Song Analysis: Hero by Regina Spektor

Hero by Regina Spektor
He never ever saw it coming at all
He never ever saw it coming at all
He never ever saw it coming at all

It's all right, it's all right, it's all right, it's all right
It's all right, it's all right, it's all right

Hey, open wide, here comes original sin
Hey, open wide, here comes original sin
Hey, open wide, here comes original sin

It's all right, it's all right, it's all right, it's all right
It's all right, it's all right, it's all right
It's all right, it's all right, it's all right

No one's got it all
No one's got it all
No one's got it all

Power to the people
We don't want it
We want pleasure
And the TVs try to rape us
And I guess that they're succeeding
Now we're going to these meetings
But we're not doing any meeting
And we're trying to be faithful 
But we're cheating, cheating, cheating

Hey, open wide, here comes original sin
Hey, open wide, here comes original sin
Hey, open wide, here comes original sin

It's all right, it's all right, it's all right, it's all right
It's all right, it's all right, it's all right
It's all right, it's all right, it's all right

No one's got it all
No one's got it all
No one's got it all

Power to the people
We don't want it
We want pleasure
And the TVs try to rape us
And I guess that they're succeeding
And we're going to these meetings
But we're not doing any meeting
And we're trying to be faithful 
But we're cheating, cheating, cheating

I'm the hero of the story
Don't need to be saved
I'm the hero of the story
Don't need to be saved
I'm the hero of the story
Don't need to be saved
I'm the hero of the story
Don't need to be saved

It's all right, it's all right, it's all right, it's all right
It's all right, it's all right, it's all right
It's all right, it's all right, it's all right
It's all right, it's all right, it's all right

No one's got it all
No one's got it all
No one's got it all 

*~*~*

     Let me start off by saying that this is one of my favorite songs by Regina Spektor. I absolutely love her music and it is so much fun to analyze and think about. When I listen a song, I try not to take everything at face value. Most songs always have a deeper  meaning than what first comes to mind when listening to or reading the lyrics. I've been wanting to analyze this song since the first time I heard it. Keep in mind, this is only the opinion of one person and you might have a completely different take on it. That's the cool thing about analyzing literature--there is always more than one viewpoint to take. These are just the conclusions that I was able to draw. So here goes nothing. :)

     The song Hero by Regina Spektor is incredibly relevant and relatable to everyone in the whole world. Yeah, I know that's a pretty broad statement, but it's true. Some lines in the song seem to be speaking directly about certain aspects of human nature; aspects that are seen everywhere in every person's life. Hero is a story about one person's discovery of some universal truths about the human nature and how he deals with them. The song has 2 voices, the narrator, who sings in a high, whispery manner, and the Character who sings in a throaty, full, and lower voice. The two transition a couple times in the duration of the song and it is fairly easy to distinguish whose voice is whose. 

     The song starts out with the narrator beginning the story with the repeated phrase 'He never ever saw it coming at all.' The key is minor, the melody haunting and foreboding. This phrase serves as a sort of 'Once upon a time,' for the beginning of the story. The narrator tells us that what Character is about to discover is something he never 'saw coming.'  As the narrator's part ends temporarily, Character comes in on the scene repeating the phrase 'It's all right,' over and over again. Regina's intonation of this phrase is confident but comforting. It almost sounds like a lullaby, as if Character is trying to assure himself and maybe someone else that everything is okay, that there is nothing to worry about. 

    The narrator now addresses the listener. He tells the listener to 'open wide,' and announces the the coming of 'original sin.' This repeated line foreshadows a coming lyric that will appear later on. The phrase 'original sin' refers to the sin of pride (Sin in its most basic form is pride, and is therefore, often referred to as the original sin) and this is what the narrator is predicting. The line 'open wide' is a little more tricky to analyze. It could be referring to the well-known idea of "Eating a piece of humble pie," since the 'original sin' is pride (and the opposite of pride is humility).  Another way of looking at this phrase is assuming that the narrator is talking to Character, telling him to 'open wide' because his monstrous piece of humble pie is is coming to him soon if he continues in the thoughts that will develop lyrically later on in the song. I am inclined the think the first idea of the narrator speaking to the listener is a more accurate interpretation.  

    Before I continue on to the next line of the song, I want to address this one little tidbit at the end of the phrase I just talked about. The second time the narrator says, 'Hey, open wide, here comes original sin,' Regina makes a subtle noise that sounds like a resigned sigh. I'm not going to spend a lot of time on this, but I want to know what you think it means--if you think it means anything at all. 

     After the narrator speaks to the to the listener, we come back to Character who is still repeating 'It's alright,' with a slight change in the timbre of his voice. He sounds more reserved and unsure of what he is saying. Maybe he is doubting the thought that everything is alright. What he says next resonates the implied attitudes of this second round of 'it's alright,'s. 'No one's got it all,'; Character excuses his doubts with the thought that no one has everything figured out in a tidy little box. Why should he have to? The dynamic of the song becomes increasingly louder, symbolizing Character's frustration and he bursts into a tirade of complaints about humankind. 

     Regina sings 'Power to the people, we don't want it we want pleasure.' He is accusing the race of man to be all talk and no action. 'Power to the people' is/was a popular rally cry for the Civil Rights movements as well as for other political issues where the American people were calling for the government to give the power to the general populace, where they believed it belonged. The people wanted change and they wanted to bring it about. Character accuses his fellow people--and perhaps himself, as well--of claiming to want to take action but in reality only wanting the ability to live carefree and enjoyably without rules or consequences. 
      "And the TVs try to rape us and I guess that they're succeeding," is another harsh accusation Character throttles
at himself and his fellow humans. He claims all humans are too lazy to find out truth for themselves so they look to
easy and accessible sources (such as TV; this could also be referring to other sources of media such as the internet 
or magazines) rather than truly thinking for themselves or searching for a higher standard of truth other than the mindlessness they hear on television. I also think there is a subtle jab at the media in this line; Character likens the effect that the media has on the every day person to rape (or taking advantage of, to be more specific). Character then questions the significance of even trying to take actions ("we're going to all these meetings but we're not doing any meeting.") in a tone of voice that sounds like a fed up teenaged kid. He realizes that something is fundamentally wrong with the way humans are operating. He doesn't know the answer but attributes some of the problem to the fact that 'we're trying to be faithful but we're cheating.' Regina repeats the word three times, each repetition sounding more and more defeated. 
     At this point the distinction between the narrator and Character's voices becomes unclear. The line originally spoken by the narrator is now sung like the Character--loud and clear. The voice repeats the last three sets of lyrics until he comes to the line "...trying to be faithful but we're cheating." He trails off with the word 'cheating' once again but this time, instead of repeating himself he comes to the climax of the song and the conclusion in his mind: 'I'm the hero of this story, don't need to be saved!' Regina delivers this lyric more forcefully than all the others. Vocally, it pounds as hard as the fingers hit the piano keys. Character disregards the fallacies he has seen and now tries to convince himself that nothing is really wrong. He's the commander of himself, he lacks nothing, he wants nothing, he needs nothing, he does not need to be saved. But maybe he wants to be saved; because after screaming 'I'm the hero of this story, don't need to be saved,' four times, he returns to almost chanting 'it's alright.' This time, Regina sings it softly, it's barely audible at some points. It sounds like she's rocking herself back and forth trying to shut out all the noise so she can concentrate on this one line. She resumes singing 'no one's got it all,' and after a few seconds, the song fades out. 
     I think the song is brilliant in the lyrics and the way Regina delivers it. There is a lot of repetition, but I think it's an effective tool that causes people to truly listen to and think about what message the song is conveying.