Rascal Flatts have had some zillions of hits using with their unique pop flavored country, with R&B vocal influences. A super radio-freindly sound they’ve cultivated over several albumns continues to pay off with hit after hit. It doesn’t hurt they cut songs from some today’s best songwriters, either.

Their biggest problem is deciding which song to release as a single! They’ve hit #1 on the Country charts again with another pop song, “Here.”

Facts:
    •    Song Structure: Verse/Pre/Chorus/Verse/Pre/Chorus/Bridge/Chorus
    •    Duration: 3:55
    •    Tempo: 82 BPM
    •  #1 Hot Country Tracks

[VERSE 1]
There’s a place
I been looking for
That took me in and out of buildings
Behind windows, walls and doors
And I thought I found it
Couple times even settled down
And I’d hang around just long enough to find my way back out

[PRECHORUS]
I know now
The place that I was trying to reach
Was you right here in front of me

Lyrics: Verse 1 provides us with some context: this guy’s been searching for a place and a couple times he thought he found it, but it ended up not being right. The Prechorus tells us that now he knows that the place he was looking for was right there in front of him the whole time, and that it was this person.

I’ve heard songs with the exact sentiment many times before, nothing earth shaking about any of this before. What I have difficulty swallowing is the  “in and out of buildings, behind windows, walls and doors.” If I read that literally, then it’s a kind of sesame street kind of lyric. Those would all be places that we’d search, if we were looking for a “place.” I think what’s being said is that he thought the “place” was somewhere, but what he finds, is that it’s someone. His completion or happiness, wasn’t found somewhere else, it was found “here” and by “here” he means “with you.”

So I will grant all that, but on the face of it I though the lyrics in verse one sucked. But what do I know? I’ve never had a #1 hit.

Rhyme: for/doors, down/out, reach/me


[CHORUS]
And I woudn’t change a thing
I’d walk right back through the rain
Back to every broken heart on the day that it was breaking
And I’d relive all the years
And be thankful for the tears
I’ve cried with every stumbled step that led to you
And got me here
Right here

The chorus is saying, despite all the searching in buildings and windows and stuff, I wouldn’t change any of it, because I had to go through that search to find my way “here.” Nice sentiment, it shows that he recognizes he needed the growth and maturity it took for him to get to his realization and that now that he’s through all of it, he’s thankful for it and sees how important the journey was.

The metaphor of “rain” is used a lot in all genres of pop music, so you don’t really notice it too much. But when you are Hit Hacking, you kind of go: “couldn’t they have thought up something else? Something more . . .  original? I’m of two minds on this point. On the one hand, it’s pretty cliche to walk through the rain in a song, but it’s not as bad as crying in the rain. On the other hand, it’s a common, instantly recognizable image that carries a payload of meaning without having the listener have to think about it. So that’s a defense for using it.

The years/tears rhyme is about as worn out as breath/death, but it works especially well in this chorus because it’s on point. It says exactly what he’s trying to say. Many times phrases like that are shoe-horned into songs because they have a ”singy“ or ”lyricy“ quality, but just lack meaning. In this song, they work and the perfect rhymes are like crack to our brains.

Notice how the phrasing pattern works: short line, short line, long line. short line, short line, long line. The verse did the same thing. Rascal Flatts likes lines with lots of words because you can do interesting rhythmic things with it. And this band is all about rhythm.


[VERSE 2]
It’s amazing
What I let my heart go through
To get me where it got me in this moment here with you
And it passed me by
God knows how many times
I was so caught up in holding on to what I thought I’d never find
And I know now
There’s a million roads I had to take
To get me in your arms this way

The first three lines are a synopsis of the first verse. He’s saying that the opportunity to get here sooner was here a number of times, but didn’t see it because he was trying to make his other situations work. There really isn’t anything new in this verse. Who cares! This has Long Distance Dedication written all over it. Zillions of people out there can identify with every word, and that’s 100x more important than the rest of the craft.

Nice melody too. There is a tenstion in songwriter circles between what truly drives a song to be a hit. Is it the amazing lyric, or is it the melody? It depends on the kind of song, but since this is a pop song, the melody and rhythm are much more important than an original lyric. What’s important is that the concept connect with the listener.

Should we talk about the contrast between sections at this point? I haven’t analyzed a #1 hit that does not have very strong contrast between chorus and verse. Most of them have had Prechoruses, because they lift us from the verse into the chorus in a dramatic way, giving us a greater sense of payoff. This song has outstanding sectional contrast, that just explodes right out of the radio. The vocal performance really helps push this song over the edge. A lesser singer might not sell this song as successfully.


[CHORUS]
And I woudn’t change a thing
I’d walk right back through the rain
Back to every broken heart on the day that it was breaking
And I’d relive all the years
And be thankful for the tears
I’ve cried with every stumbled step that led to you
And got me . . .


[BRIDGE]
Here
In a love I’d thought I’d never get to get to
Here
And if that’s the road God made me take to be with you

Yeah, we know. This is a restatement of stuff you’ve said twice before! But, that’s all there is to this song, so I guess it works. If they introduce something totally new here, it might make the song’s meaning less clear. Sometimes a song doesn’t have to have three different angles. That said, I wonder . . . is there another angle or an amplification that could have been made that would have heightend the emotional intensity further.

Well, I’m not goint to re-write a #1 hit.


[CHORUS]
And I woudn’t change a thing
I’d walk right back through the rain
Back to every broken heart on the day that it was breaking
And I’d relive all the years
And be thankful for the tears
I’ve cried with every stumbled step that led to you
And got me here
Right here

And I’d relive all the years
And be thankful for the tears
I’ve cried with every stumbled step that led to you
And got me here
Right here


I like this song, despite some of it’s weaknesses. The melodic rhythm is very strong and the emotional intensity is great, and that’s where it’s at!

I didn’t analyze the production, but there are a ton of tricks used throughout to make contrast between sections. I particularly like what they do with the band on the ”I’ve cried with every stumbled step that led to you.“ Some nice power chords hit on that stumbled step that makes us feel those stumbled steps.

Congrats to Rascal Flatts!