Jack Johnson - Better Together - Song Analysis 1

Jack Johnson is possibly one of the best songwriters of our generation. With his abilities to form clever wordplay, Johnson can easily keep a listeners attention throughout an album. Jack began songwriting during his college years, after learning to play the guitar at fourteen years of age. His major influences were Nick Drake, Ben Harper, the Beatles, Bob Marley, Neil Young, Bob Dylan, and A Tribe Called Quest. Johnson has established a current way to express simplicity in his music and his lyrics that can still be considered clever. Better Together is a perfect way to express that simplicity, complete with its cleverness, but still with subtle clichés.

Better Together was a hit song off of Johnson’s third album released in 2005, In Between Dreams. Better Together shows the perfect connection between a boy and a girl. One line says “Love is the answer at least for most of the questions of my heart like, why are we here? And where do we go? And how come it’s so hard?” The line is saying that this person is the answer to all of his questions and that’s how he knows they’re supposed to be together. The repetitive chorus has a much deeper meaning than it leads on. The line “we’re better together” shows this person makes him better, and he reciprocates that to her. One of the clichés that I mentioned was “We’ll look at them stars when we’re together,” Yes, this line is a cliché because I’m sure we’ve all heard it at some point, but it fits with the song perfectly.

Better Together is one of those songs that can easily appeal to both genders. It is a song that shows the relationship that the majority of people would love to have. Jack Johnson showed another hit song through Better Together.

There's no combination of words
I could put on the back of a postcard
No song that I could sing
But I can try for your heart
Our dreams, and they are made out of real things
Like a, shoebox of photographs - Simile
With sepia-tone loving - Objectification
Love is the answer,
At least for most of the questions in my heart
Like why are we here? And where do we go? - Simile
and how come it's so hard?
It's not always easy and
Sometimes life can be deceiving
I'll tell you one thing it's always better when we're together

[Chorus:]
MMM it's always better when we're together
Yeah, we'll look at them stars when we're together
Well, it's always better when we're together
Yeah, it's always better when we're together

And all of these moments
Just might find their way into my dreams tonight
But I know that they'll be gone
When the morning light sings
And brings new things
For tomorrow night you see
That they'll be gone too
Too many things I have to do
But if all of these dreams might find their way
Into my day to day scene
I'd be under the impression
I was somewhere in between
With only two
Just me and you
Not so many things we got to do
Or places we got to be
We'll Sit beneath the mango tree now

It's always better when we're together
Mmmm, we're somewhere in between together
Well, it's always better when we're together
Yeah, it's always better when we're together

Mmmm, Mmmm, Mmmm
I believe in memories
They look so, so pretty when I sleep
Hey now, and when I wake up,
You look so pretty sleeping next to me
But there is not enough time,
And there is no, no song I could sing
And there is no, combination of words I could say
But I will still tell you one thing
We're better together.