“I’ll Do It Anyway” A Paragraph by Paragraph Analysis of The Greatest Pop Song Ever Written
by Dan Taylor
‘Bless my soul and maybe I should leave it alone
I'm sure it could be safer to stay at home
You've made your point, it's pointless and it's all gonna burn
I'm in no state to skate but I'm gonna take my turn, yeah”
Well, bless my soul! What an opening line, one of Evan Dando’s specialties. But, should he leave it alone? Of course not, and you know he ain’t going to! Yes, it is all gonna burn, the 90’s were a violent time, where pop culture was obsessed with the impending doom of western capitalism and just waiting for the big bang, which became the attack on the twins towers. Read Jean Baudrillard’s “The Spirit of Terrorism” for more on this, another excellent work. (http://www.egs.edu/faculty/jean-baudrillard/articles/the-spirit-of-terrorism/) The power of symbolism, which Evan knows oh so well. He’s in no state to skate? Neither are we as a culture, but we have to step up and take our collective turn.
“I know you might never really understand
Why go through these motions with my hands
It's a gesture at best but my body's in the right place
To fall in your arms now and wait to save face”
The cryptic nature of his motions, that we as listeners are thought not to understand, and maybe we don’t but maybe that is the point of this exercise. By not understanding, we come to understand the confusion of the world. We don’t understand and this is the zeitgeist. But, like Evan’s, out collective bodies are in the right place, as we fall into the arms of the cosmo. But, like some statue of Venus de Milo, we will have for wait to another date to save face.
“I'll do it anyway, no matter what they feel
Ain't got all the facts but I got a hunch and I know the deal
I'll do it anyway, shine what you might have heard
There's something at hand, it just ain't planned, it's still a beautiful world”
But, like a joyous chorus of hallelujah, we will do it anyway! The anthem of affirmation, bravado, courage and impetuous youth. It doesn’t matter what they feel, if like us, they feel anything. The ideal is to feel, it is not about cold facts, it is a collective hunch for more, for a better world. There is very much something at hand, born of chaos and of the people, not of a central plan or the wishes of the elites. This is the crux of our beautiful world, the unplanned, turbulent nature of its compassion and passion.
“American men, you know them, they just gotta be right
When it's left to me often times I'd rather not fight
They make a big deal out of everything and they got too many guns
And just to make 'em mad I'm gonna do it for fun”
What else is left to even be said about American Men? As one myself, like Evan, and knowing his position, much like my own. They and We do have to be right, but seldom are. With this knowing we need no machismo like show of violence. We must save our energy for the real fight. We don’t need guns, cause we got the numbers. So, don’t make a big deal out of it. That alone will piss the bastards off and, trust me, that will very much be fun. The epitome of fun, the meaning of feeling good, in opposition, the truest of friendships.
“I'll do it anyway, no matter what they feel
Ain't got all the facts but I got a hunch and I know the deal
I'll do it anyway, shine what you might have heard
There's something at hand, it just ain't planned, it's still a beautiful world”
Shine what we all might have heard, cause we all know we’ve heard a lot of real bullshit in this life. Keep doing it anyway, fuck how they feel, we know the deal and have made the deal to set this beautiful world into motion.
“I'll do it anyway, no matter what they feel
Ain't got all the facts but I got a hunch and I know the deal
I'll do it anyway, over the barren plains
I'm still a girl and it's just a horse and I got the reins”
Ah, here we go! My favorite part, the gender switch. So, topical and apropos after that Caitlin Jenner stuff and the transitory/fluid nature of gender. But, Evan isn’t just some pretender, or is he? Is he really such a militant feminist, or was he just trying to impress Julianne Hatfield, heartthrob that he was? We will never really know, will we? Cause whatever was at hand wasn’t planned. We don’t need all the facts, we have the hunch, loud and clear. So, let us move over these barren plains, take up the reins and create this new world, beyond the violence, hatred and simulation.
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