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"Mockingbird" - Eminem

http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/eminem/mockingbird.html (LYRICS)

The song, "Mockingbird," by Eminem is a message to his two daughters, explaining the struggle he experienced while raising them. He had many personal demons to fight off, but his daughters worked as a motivation to him for personal maturation and strength. I chose this song mainly because it not only describes how much his daughters had physically grown up and aged, but also how much Eminem matured and grew as a music artist and father during their childhoods. The song starts off with Eminem narrating why Haley and Laney's mother was never around, and how he understood how much they missed her. He then goes into depth about his personal struggles with being a parent, "'Cause daddy felt like a bum, see daddy had a job but his job was to keep the food on the table for you and mom, and at the time every house that we lived in either kept getting broken into or robbed," and how he was upset about not being able to provide to his fullest ability for his family. But the growth and hook of the song flows into Eminem saying that everything will always be okay, and that his daughters will always have their fathers love. The song is similar to a timeline, because as it progresses, he raps about how he became motivated and hungry for a job, and actually ended up being a successful rapper. He went through personal growth and maturation for his daughters. Eminem never wanted to see them struggling, so he changed his ways for them to live a better life, even though things weren't always easy.

Eminem's song, "Mockingbird," relates to the song Mikaela chose, "Ready, Set, Don't Go," by Billy Ray Cyrus. Both of them have epiphany's that show how strong a fathers love can be. Billy Ray Cyrus expresses how he doesn't want his daughter to grow up too fast, because she will always be his little girl, while Eminem preaches that he wants his daughters to grow up in the best way possible, and get the best experience from their childhoods. Both songs correlate to how much hard work a parents puts in to raising their children right, and always wanting whats in their best interest. Both songs portray the sacrifices a parent can make emotionally and mentally for their children.

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Eminem - Mockingbird [Official Music Video]

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"Good Riddance" by Green Day

The final song the group chose is called “Good Riddance” by Green Day. The song has several different meanings, all varying depending on the person listening. In my opinion, the song is about death and the end of someone’s life. The singer says, “So take the photographs, and still frames in your mind/ Hang it on a shelf in good health and good time/ Tattoos and memories and dead skin on trial/ For what it's worth it was worth all the while/ It's something unpredictable, but in the end is right,/ I hope you had the time of your life.” I believe that the singer is talking about someone dying and remembering all of the good memories in their life. Some people also believe that it’s just a song about life and gaining wisdom through the years. The epiphany of the song is to just enjoy life and live it to the fullest, all while learning important life lessons along the way and maturing from it.
Because of the song’s close ties to death, it relates to two stories from Dubliners: “The Sisters” and “The Dead”. “The Sisters” asks the question of what happens after death after the boy’s friend dies. “The Dead” talks about Michael, the love of Gretta’s life who died for her; “The Dead” answers the question by the end. Gretta "had had that romance in her life: a man died for her sake" (pg 34, The Dead), and Gabriel realized that he didn't really mean to much to her because she still loved Michael. If someone lives a life to the fullest, they’ll be remembered for years. I think the song is pretty similar to “The Dead” because both teach the reader about living life to the fullest and what happens after death.

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Green Day - Good Riddance (Time of Your Life) [Official Music Video] [4K UPGRADE]

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Only One – Kanye West http://genius.com/Kanye-west-only-one-lyrics

The song, “Only One,” by Kanye West is mostly about how Kanye has dealt with the death of his mother and the birth of his daughter North West. The song was written through the perspective of Kanye’s mother Donda West. Overall, she tells her son that she’s proud of him and all the he has accomplished. Kanye also includes that his mother is always watching over him even though she’s gone, which shows how he has been able to cope with the death of his mother. He also includes the hook of the song which is directed to Kanye in the perspective of his mother, but Kanye initially wrote the hook to North West as a reminder that she is his priority and how truly important her happiness is to him. Kanye’s epiphany was when he realized that his mother is always with him at heart and is always watching him as he makes daily sacrifices in order to raise his daughter. The birth of North West caused Kanye to go through personal maturation as he changed the way he lives his life and writes songs as shown in “Only One.”

“Only One,” by Kanye West relates to the short story of “Jesus Christ’s Half-Brother Is Alive and Well On the Spokane Indian Reservation” in the book The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven written by Sherman Alexie. In the short story, the anonymous narrator ends up inheriting James due to his parents’ death in a house fire. The narrator was a true Spokane alcoholic and was not necessarily ready to become a responsible father, which resulted in his arrest. He later realized that he had to turn his life around, so he ended up going to rehab and reevaluated his priorities to raise James as a true responsible father.  This would relate to Kanye’s life because he wasn’t exactly ready to become a father as shown in the lyrics, “And though I didn’t pick the day to turn the page/ I know it’s not the end every time I see her face…” (lines 23-24, West), which shows that Kanye also wasn’t prepared to move on with his life and become a father. Despite his lack of preparation, Kanye still pointed out the fact that he’d still be there for her as he transitions onto the hook. Both Kanye and the anonymous narrator in the short story ended up having a child and had to make sacrifices in their lives in order to be there for their kids. In other words, both of the characters ended up going through personal maturation because of their epiphanies of having to become responsible fathers.

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Kanye West - Only One ft. Paul McCartney

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You & the 6 by Drake

In this song, Drake is talking to his mother and explaining how the way he was raised has helped him deal with the people and situations that have troubled him on his road to success. As he has grown up and become famous he has grown distant from his city and his mother. He then goes on to talk about how he has stayed true to her lessons and is now winning Grammys and dominating today’s rap game. The last few lines of the song, “They will not tear nothing down I built this home for you momma/ Know I don’t call enough momma/ I just been working so little time for personal momma/ Hard labor let me pay the price/ You and the six raised me right that shit saved my life”, explain his appreciation for his mother’s wisdom and also show his maturation as a man. He wants his mother to know he is working hard and staying true to the way she raised him and as a result has become arguably the most successful rapper in the game today.
This song expresses a much different overall message than my LC book, The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fist Fight in Heaven, but they do share some similarities when it comes to the passing of wisdom from generations. Much like Drake’s mom has given him lessons and wisdom to aide him through life, the elder Native Americans in my LC book have passed the things they learn down to their children to help them mature. Some of the best advice I came across in this book was, “Your past is a skeleton walking one step behind you; your future is a skeleton walking one step in front of you. Maybe you don’t wear a watch, but your skeletons do, and they always know what time it is. Now, these skeletons are made of memories, dreams, and voices. And they can trap you in the in-between, between touching and becoming. But they’re not necessarily evil, unless you let them be.” (Alexie, pg. 21) which means that one shouldn’t dwell on the past or worry about the future, because it will only bring trouble. Instead, one should live in the present and not allow the hurts of the past and the fears of the future to bring them down. While this song and story have very different tones and meanings, they do share the common theme of the older generation passing the things they have learned down to the budding generation.

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Provided to YouTube by Universal Music Group International You & The 6 · Drake If You're Reading This It's Too Late Released on: 2015-02-12 Composer, Author: A. Graham Composer, Author: M. Samuels Composer, Author: R. Ilbanga Jr. Composer, Author: N. Shebib Author, Composer: A. Ritter Auto-generated by YouTube.

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“Ready, Set, Don’t Go” by Billy Ray Cyrus

The song I chose is called, “Ready, Set, Don’t Go” by Billy Ray Cyrus and Miley Cyrus. I chose this song because it really shows the love between a father and a daughter and a child growing up. This entire unit was about the maturation, and this song is a father that has to learn to let go of his once little girl. Billy Ray sings, “She's at the startin' line of the rest of her life/ As ready as she's ever been/ Got the hunger and the stars in her eyes/ The prize is hers to win/ She's waitin' on my blessings before she hits that open road/ Baby get ready, Get set, Don't go”. The epiphany of this song is that a father has so much love for his child that he realizes that he has to let her grow up.
The epiphany in the song contradicts a story from Dubliners called "Eveline". The song is about a father’s love for his child as she grows up, but “Eveline” is a story of a girl running away from her father. Her father neglected her and abused her, so she decided to leave to meet a man named Frank. Frank would fix all of her issues and give her all of the love that her father never gave her. Eveline "would not be treated as her mother had been" (pg 1, Eveline) by her father. She thought about her future life with Frank, where she would be loved and safe. At the end, Eveline realizes that she doesn't actually love Frank and that the only reason she wanted to leave was to be away from her father.