Just Writing About “Little Black Submarines” By The Black Keys…

If you haven’t heard the new album “El Camino” by The Black Keys, I recommend getting it. It’s entertaining in that same “retro” style as their last few albums, except it’s more accessible to the average listener.

I can’t say that it’s very good — and if you’ve been listening to music for twenty-plus years as I have, you know what I mean — but I do like it very much, especially the guitar riffs and melodies, which is about all we get these days from what passes as rock bands.

One song that stands out is titled “Little Black Submarines.” It’s the kind of song that doesn’t require multiple listens to appreciate. It starts acoustic and sounding like “Stairway To Heaven” before getting heavier with electric guitars playing what is apparently the exact riff from “Last Dance With Mary Jane.”

I did some Google searching to find out how similar it was to those songs. I recognized “Stairway” in it but I didn’t hear “Last Dance” in it at all, probably because I barely remember “Last Dance.” However, the fact that it is imitative is not quite as damning as it sounds. The song stands on its own, too — if it stands at all, but I’m getting ahead of myself.

What I thought was most like “Stairway” was the rhythm of the vocals. It’s not exactly, but it sounds like singing and pausing and singing and pausing. For instance, in “Stairway” it’s: “If there’s a bustle… In your hedgerow… Don’t be alarmed now.” And in “Little Black Submarines” it’s more pronounced: “Little black… submarines… Operator please… Put me back… on the line.” It sounds amazing with the music on “Little Black Submarines,” especially the acoustic part when you can really hear the guitar notes in every pause.

I can’t think of ever hearing a song where the vocals are so well integrated with the music, and I don’t mean emotionally or thematically. It’s the composition and timing. I’m sure there are plenty others that employ the same technique, but I can’t think of any.

Anyway, it’s not the music in the song I want to talk about. The music is great. I like the music. I don’t like the imitation, but I don’t see how I can criticize a “retro” band for imitation. If I like a “retro” band at all, it’s their similarities to other bands that I’m responding to, right? What I don’t like and what jumps out at me the most are the lyrics, if they can even be called that.

After researching what others thought of the song, I realized all anyone cared about was identifying the other songs it “ripped off” or was “inspired by.” No one mentioned the fact it’s impossible to know what this song is about. The lyrics are vague at best and I’d go so far as to call them cryptic. I mean, a writer has to try to write something this vague, like he’s keeping the meaning elusive. Here they are:

Little Black Submarines

The Black Keys

This could be a song about someone dying and losing his loved ones or someone losing his loved ones to death. The writer could just feel disconnected from those he cares about, as was suggested at SongMeanings.net. It sounds like it’s his own damn fault, whatever the problem is, but there’s no way to know by listening to the lyrics what the hell is really going on or why he feels however he feels.

I’m sure the phrase “little black submarines” is a metaphor, but I have no idea what it relates to. I would say the entire song is simply free association about some kind of personal relationship, except the writer had to choose these words over what he really wanted to say. The meaning has either been deliberately obfuscated or cowardly evaded.

The chorus gives the best opportunity for deciphering, but it goes from failing to hear something important to failing to see something important. It never says what exactly was ignored or missed. The often repeated line “That a broken heart is blind” at least makes one think of a failed romantic relationship, but the lines “The voices calling me” and (in the last verse) “Stolen friends and disease” make it seem like there is more than one relationship involved.

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I guess, the person in the song could have got lost in his own world after losing a loved one and ended up losing touch with his other friends as a result. But that’s just a guess and it doesn’t fit well with the first verse at all.

I don’t know what I’m trying to accomplish here. I mean, I’m not trying to say I can’t figure out this song’s meaning; I’m saying it has none. There may have been some deep meaning that inspired it, but it’s not in the song at all. Still, there’s no point in saying that, either; not these days. With the exception of country songs and some pop songs (anything by Adele, for instance), this is simply how it’s done. I can’t even blame Nirvana (like I always do) because I just learned “Stairway To Heaven,” which is widely considered one of the best rock songs ever, doesn’t make any sense, either.

I guess I’m just frustrated because I’ve been singing “Little Black Submarines” in my head for a few weeks now and keep catching myself futilely searching for its meaning and I needed to vent. Maybe now I can just enjoy what’s good about it…

Saturday, December 24th, 2011

Michael Island