Sam France muses over unrequited love in Foxygen’s “Shuggie”
Love is a powerful thing. But it isn’t always shared between two people. There is a time in all of our lives where we will meet someone who does not share the same feelings that we possess for them.
“Shuggie” is an interesting take on this situation because instead of crying out in anguish, Sam France exerts a more apathetic attitude despite the fact that his “heart is breaking in two.” The horn parts give the song an almost jazzy feel to it, which only contributes to the blues in the lyrics, while not portrayed in the tone. But the tempo changes and time signatures reveal his true feelings about this unrequited love by contrasting the numbness of the first verse with the passion of the chorus.
In the first verse, France is in a bit of a rant; he’s not really saying anything important, just whatever comes into his head at the time. But right in the middle of this, he just randomly says, “But she don’t love me/That’s news to me” before continuing. It’s a random break between the details to say, “Oh yeah, she didn’t return the feelings.” And then he goes right back to his conversation.
“I met your daughter the other day,
Well that was weird.
She had rhinoceros-shaped earrings in her ears
But hey man, have a soda
It’s on the house
‘Member what I told you ‘bout the rooms inside this house?”
There isn’t much context to discern the meaning of the line, “‘Member what I told you ‘bout the rooms inside this house?” But we do know that the “sodas” are “on the house” — they’re on his bill. So we can infer that “this house” is referring to his life. And like the symbolism of life’s progression in Edgar Allen Poe’s “Masque of the Red Death,” the “rooms inside this house” symbolize France’s milestones: major life trials, epiphanies, his firsts and his lasts. So possibly by this line, France could be saying that these past experiences have made him fragile and sensitive.
“But she don’t love me,” he says again. “That’s news to me/That’s news to me.” He says it again, over and over, like he’s denying that he knew all along that she didn’t share his feelings. That, or it came as a big shock.
His denial is further shown in the first section of the chorus. The tempo and time signature suddenly changes: the verse followed a chill rhythm that swishes like the ocean in cut time, but the first part of the chorus has a faster, more steady beat with a bigger emphasis on quarter notes in a 4/4 time signature. First, he says, “she don’t love me,” but then he literally cuts himself off mid-sentence with the chorus: “I think you and I could be in love” — maybe she really does love me and just doesn’t know how to show it.
“Ah, if you believe in yourself, you can free your soul
Ah, my heart is breaking in two, and I don’t know what to do”
A universal truth: we are the most happy when we are true to what we love, and if we put our minds to something, we can achieve our goals. However, in the case of love, there is no way to make another love you back. And this is what France is crying out in the most robust section of the song after yet another tempo change.
With the repetition of “She don’t love me/That’s news to me” followed by the chorus again, the idea that she might still love him back is becoming less and less believable. So when he sings, “I’m happy and she’s happy,” he is, in a way, trying to convince himself that he can move on knowing this fact. He is telling himself, “I’m happy if she is,” when he is, in fact, hurting.
But then we end the song, fading out with “Ba ba ba da da da,” like he is ignoring his feelings about the situation. There aren’t too many different lines in the song: the entirety of it takes up only 11 different lines (depending on how you divide them). He is refusing to think any more about it — he wants to get it out of his brain. So as it fades out, the song never really ends. The thought is still there — we just never came to a conclusion. But that’s what France wants: to fade out with the “sodas” and forget about her.
