“The Dungeon” – Silver

After all this discussion about dominant/submissive relationship dynamics expressed in the lyrics of Silver, it is fitting that the last song should be called “The Dungeon”. Honestly y’all, I did not plan it out this way. I didn’t even realize that this was going to happen until I was looking at the Silver tracklist yesterday. I know that I said I wasn’t talking about BDSM when describing dom/sub relationship dynamics but I may have to rethink whether the singer intends this. I mean, if it is there, it’s there, right?

We are closing out this album with the place of the submissive boy’s torture. The rhythm guitars are tighter, the drums more punctuated, the lead guitar wails more so than on any other song on Silver. The way the song is constructed betrays a sort of fascination with the rhythm of aggression and it revels in pain.

We talked about how the girl intentionally tortures the boy to get him to reveal himself. The lyrics describe the way she tortures him. The first way has been mentioned several times in the previous songs; it is the other boy who gets all her attention and love. The second method of torture is her absence. She is described as being outside or always in the hallway. Our submissive boy is all trussed up in the dungeon and she doesn’t even bother to come into the dungeon and watch his suffering.

For the boy’s part in this, he waits for her and he is always ready to take the blame. The song ends with him repeating that it all will remain the same. And it will remain the same until someone breaks the dynamic. But for the time being, it remains as it is. Probably because, ultimately, they both like it that way.

And so we have one album down on this sf59 blog project. As I mentioned before, Silver is one of my least favorite sf59 albums. It’s not that there is anything flawed about the album. I got into She’s the Queen and Gold before I got into Silver. After hearing the majesty of Gold, Silver seemed like a step backwards. But I’ve come to a new appreciation of Silver after taking a deep dive into each song and contemplating the thematic intent. In some cases, I had no idea what the lyrics were to some of these songs until I spent the time to focus on it and write about it. It’s been a good experience for me. Thanks to all of you going on this ride with me! Everyday I look forward to your comments and hearing your thoughts and experiences with these songs.