There's Two Sides To Every Melody

Music is one of those amazing things that everyone views differently. You could listen to the same song as your best friend at the same time and have two completely different outlooks. Music has that kind of power, and sometimes it’s for the best or for the worst. Take for example, Wrecking Ball by Miley Cyrus. You could listen to it on a gloomy day all by yourself, and cry about how all boys are heart breakers and awful people. You could also listen to it on a different day and realize that maybe the problem is not others, it truly is you. Now that’s only one example, but it goes to show that in music there is two sides to every note, melody, harmony, instrument, lyric, etc.

In the novel Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison, in the first chapter a verse from a song is repeated a couple times. The lyrics go “O Sugarman done fly away, Sugarman done gone, Sugarman cut across the sky, Sugarman come home…” (6). This first appears when Mr. Robert Smith is at the top of a hospital building, about to take his life. In this context, the song has a gruesome feel to it. The use of the word “Sugarman” gives the situation a more childish and eerie approach, as if Mr. Smith is just going to go on vacation. This song in this context also shows freedom and salvation. The Sugarman is finally free and go home. The characters in this book are black, and the use of this song shows an underlying message about their struggle in America, This song references flying, which was commonly said when a slave would escape the plantation, assuming they either fled to find a loved one, got home, or even killed. Keeping this in mind, another way the song is used is to show Mr. Smith finally gaining his freedom, not just from himself but, from the white suppression of the black culture.