Can we talk about something for a minute?

All the love and respect for Israel “IZ” Kamakawiwoʻole in the world and I know I’m going to internet hell for saying this, but his version of Over The Rainbow makes no goddamn sense.

Of course IZ was a rad guy. He was talented and amicable, his voice pleasantly relaxing, hypnotic, nostalgic. His sound was so well received that he was able to use it as a tool for his activism to help create awareness and hope for families in Hawaii and people around the world. It’s so very soothing that no one notices the words coming out of his mouth in Over the Rainbow sound like Brick Tamland Googled “words from Oz “, cooked up a big ol’ steaming pot of lyric soup, then got someone to sing it so sweetly that no one actually noticed it’s sung pulp fiction style- and incompletely, at that.

It irks me on a different level than just the obvious, though. Are people just so used to listening to respond that they only hear the buzzwords they’re looking to respond to? It’s a little eye-widening for me that people don’t care about words making sense, they just want to hum along and keep their ignorant bliss of what they want to believe he’s saying without actually paying attention. Or worse, having actually paid attention in the first place, then dismissing the fractionated lyrics because cognitive dissonance won’t allow them to be processed as they’re actually being sung.

IS THIS HOW TRUMP GETS ELECTED?! His language patterns are strikingly similar; he’s known for habitually leaving open sentences and changing thought trains, allowing/assuming the audience will fill in what they want. People also connect to him on an emotional level, even though roughly 90% of the words out of his mouth are just random filler with no central point. At this rate, all he needs is to sing his speeches to uke tunes in and we’ll watch the masses follow the pied piper home.

What’s the point of words if they aren’t in order to communicate an idea? I assure you, I have no clue. What I do know is that these lyrics are like a Trump speech written by a Care Bear and everyone loves it. No one cares that it’s sentence salad.  WHAT IN THE ACTUAL FUCK?! Allllllllrighty, then. Here ya go, folks- it’s ALL YOURS in its no damn sense making glory. Would you like some fresh pepper on that?

Somewhere over the rainbow
Way up high
And the dreams that you dream of
Once in a lullaby

Somewhere over the rainbow
Bluebirds fly
And the dreams that you dream of
Dreams really do come true

(enter the one non-mangled lyric set)
Someday I’ll wish upon a star
Wake up where the clouds are far behind me
Where trouble melts like like lemon drops
High above the chimney tops
That’s where you’ll find me

Somewhere over the rainbow
Bluebirds fly
And the dreams that you dream that you dare to
Oh why can’t I?

…make sense?

The world will never know.

For more information on IZ and more pleasant sounding music of his, check out his page at http://www.izhawaii.com/.