"No Answers Only Questions"

I was thinking about "No Answers Only Questions" yester-day and realized that it has the same feature that I've been noting a lot lately:  the repetition involved in the alliterative "so small" (in the line "The difference between us is so small") lends a slight sense of degree.

When I referenced the recording to verify the lyrics, I noticed that "so" is sung with a melisma (D E), also giving a sense of degree.

Later, I was still thinking about the song and realized that the melody to which the line "The difference between us is so small" is sung is entirely conjunct, moving step-wise from A to E.  The adjacent intervals here musically illustrate this "small," too.

"No Answers Only Questions"

For some reason, "No Answers Only Questions" popped into my head yester-day.  I remembered only the line "And I carry the burden of the proof" though, so I had to reference the lyrics on the APP website to find out what song it was (at least I remembered it was a song from Vulture Culture [or at least a bonus track on it]).

In looking at the lyrics, I noticed that the verses exhibit anaphora:

Some of us laugh
Some of us cry
Some of us lay back, watch the world go by
Some of us fear
Some of us hate
Some of us won't wake up till it's too late

Why do we fight?
Why do we fall?
Why do we stand there, backs against the wall?
Why don't we change?
Why don't we try?
Why don't we turn round, help the other guy?

The first verse has the repeated "Some of us," and the second verse has the repeated "Why do(n't) we."

I also noticed that the structure of the second verse mirrors the sentiment.  The "Why do we"s all ask about negative behaviors, but then there's a change to the "Why don't we"s, which ask about positive behaviors.

"No Answers Only Questions"

Backdated, archival post

[link to original on tumblr]

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This morning, I listened to Vulture Culture.  I have the version with bonus tracks, including "No Answers Only Questions."  I noticed something interesting in this verse:

Why do we fight?
Why do we fall?
Why do we stand there, backs against the wall?
Why don't we change?
Why don't we try?
Why don't we turn round, help the other guy?

These are the lyrics as they're rendered on the APP website, but because of homophones, that third line could also be written as "Why do we stand their backs against the wall?"  "There" changes to "their," and "stand" becomes transitive where before it was intransitive, along with other shifts in syntactical function.

I think that - rendered that second way - it still makes sense within the song.  Instead of asking "Why are we disengaged?" (or "inactive" or "passive" or whatever other word you want to use) it asks, "Why are we scrutinizing others?" which seems to be only a shade away from the first line in the verse ("Why do we fight?").