SECRET 7 - BRIEF - SONG RESEARCH

Of the seven songs, I chose Jimi Hendrix - Castles Made of Sand I did not want to spend too long selecting the song so as a selection process I thought it would be more interesting to select my favourite from the 7 as this should make it easier to produce. 

I started to research into the song I on a contextual level - which I think gives more context to a design rather than trying to just interpret it from the name. This uncovered a lot that I didn't know about the song in terms of the meaning behind it and how of important the track is to Hendrix's legacy.  


JIMI HENDRIX - CASTLES MADE OF SAND 

Lyrics - 

Down the street you can hear her scream "you're a disgrace"
As she slams the door in his drunken face,
And now he stands outside
And all the neighbours start to gossip and drool

He cries "Oh girl, you must be mad,
What happened to the sweet love you and me had?"
Against the door, he leans and starts a scene,
And his tears fall and burn the garden green

And so castles made of sand,
Fall in the sea, eventually

A little Indian brave who before he was ten,
Played war games in the woods with his Indian friends,
And he built a dream that when he grew up,
He would be a fearless warrior Indian Chief

Many moons passed and more the dream grew stronger,
Until tomorrow, he would sing his first war song,
And fight his first battle, but something went wrong,
Surprise attack killed him in his sleep that night

And so castles made of sand,
Melts into the sea, eventually

There was a young girl, whose heart was a frown,
'Cause she was crippled for life, and she couldn't speak a sound
And she wished and prayed she could stop living,
So she decided to die

She drew her wheelchair to the edge of the shore, and to her legs, she smiled
"You won't hurt me no more"
But then a sight she'd never seen made her jump and say
"Look, a golden winged ship is passing my way"
And it really didn't have to stop, it just kept on going

And so castles made of sand
Slips into the sea, eventually

Notes from the lyrics

• "Castles Made of Sand" is a sad commentary on the futility of life.

• The first verse is about a formerly loving couple reduced to a screaming, drunken mess. 

• The second is about a brave Indian chief who gets slaughtered in his sleep the night before a battle. 

• It ends with the slightly more uplifting tale of a handicapped little girl who rolls her wheelchair to a cliff and nearly rolls it off until the sight of a "golden winged ship" makes her reconsider.

• Many have argued that this song is Jimi reflecting on painful memories from his childhood, including his parents' separation and his mother's illness, though Hendrix himself never confirmed that. 

• Chorus - This is the inevitability of death, but also the beauty and fragility of life represented by a sand castle. Nothing is certain and nothing lasts forever, eventually, things will fall apart. It could also mean the fragility of dreams that are often unfulfilled.

• "Many moons passed and more the dream grew stronger" - More time passed, and the closer he got to realize his dream.

• "So she decided to die" - She’s decided on suicide to end her pain.

• The significance of sand within the track as a metaphor "for the temporary nature of existence, of time, slipping away, how nothing can be taken for granted – love, loyalty, family bonds, and friendship"