Into the Night: Rihanna's Where Have You Been and Geoff Mack's I've Been Everywhere
Audio, video, text
Introduction: You’ll listen to me who will go on Geoff Mack and Rihanna
Geoff Mack (1922-2017): I’ve Been Everywhere (1962)
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Rihanna: Where Have You Been (2011)
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I’ve Been Everywhere:
I’ve been in fact debating myself hard whether I add here the lyrics of I’ve Been Everywhere. Maybe I will do it later below near the end. But I don’t know yet. Have you anyway already listen to the song? Those shooting names of places are truly amazing with rolling beat. Telling the truth, I’d never listened to the song until I did search the names of songwriters of Where Have You Been and found Geoff Mack. I clicked on the link for I’ve Been Everywhere and watched the video. Oh, this is something! Totally impressive, I got so.
I am not by any means knowledgeable in music of any kind. Even among amateurs’ ranks, I see myself in a very low place. Struggling to connect artists and their music to the time when they lived, I would have no idea for how to begin with, if I try to write something meaningful about particular musiciens. Still and yet, love is a love. I love music of many kinds. Heart feels and is filling with warmth, tears come out. I smile, images pop up. Heart beat is that beat and their beat. Associations and memories in my life also? Maybe. Or, music comes out of nothing and suddenly exist. No, oh no philosophy. Well, what’s the word? The rhythm of a life?
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(Insertion): The Rhythm of the Night:
This song runs in the last scene of Beau travail (1999) directed by Denis Claire, French filmmaker. The story was based on Herman Melville’s Billy Budd as adapted to our contemporary time. Yes, this last scene was literally discotheque and the actor was Denis Lavant if you go to see its youtube video. This is an excellent film. However, all those young guys as figuratively corporeal are cinematographically counter-misleading if focused on only by viewers’ selective attention. Well, I will move on without developing Beau travail, because this is in fact intended to be a section for a break time. But if there is anything relevant, Rihanna’s Where Have You Been has also lots of retro-disco flavors despite the year 2011 was not very transitory. Please also note: I’m writing this post not on a research basis and indulge me for it.
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I’ve Been Everywhere:
The difference between sounds-only and music video can be said as sensory effects. Such is my view. Our nerve system has to react differently, so should be more true for cerebral responsiveness. Experts can provide evidences and analytic data. In my case here, I would also point out our attention drawn to what we see. It is wonderful to view and listen at the same time the musician’s performance. If you are a musician yourself, you will closely watch how the musical instrument is being played. Nevertheless, the sound-only experience has a certain purity, akin to reading books, for example. One reads notes, writes them in mind, plays, and listeners seize the notes. Besides, studio recording may aim a perfection for a music product in the market.
Below is Geoff Mack playing I’ve Been Everywhere. (this is the original line written by me on Aug. 29).
Below is Geoff Mack’s I’ve Been Everywhere. (this is the line revised by me on Sep. 3)
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Where Have You Been lyrics:
I've been everywhere, man
Looking for someone
Someone who can please me
Love me all night long
I've been everywhere, man
Looking for you, babe
Looking for you, babe
Searching for you, babeWhere have you been?
'Cause I never see you out
Are you hiding from me, yeah?
Somewhere in the crowdYeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
Yeah, yeah (oh), yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeahWhere have you been
All my life? All my life?
Where have you been all my life?
Where have you been all my life?
Where have you been all my life?
Where have you been all my life?I've been everywhere, man
Looking for someone
Someone who can please me
Love me all night long
I've been everywhere, man
Looking for you, babe
Looking for you, babe
Searching for you, babyWhere have you been?
'Cause I never see you out
Are you hiding from me, yeah?
Somewhere in the crowdYeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
Yeah, yeah (oh), yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeahWhere have you been
All my life? All my life?
Where have you been all my life?
Where have you been all my life?
Where have you been all my life?
Where have you been all my life?Where have you been all my life?
You can have me all you want
Any way, any day
Just show me where you are tonightYeah, yeah, yeah (ohh), yeah
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah (yeah-yeah)
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah (ohh)
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeahI've been everywhere, man
Looking for someone
Someone who can please me
Love me all night long
I've been everywhere, man
Looking for you, babe
Looking for you, babe
Searching for you, babeSource: LyricFind
I pretty much like everything about this song, the music and lyrics altogether. My loving part is the “Where have you been? / ‘Cause I never see you out [awhile]“ stanza leading itself through to the crying-out “the crowd” in the end breaking into the next block of yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah… which was almost slashed by oooooooh covering over. The stanza repeats, oh thanks, truly great. The peak is, of course, “Where have you been / All my life? All my life?” which could be heard as Oh my liar. The echo goes on as “where have you been all my life? / where have you been all my life? / (repetition)” with cutting breaks with higher pitch and beat. I also love “babe” switched-by with “baby” in the second of two same stanzas with the same effect of “the crowd” utterance, but in a smaller scale. The rhythm points (my made-up words) accentuate well an implication of “you” being looked for will never be found, but the song for looking for “you” will continue (…well… if one allows oneself to get into the interpretations).
The lyrics are quite simple, one would say. For that reason or not, the more I read into it, the more I like it.
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Poetry and longing:
Lyrics of songs are poetry. I’ve Been Everywhere can be taken as a soul traveling over its land, thus home, which is inevitably understood as America in this case. Rihanna belongs to a much younger generation than that of Geoff Mack and she has an ethnic background. Is she described as part of a new America? Along this line of interpretation, “you” being looked for in Where Have You been could be thought as a resolution which a confusing phase of America of today seeks. Well, well, those things are just to say this and that in my part. That is I who brought I’ve Been Everywhere and Where Have You Been up in as if a reciprocal pair of answer and question in a chronological reversal. But, such a thesis does not work for poetry, I tell you. Rather I want to end this piece in a different way.
Here is an excerption from La Bible to which I refer.
Sur ma couche, la nuit, j’ai cherché
celui que mon coeur aime
Je l’ai cherché, mais ne l’ai point trouvé !
Je me lèverai donc, et parcourrai la ville.
Dans les rues et sur les places,
je chercherai celui que mon coeur aime,
Je l’ai cherché, mais ne l’ai point trouvé !
Le Cantique des Cantiques: Troisième poème; 1-2
(La Bible de Jérusalem)
I found an English translation in Where Have You Been.
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Closing:
Do you have any information about the singer of "I've Been Everywhere" in the video?