An Analysis of Metaphors
Full Lyrics
Wilco’s 2002 track, “I
Am Trying to Break Your Heart” from the album “Yankee Hotel Foxtrot” is one of
the band’s finest accomplishments in almost every way. Musically, its dark
textures, dissonant piano, and aloof singing lend it a large portion of its
tone; however, the song’s greatest strength lies in its lyrics and the metaphors
Jeff Tweedy utilizes to describe the many stages of an unhealthy relationship.
The song is structured in a repeated verse structure, meaning the song lacks a
chorus of bridge and consists entirely of four line stanzas which follow the
same musical pattern; each individual verse describes a different facet of the
dying relationship Tweedy characterizes in a lyrically unique and
metaphorically ripe manner.
The song’s first verse begins with the line “I am an
American aquarium drinker / I assassin down the avenue.” These first two lines
describe the speaker’s side of the relationship by characterizing him as both a
drunk and a dodgy boyfriend. The description of an “aquarium drinker” speaks
mainly to the vast volume of alcohol the speaker consumes; while not literally
an aquarium’s amount of drink, the listener can infer that the amount of
alcohol consumed is copious. The speaker goes on to describe the effects the
drink has on his relationship by singing that he “assassin(s) down the avenue.”
This metaphor is meant to further characterize the speaker as a master of
avoiding both his lover and his responsibilities in the relationship as a
result of his drinking. However, the metaphorical assassin is going down an
avenue or a wide-open street in a city. This insinuates that, although the
speaker thinks he is being stealthy, his flaws are very apparent to anyone and
everyone around him.
The next verse begins to describe interactions between
the speaker and his lover with the lines “Let’s forget about the tongue-tied
lightning / Let’s undress just like cross-eyed strangers.” The metaphor of
tongue-tied lightning details an inferred verbal war between the two lovers
possibly triggered by the speaker’s drinking. The following line uses simile to
let the listener know that ignorant sex is the solution to the fighting;
essentially, the speaker is attempting to avoid battles by using sex to ignore
the problems and appease his lover. This, however, is followed by a candid
moment in which the speaker says “This is not a joke so please stop smiling /
What was I thinking when I said it didn’t hurt?” which leads the listener to believe
that the meaningless sex might be less of an argument-stopper and more of a
plea for peace from the pain he feels in the relationship.
As the song progresses, some of the metaphors become even
more outlandish to parallel the increasing amount of alcohol and anger flowing
through the singer’s system. Eventually, he sings “I want to hold you in the
Bible-black predawn / You’re quiet a quiet domino, bury me now.” This verse is
metaphorically rich as the speaker begins by describing the early, quiet hours
of the morning as the “Bible-black predawn” which confers a sort of holiness to
those odd hours; it is here that the speaker believes he and his lover can find
solace. He then goes on to describe his lover for the first time in the song by
calling her a “quiet domino.” This metaphor works particularly well because it
simultaneously reflects the speaker’s outlandish behavior while perfectly
encapsulating the lover’s mentality. Basically, the speaker sees the lover as
someone who is breaking apart and falling at increasing speed just like a chain
of dominoes. However, the kicker is that she is doing it quietly; she is torn
up inside but refuses to let anyone know or attempt to help her. The drunk
speaker then goes on to offer his advice by advising her to “take off [her]
band-aid because [he doesn’t] believe in touchdowns” which is a nearly
indecipherable metaphor reflecting the speaker’s absurdity. However, it is
possible that the speaker means to imply that his lover needs to heal her
wounds, and that the speaker does not believe his relationship is a
competition. Still, the sheer outlandishness of the metaphor functions
extremely well in detailing the rampant miscommunication that is inferably
going on between the two.
Eventually, the metaphors stop altogether as the speaker
has a bizarre moment of clarity in the midst of his drunken stupor. The singer
repeats the phrase “I am trying to break your heart” and then interjects “Still
I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t easy” which caps off his rant in spectacular
fashion. What happens here is that the speaker abandons all of his pretense and
speaks to his alienated lover directly. He tells her plainly that all of his
antics and drunken rage has been nothing but an attempt to break her down and
tear her apart. However, this is not all. He goes on to cap it off by telling
her that it has been very easy for him to do this, and he reveals his inability
to love her truly and completely.
By utilizing a large number of varied and bizarre
metaphors over the course of the song, Jeff Tweedy is able to make the ultimate
revelation of the speaker’s malicious intent infinitely more biting, cynical,
and devastating. Essentially, the detached, aloof metaphors create a
distraction which ultimately serves as a foil to the bare-bones truth the
speaker spills at the song’s end. However, immediately following this
revelation, the singer goes right back into his tirade of absurd metaphors with
the lines “Disposable Dixie cup drinking / I assassin down the avenue” where he
intentionally repeats a line from the first verse in order to display the
cyclical nature of this toxic, destructive relationship. In short, metaphor is
Tweedy’s bait and directness is his weapon.
