that these words are merely the product of a mental disorder. It doesn’t really matter. It’s beside the point. All I know is that these words comes from a man who better than anyone expresses the awe of being alive, the fascination of our time on this earth and the mild anxiety of having to give it up one day. M. Ward is the messager and as he sings these words alone in the end of this triumphant song I find it hard to believe that anyone can argue against this song being the greatest one ever written and recorded.
Listen to To Gome Home on Spotify!
Or watch the youtube video below!
