HEATHER - CONAN GRAY (rewrite from Heather's perspective)

 

Original Lyrics compared to Rewrite

Lyric Analysis

 

Overall my goal with these rewrites is to keep as many of the rhyming syllables and the structure of the phrases the same as the original.

 

In the verse, the first line is nearly the identical to the original, but “third of” is changed to “that night in” to suggest that the day wasn’t as important to Heather as it was to Conan, since she doesn’t remember the exact date. In the next line, unfortunately, I didn’t keep true to the “sweater” and “better” rhyme, and instead changed the rhyme stem entirely, with “party” and “sorry,” but I thought it was interesting for plot development. In Conan’s song, it’s not clear if Heather is someone the guy just met, or knew before. In this song, the guy had a relationship with Heather prior, and she is now finding out about his relationship with Conan. The structure of the next part in the original song is interesting, because Conan continues the second line right into the third line with “on me,” so in Heather’s version the continues with “to me,” to imitate that structure. The rest of the words highlighted in red are structural sameness and the words in orange are the rhymes, which line up with the “oo” and “i” rhymes in the original.

 

In the prechorus, there are some lines kept the same, just told from Heather’s perspective, like “as she walks by” gets turned into “as I walk by.” Instead of her being a “sight for sore eyes,” now Conan is the one with the “sore eyes.” In terms of plot, Heather is revealing that both of them have feelings for the same guy, but he made both of them cry and she’s not even sure why she fell for him.

 

The chorus starts off with a question, just like in the original, and sticks to the “ee” rhyme presented in the original. I was glad I could bring back word “party” here to replace “pretty” as a rhyme. The two words are so similar, so I think I kind of redeemed it from earlier. In the rest of the chorus, the story from Conan’s verse is told here instead, with “he gave me his sweater, but said it looked better on you,” but with Heather pointing out that the guy essentially played both of them. It was tricky figuring out how to end the chorus, since I think it really has to end on the word “Heather,” but it’s a little odd that Heather would refer to herself in first person. I’m not sure it quite works, but hopefully it’s close enough! :)

 

Anyway, that’s my nerdy analysis of the lyrics! I hope you liked the rewrite and let me know if you have any feedback. 

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If you're new here, welcome to my blog! My name is Abby Lyons and I'm a singer-songwriter. I share original songs on YouTube and Spotify. I also teach on Fender Play as a ukulele instructor. Thanks for visiting my blog! :)

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