I first heard ‘Cough Syrup’ on season 3 of Glee. I loved the song so much that I played that part of the episode over & over again just to hear the song (not to mention Darren Criss is amazing). In the episode, it deals with homophobia & the pressure of bullying in high schools because of one’s sexuality. Inter-cutting the performance of the song with the victim (Dave Karofsky) was, in my opinion, a very effective way of amplifying the emotion behind the lyrics & getting a very powerful message across.
I really related to the song, not because of the story portrayed in Glee, but for my own reasons. That’s one of the great things about songs - lyrics are open to interpretation. For me, the song is about being overwhelmed by the pressures of life. Life isn’t always easy & we all struggle from time to time. Through double meanings & metaphors, the song comments on the emotions of feeling helpless against the circumstances in those situations. We’ve all been there & at the time I first heard this song, I was going through a bit of a rough patch myself & this song really just spoke to how I was feeling at that stage of my life. It’s debatable whether the song is morbid or not, but for me it’s inspirational in a sense. It reminds me that I’m not alone & everyone goes through tough times. I think we’ve all wanted someone or something to come and fix things but life doesn’t work like that & that’s kinda what makes life worth living - the fact that we can live & learn through the good and the bad.
That’s one of the things I’m most grateful for about Glee, is the fact that I have been introduced to so much music I’ve never heard before (good & bad), from different eras & from bands I knew little or nothing about. I’ll spare you on my thoughts on that & save that for another post. ;)
That’s it. Enough typing now. I’m heading home now. I count this as my first official blog post so hopefully it’ll be the first of many personal posts but I guess we’ll see. :) I hope at least 1 person actually took the time to read my rambling about a thought I had, but if not, that’s also okay. I did this for me and that’s all that counts. If you want to leave a comment to let me know your thoughts; whether you agree or disagree; or if you have had a similar experience with a song you’ve heard, I’d love to read about it. :)
On that note (pun intended), I’ll leave you with this quote:
“All good music resembles something. Good music stirs by its mysterious resemblance to the objects and feelings which motivate it.” - Jean Cocteau