To be honest, I did not like it at first. I didn't like the fact that it sounds like other bands. There's no need for an original like Gavin to copy other people's sound. Then it dawned on me that it's a perfect summer concert tour song. I could just see the crowd jumping up and down to that stomping beat, fists pumping the air and singing along at the top of their lungs. I could see how marketable and radio-friendly the single could be, although it could be mistaken for other bands. I could see how it would get people pumped up for the album release in the fall. Then I took a closer look at the lyrics.
It starts out with environmental and social issues, how we are all fallible and imperfect human beings, even someone like Gavin DeGraw. You can all join in in issues such as war and saving the world because it's fashionable again but the freedom to do things like smoke inside are taken away, rightfully so but still slowly being stripped of our freedoms and thus the irony.
I love the line “Take me home, I can’t stand this place ‘cause there’s too many hipsters and I just can’t relate”. He's not saying it from his perspective as that kind of life goes along with a career in music but that just speaks to me as I have no time or patience for hipsters and their materialistic, artificial personalities. Give me real, down-to-earth, non-materialistic people any day. The latest fashions don't mean anything to me.
Many people are speculating about what he means by neon gypsy which I don't think is a person but rather a place, like a city lit up with neon signs. People are drawn to these places by the shiny lights and the chance of making it big. A city where people come and go like gypsies, never really planting roots, always searching for something they can never quite find whether it be a career in the limelight, winning a jackpot or a relationship that works out. Desert rain, the ultimate in quenching your thirst whether it be literally or figuratively, emotionally or mentally. Helter Skelter meaning disorder, confusion, rushed chaos, all over the place making it difficult to pin down and put into words clearly.
The best I ever had may not be a person either. It could be a place or a moment in time, a life changing experience so memorable it will never be forgotten and will be forever looked back at fondly. Trying not to get stuck in your head could be the perceptions that go along with a career in music and not getting a big ego. It could be being so absorbed in the songwriting process, working out lyrics and melodies, that it closes you off from what's going on around you. It could mean how we stop ourselves from doing or saying things because of our own inner voice or how we spend so much time running things over and over in our minds and over-thinking things. Then it goes on to speak of the ridiculousness of people believing everything they read, even if it's such an unreliable source like a bathroom wall.
Night sky full of drones (war or invasion of privacy through satellites), this neighborhood of clones (hipsters or wannabes), I’m looking at the crowd and they’re staring at their phones (irony and not living in the moment), then more environmental issues. Self-realization of being fallible, doing imperfect things, self-medicating with things that aren't even good for you and more confusion.
Night sky full of drones (war or invasion of privacy through satellites), this neighborhood of clones (hipsters or wannabes), I’m looking at the crowd and they’re staring at their phones (irony and not living in the moment), then more environmental issues. Self-realization of being fallible, doing imperfect things, self-medicating with things that aren't even good for you and more confusion.
Going on to mention States is a brilliant move to get people to feel a connection to the song, to feel that American pride, and yet keep it in perspective by saying “I think I love you , but don't even know you”. I love you all for supporting me and allowing me to have this great career but keep it real and at arm's length. Then there's that realization, that little pang of awareness that while you're out on the road, watching all the 'signs' pass you by, having this career there's still that little voice in your head saying you should “find someone before it gets too late”, at least according to what family or society thinks you should do. You're not getting any younger and you don't want to end up alone with no children or grandchildren. Some of us are just fine with that notion but society frowns upon it.
Lyrics can look deceptively simple, musically it's very intricate and in true Gavin DeGraw style, either you love it instantly or it grows on you until you find it makes your jaw drop in all its complexity. At least these are my thoughts on the new single “Best I Ever Had”. I won't be the same.
