floyd,

Thank you for posting this. I would never have heard the song otherwise.

This is truly a terrific creation. And as you implied, it left me thinking, "Why can't I think of words like this? I'd love to be able to write a song even half as good as this one."

As I usually do after listening to a song, I'm sitting here pondering the lyrics and the music and trying to put myself in the writers shoes to see if I can work out how they might have accomplished this fine piece of work. For me, some form of understanding -- whether my interpretation is right or wrong -- helps me add tools to my songwriting toolbox and, hopefully, helps me become a little bit better with future songs.

The way I see it is that this song seems to be title driven. And that makes it incredibly clever in my book. I can imagine that someone has latched on to the phrase "Jesus and Jack Daniels" because it feels really comfortable to say and is very clever in that it places opposites (in one sense) side by side. When I read it, my first thought was, "What's this all about?" -- in other words, the title 'hooked' me before I heard or read anything!

Why the words worked for me were because: (a) the alliteration with the "J" sound; (b) the assonance of the short "a" in Jack and Daniels; (c) the three lots of "s" consonance in Jesus and Daniels; (d) the already mentioned notion that 'Jesus' and 'Jack Daniels' are kind of polar opposites in meanings from the sense of righteousness.

Appreciating the word-power of this title then made me think about how anyone might write lyrics to fit. The solution that these songwriters came up with was to make one word/phrase (Jesus) apply to one character and the second word/phrase (Jack Daniels) to apply to a second character. With this thought in mind, the next thought that seems to have occurred to these songwriters is to introduce some conflict between these two notions and to ponder how this might be accomplished. This is the really clever part for me, the writers created a child who has inherited both aspects from his or her parents' polarised attitudes and beliefs. It seems all so simple when presented with the end result, but the thought process to arrive at this conclusion would have eluded me (until having heard this song, that is smile )

So now we have Mama and Daddy representing the polar opposites in the title and Junior -- who could be either male or female -- who is the linking factor. It seems to me that the sex of Junior depends on whether a man or woman sings the song since the singer represents the song's protagonist. How clever is that! With this foundation laid, all that is now needed are words that develop a story.

In this scenario the writers have chosen the always-effective approach of using verse 1 to set the scene and to introduce the nature of all characters. Then in verse 2, the development is to detail a little more of the internal workings and thoughts of the characters.

As you say, this bridge is a truly inspired write. What made it work for me was that the "Hell yeah" and "Hallelujah" work for both the bible loving mama from a religious beliefs perspective and for the Jack Daniels loving daddy from a sacrilegious beliefs perspective. To pull that off lyrically with so few well chosen words is worthy of applause!

And then, to cap everything off, the writers present an outstanding chorus that takes on the shades of each of the verses and bridge and feels to grow emotionally at each hearing.

It's also worth noting that in verse 1, 'hymn' is rhymed with 'him' and while technically it is not a rhyme because it's a repetition of the same sound, it works. I've noticed that this technique is something that Dolly Parton has also used occasionally.

My only minuscule criticism comes back to your article a little while ago about vocal cadence and prosody. In the chorus, when the phrase "Between the two of 'em" is sung, 'of' is placed on a strong musical beat. I would have adjusted the words and/or music slightly so that 'two' was on that beat.... that placement sounds little more comfortable to my ears. At the end of the day, though, this is trivial and just personal preference.

All in all, this is a songwriting job that is extremely well done. And the arrangement is excellent. I thoroughly enjoyed the clip.

Thank you so much for sharing this. You've made me day!

All the best,
Noel

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