Analysis of "Go On, Say It"

Go On, Say It

Blind Pilot

picking up sound on the inner state high in my breath letting in waste there will be time when the sleep I'm in covers me cold covers me thin I know I wake up forgetting which box this is in how I will keep you just how I left you

my daughter once told me I know a lot now I'm strutting off with more than I've got a hitchhiker told me I don't talk a lot made me feel fine made me quiet if you had said it right instead of praying to us why how I will keep you just how I left you come on, say it right (x8)

Lyrics: http://www.lyricsmania.com/go_on,_say_it_lyrics_blind_pilot.html

Analysis

Shifting in tone from apathy to regret in “Go On, Say It”, the band Blind Pilot uses conflicting characterization, urban imagery, and solemn allegory to argue that the meaning of one’s words changes if you don’t “say it right.”

The narrator characterizes himself with a dichotomy between his perspective and his daughter’s. His daughter tells him that he “knows a lot,” implying a high level of respect for his intellect or character. However, in the next line, the narrator says he’s “strutting off with more than [he’s] got,” meaning he does not quite fit the description given by his daughter. These contrasting perspectives give the narrator a complex character, alternating between good and bad, depending on the object of perspective. This idea of relationship-driven characterization becomes more important in context of the events unfolding around the narrator.

Driving down the inner state, the narrator describes the urban environment he’s passing through. He “picks up sound,” or music, on his radio, letting it waste away on his breath. This scene sets the moody tone of the piece as he proceeds to pick up a hitchhiker. Picking up the hitchhiker, the narrator implies that he has nowhere to go and no ties to maintain. In a more rural environment, this act would be seen as a kindness, but in the narrator’s situation it’s seen as an odd act – and odder still by the hitchhiker, who comments that the narrator doesn’t talk a lot. This urban imagery separates the narrator from his relationships, leaving him with feelings of being cold and thin. Without the perspective of his daughter, he falls from the place of esteem given by her perspective to a lowly hitchhiker, doing anything he can to reach his destination, or get away from his home.

Through his brief story, the narrator allegorically describes how he left his family. Like a hitchhiker, he is trying to get away from something. Without the support of his daughter, he feels like a loser. The narrator says that “if you [his wife] had said it right,” he wouldn’t have left: this implies a certain disconnect between the narrator and his supporting characters which would fit perfectly with the perspective of an unhappy wife. This wife was just “praying to us why,” which the narrator sees as a useless act. The narrator asserts that if his wife had ‘said it right’ he wouldn’t have left, or would have been less likely to put his family in a box and try to leave them “just as he left [them].”

While the narrator doesn’t explicitly state the conflict between him and his family, he builds up the scenario in “Go On, Say It” with a very small number of lines. This conflict between characters creates multiple view points of the narrator, creating even more conflict within the narrator. He just wishes that his wife would have “said it right,” so that he might have avoided leaving them in the state he did.