One can listen to many songs and not experience laughter but not so with Weird Al’s music. It is designed especially for this fine emotional outlet and it achieves it nearly perfectly. Unless you’ve heard more than twenty of his songs and listen to them often, they’re mostly bound to bring joy to your life. However, Sting rarely writes humorous tunes, depending on your bend in life of course, though that changed with Big Lie, Small World. It may not have been meant as a humorous romp through romantic escapes of two people, but to me it is a deeper sort of humour than what Eezikiel did in some paradise.
The imagery is quite imaginative and one I can almost fully understand. My imagination went wild listening to it as I walked across the city of Toronto. Regardless of how beautiful the night lights of most urban cities, including TO’s look, this song’s lyrics and vibe caught me and took me all the way in. Sting catches my interest right with the first line of him writing a letter. Now I’m intrigued as his music evokes romance, fun, and joy within me so I figure if this man is writing a letter, trouble must be brewing in the heavens and since it’s a lot of the times about love and as many women broke my heart I was already sold. What’s in the letter? To whom is it? Obviously to a woman. He tells her that he felt better now that he’s single and he is happy. He’s dating so much and enjoying life everywhere with others that he doesn’t even have any free time. Friends always at his place, and he even signed his name fully committed that he’s done with her, that he’s moved on, that he’s a new man and can exist without her beautiful self. And not only that, but he was so assured of his new found happiness that he even sealed it with a kiss.
And so this is all wonderfully motivating, especially to those of us with a broken heart. It gives me new hope for maybe I, too, can find the same happiness instead of wishing I was someone else, someone whom women did not toy with, someone who was a God and could be with any woman imaginable. And this is where Sting makes me laugh as he throws in a curve ball. On the way back home from the post office he suddenly felt different and when he entered the laundry room he saw one of her held onto panties and realized he loves her more than anything else in this world still, despite all the others he met since, all the friends who came over, all the fun he had without her, he still only desires her and only her. But how do you communicate this profound love, this once in a life time feeling, when the letter is sent that says the exact opposite? The letter that said he was over her and he would be happy again with another as if she was just a t-shirt, how does he change this tragic mistake? Well, a letter sent is not a letter read, is it? When he realized his mistake, he sat down and cried even.
And this is where the name of the song comes from: “Big Lie, Small World”. I think it means he spent all that time, with all those people, with all those friends, it was all a lie, an illusion that he built up for himself, all to convince himself that he was okay without his biggest love whom abandoned him for another, better man, another better t-shirt. And obviously since they both lived in the same city, in the same world, he must have seen her with her new boyfriend or even boyfriends and the big lie held him in one piece until the bathroom moment when he saw the look in his own eye and realized, no, he’s in love with only her.
And he decided to be like an agent, a superhero, and stop that letter. So he raced to catch the van with the letter, but missed it. He couldn’t get on the bus nor the train and walked all the way in the rain, and even got chased by a dog, was starving couldn’t find a place to eat. He walked feeling sad and lonely, walked all the way around town as he couldn’t stand how things were. Here he reminds us that it was a big lie in a small world once again.
He saw her old place, thinks of how much the rent is now, and feels like the world is over. Says she moved a bit further but the new boyfriend is always around, so he sits down and waits, perhaps contemplating something heinous as means of returning to be with her. And then sees the post man with the letter and demands it from him. Obviously post man is not legally allowed to give it to him, so Sting begs him, but still does not get the letter. Out of nowhere her new boyfriend arrives and he is now emotionally angry on top of wanting the letter. So what does he do? This is where I exploded laughing, as the post man thinks of him a lunatic, and lets him know probably, so Sting punches the post man and takes the letter. Mission accomplished? Nah. For certainly he made it, she will not know that to her she’s jsut another t-shirt, the way she made him feel. He is a man and is willing to forgive her obviously, despite her trespass, her mistake, despite her insecurities.
But the police found him hiding and question him as always happens when anyone goes postal. But now he is cursing his luck as he even has to talk to the magistrate. So Sting reminds us, it was after all a big lie he lived in as he got reminded of how small the world was by the new Mr. Clean like boyfriend, probably describing a better dressed, more outgoing, better groomed perfect new love interest. Sting does not even require one to interpret this song’s lyrics as they’re almost child-like in their simplicity. And they probably should make most people laugh, but it is the music that truly sells them. These words, their rhymes, and their descriptiveness of your typical relationship mess, they probably would not work in a Skrillex song, let alone a gangsta rap vibe. Obviously one could adjust them to fit these genres, however, Sting’s soft touch of gentle jazz-like percussion, soft ballad guitar strings, and the occasional sax stab, tremendously complement in building the atmosphere. The string section chimes in at the perfect time coinciding with the change in weather and the tenseness of the mail van chase. Listening to this tune with attention to all these elements feels almost like watching a small movie. But the best part is, how relaxing it makes one feel. Unlike much of modern blah hits about love, Sting’s Big Lie, Small World depicts almost every modern man and woman’s relationship woes, complete with all their insecurities that in many times lead to anger, resentment and hatred of life itself. It does seem weird, when one thinks logically about it though. In a city of a million people, there are so many choices for dating, that why one would go mad over one person in particular, and beat up a mail man, end up locked up, and be considered a lunatic at large, all just to demonstrate a continued love for someone who is with another, well, I dunno about you people. That’s why I’m laughing as I write this. We are all almost identical, give or take a few plucked eye brows or muscle fibres. And while I agree that yes, the one we love is irreplacable, I seriously think even at the age of forty I will forego dating for I feel exactly like Sting describes. If I sent that very letter given those circumstances, I, too, would’ve threw that punch. The song describes my own attitude almost to the t as well. I am just thankful that for the most part women ignore me so I doubt I will ever use my fists for anything other than push ups in some half-baked attempt to make myself more appealing. On second thought, perhaps I could attempt to write that song, eh?
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