How to characterize their music…? The sound is country-ish, Americana-ish, sorta-kinda Southern rock, but the label which seems most often and most strikingly mentioned alongside the band’s name is soul. Rateliff’s powerful voice won’t make you think Sam Cooke has been reincarnated. And the lead instrumental voices are those of rock, principally guitar, bass, and drums. But yeah: in the spirit of the music and the sense of the lyrics you’ll find plenty of soul. (It doesn’t hurt that the label behind them is the legendary Stax Records, described by Wikipedia as “a major factor in the creation of Southern soul and Memphis soul music.”)
“Hey Mama,” the single whose video I’ve featured here, can be interpreted literally — as a dialogue between a young man and his mother. The guy feels sorry for himself, how hard he works, how little reward he’s gotten for it all, and so on. But his mother’s simply not having it:
Better start acting like this here’s a race…
You ain’t gone far enough to say
At least I tried
You ain’t worked hard enough to say
Well, I’ve done mine
You ain’t run far enough to say
My legs have failed
As I say, the literal interpretation works just fine. But pretty much anyone who’s tried (and tried hard) to succeed at one art form or another may see in it an interior dialogue, too: between the self-pitying voice that says, I may as well give up, and the loving but sterner one that says, Who are you trying to kid? You haven’t started working yet!
The visuals which accompany the song seem to encourage a non-literal understanding of what it’s about. It’s “just” a black-and-white film, not quite all in one take (although it feels like it), of a driver’s-eye view through the windshield of a car in almost non-stop traffic. The moments when the forward movement is interrupted — for pedestrians, for traffic signals which hold things up for a moment — provide some relief. But the overall sense is of an experience which simply does not stop, is impatient with pauses, is relentless.The frustrated souls who recognize the two voices of the lyrics arguing in their heads will probably recognize this feeling, too.
Mary Bischof says
I am a single mom to one 10 year old boy. ‘Hey Mama’ is only the second song I’ve come across that when I heard it play for the very first time I immediately was overwhelmed with intense emotion and bawling by the end of it. This song is true art, love it!! The other song I recall which I had the same sudden intense emotional reaction to is ‘Say Something’ by A Great Big World, Christina Agularia performs the vocals.
John says
Hello, Mary — thank you for stopping by, and especially for leaving such a nice comment.
“Say Something” is wonderful. I honestly didn’t remember it right away, but looking up the video brought it all back for me. So thanks, too, for refreshing my memory of a great song!