The Unintended Realities of Getting a Song Stuck in Your Head

It is probably a safe bet that most of us, at one time or another, have heard a song only to have the melody stick in our heads for hours (or maybe days) on end. It is the sort of thing that can drive you nuts.

This very thing happened to me the other day. Paper Moon found its way into my brain after seeing a clip from A Streetcar Named Desire.....it tormented me for three days. It was while driving home from work with the melody playing over and over in my mind, I began singing along to the tune running through my head.

Then I started to think about the lyrics I was singing, trying to figure out what (if anything) this song meant.

For those who do not know the lyrics or have even heard the song, Paper Moon was written by the song team Harold Arlen (music) and E. Y. Harburg (lyrics), with Billy Rose in 1933. The song has been recorded many times in a variety of arrangements by such notable singers as Nat King Cole, Ella Fitzgerald and Frank Sinatra. The verses are as follows:

It's only a paper moon
Floating over a cardboard sea
But it wouldn't be make believe
If you believed in me

It's only a canvas sky
Hanging over a muslin tree
But it wouldn't be make believe
If you believed in me

It's a Barnum and Bailey world
Just a phony as it can be
But it wouldn't be make believe
If you believed in me.

Many people have looked into the meaning of the song, and there are a few theories out there. For a broader discussion on this  click here

For me, though, my perspective is quite different. As most speculate that the lyrics are driven to explain the relationships we experience on a human level, be that between a man and a woman, or, in the case of the feature movie Paper Moon with Ryan and Tatum O'Neal, parent and child, or in A Streetcar Named Desire, looking back on our life and getting back to those places and things that gave us happiness, I look at it in that most important relationship between us and God. What if we look at this as if our Creator speaking to us through these verses?

Could God be telling us that everything we see and do in this life is nothing without Him? Is there an emptiness, a shallowness, a facade in our existence without knowing and loving God and His loving us in return? How many of us are truly ever happy and content believing that what we have is the result solely on what we do and create?

Our modern world is filled with the "famous and beautiful people," who spend time and money in the attempt to stay "famous and beautiful." Can they truly be happy? Is their life one of simplicity and reality, or do they live in a world of make believe?

The world is also filled with those who have amassed fortunes and then spend their time and effort trying to keep it. Can they truly be content? Is their life one of fulfillment, or do they live in a world of make believe?

Or, those people whose primary focus is on gaining more and more power, then having to spend yet greater energy staying there. Can they be truly happy and content? Is their life one of continuous inner peace, or is their life like a Barnum and Bailey circus?

The refrain breaks the verses, so instead of God speaking to us about the triviality of life without Him, from our perspective, in the refrain we acknowledge the idea that living without the mantle of God's love and guidance, we are destined to spend our lives in in a world of shadows and illusions:

Without your love
It's a honey-tonk parade
Without your love
It's a melody played in a penny arcade

So for what is worth, that irritating event when a tune plays over and over in my mind may not be so bad after all. I can't say for certain if the writers had any other intention than to amuse the masses with a cute little tune and clever lyrics. Isn't it funny, though, how the audience reacts to the piece and takes away something that touches their own life? The unintended reality of this common human experience for me has been the realization that my life would really be less full, less meaningful and less real without the Greater Good. If you are interested in hearing a version of the song -- performed by the fantastic Ella Fitzgerald, you can find it here.