The Bitter-sweetness of Young Love: Noah Kahan’s Strawberry Wine
Noah Kahan’s song from his album Stick Season, Strawberry Wine, intertwines the sweetness of a first love with the bitter aftertaste of its ending.
Noah Kahan’s recently released album titled ‘Stick Season’ has blown away listeners for its variety, relatable song lyrics, and the feeling of home the tunes evoke. The album varies in subject matter from songs about the changing of the seasons, to falling in love for the first time. Strawberry Wine runs through the course of a first love relationship, discussing the naivety, incompatibility, and forcefulness of young love.
“ Darling, speak to me but don’t you say a word”
The first person subject of the song begins as a passive individual, all the action is being done to them. The subject (presumably “he”) initially makes demands to the other person in a mixture of salty and sweet tones by addressing a beloved by “Darling” but then ordering them “don’t you say a word”. This mix indicates that the speaker doesn’t know how to act towards someone he “loves” — it’s a new experience. The speaker’s passiveness continues when they say that they will “watch it as it burns” — their lover lights the cigarette, but they all they simply do is watch.
“ I’m in love with every song you’ve ever heard ”
The speaker’s powerlessness becomes more evident as the song progresses. Here, the speaker loves what their lover experiences, just because it has to do with them. This is reminiscent of a young naive love, where it’s not based on deep connection but instead just relation. They ‘love’ everything their partner loves, their obsession over the person trumps their own individual opinions.
“ If I could lose you, I would / We buried your bones in plywood ”
The repetition of these lines is indicative of obsessive thinking. As mentioned, the speaker can’t let go of their lover, but the dark image of burying bones together (“we” instead of “I”) suggests that both of them worked together to bring ruin to their love. There is a sense of forcefulness as well as indecisiveness of their fusion as a couple. It begins as a “we” and then switches to an “I” in the following sentence. This change of blame reveals that the partnership is no longer, they are now an individual — buried is the image of the lover. It’s interesting to note that plywood is not a strong material, it’s easily bent and broken. This leaves their relationship somewhat open for the future, their separation is not set in stone. This lightens the pain the two endure, if there is opportunity for the future, it hurts less to leave.
“I said love is fast asleep / On a dirt road with your head on my shoulder”
This part of the song is symbolic for the speaker regaining his individual power, as he no longer considers himself a part of the couple. Love being personified as a sleeping subject shows the lack of action and power it has. Love was awake, but now, it takes it’s break to sleep as the partnership is no longer active; love lays dormant. The speaker’s power becomes evident here as his lover’s head lays on his shoulder, symbolically putting their love to rest.
“Strawberry wine, and all the time we used to have / Those things I miss but know are never coming back”
Strawberry wine, the title of the song, holds significant meaning in relation to this first love. As an excessively sweet-tasting wine made with berries, can contrast to a more refined wine which has a more bitter taste. The sweetness of the strawberry combined with the wine adds an element of childlikeness. If wine is love, strawberry is young. Young love brings an added sweetness like naivety, often experienced for the first time. In it’s position in the song, it can be seen as the speaker looking back on his experience with his first love with rose coloured glasses, “all the time we used to have” relates to their youth, lack of responsibility, and innocence. The speaker further romanticizes the past in the following line by saying “Those things I miss but know are never coming back”. He is looking back to the past with fond memories, but is now old enough to recognize that those feelings can never return, your first love only happens once.
“For you, darling / For you”
The speaker drops the endearing term “darling” in the second repeated line, as his feelings have faded and he has excepted his fate. The speaker goes on to state his lessons learned, his older aged wisdom, “nothing defines a man like love that makes him soft”. This is in opposition to the stigma many young men believe, “man” and “soft” typically aren’t paired together.
“If I was an empty space and you were a formless shape, we’d fit”
His final lines of the song reflect on the incompatibility of the pair. “Empty space” and “formless shape” are two nonexistent things. If they had no definitive personality that made them unique, only then could they would match up, but so would everyone else. This admittance of incompatibility can only be made once separated from the pair. He then goes on to repeat the sequence, as if symbolizing coming to terms with the fact that they will never be together. “But love leaves little runway and every time I run straight over it”, this puts the speaker at fault for his lack of success in love. Note, he says “every time” which reveals that this is also his adult relationships as well. Not only did this happen with his first love, but continues to happen in his current love life, showing that some lessons in love are never learned, and possibly gives a reason to why he is reminiscing on where it all began.
The long melodic humming that closes out the end of the song can symbolize time passing and processing.
The Takeaway
Strawberry Wine is a beautiful story about a first, young love, where the two are not necessarily compatible. It shows how obsession with the idea of love can cause two young dreamers to force their courtship, but ultimately discover they are not meant to be. Despite trying to fit together, they can’t. But, there is nothing like young love, and nothing like one’s first love, which makes it a beautiful thing. What once was so sweet, becomes bitter, but it will always be beautiful in it’s own senseless way looking back.
