A Song in Review: Assassin by John Mayer

A lot of pop music is about stealing money from children. - Ian Anderson

Here is a new thing that I have thought about and decided to write about. In many ways, I am a music snob. I tend to listen to songs that go beyond merely creating a sound to generate money. Don't get me wrong. All artist are into making money, and they all produce songs that are specifically made just to make money. However, many of my favorite artists have the gift of going beyond creating popular music and really unleashing their soul through music.

A prime example of going beyond pop to unleash their soul is John Mayer. Initially, I didn't care for this guitar carrying baby-faced innocent pop star. I figured he was just another packaged product to get fifteen year old girls in a frenzy, a la Justin Bieber or N'Sync. However, something changed. Mayer decided to drop the whole baby-faced pop image and started getting into the Blues.

"Ay man," starts one of my boys, "you gotta listen to this new John Mayer album. It's called Continuum."

"Oh word," I respond with apathy thinking my boy just lost his damn mind.

"Yeah this one song called Stop this Train is a killer. It's just the story of my life right now."

"Hmph."

I cannot remember when exactly, but I did give at least Stop this Train a try. To the chagrin of my preconceived notions, it was outstanding. It is a great guitar-piano latent coming of age song. I was impressed. I went on to give Continuum a try, and I liked it. This version of Mayer is darker and more influenced by the Blues.

A little more than a year ago, I kept up with Mayer a little bit and gave his latest album, Battle Studies, a try. I liked it too. There is one standout song that has become one of my all-time favorite songs, Assassin. The song is so good that it actually plays out like a five-minute, fourteen-second movie. You will see exactly how this plays out like a movie using Syd Field's Paradigm of screenwriting. Movies, and all or most screenplays for that matter, follow a specific framework. The unfortunate thing about knowing this is that movies have become very predictable to me. Therefore, I now enjoy movies in a way in which I appreciate them for its execution of the structure rather than be taken away by it. This is how I came to believe that The Shawshank Redemption is the greatest movie I ever seen, but that's another story.

The Opening Image is where the protagonist is introduced in a world that that is free from the conflict that is to come later. Here, the story is summarized while the tone is set.

I work in the dead of night
Where the roads are quiet
And no one is around
To track my moves


Racing the yellow lights
To find the gate is open
She's waiting in a room
I just slip on through


You get in, you get done
And then you get gone
You never leave a trace
Or show your face, you get gone


Here, Mayer is your assassin. He is telling you his routine of working in the late night to take down his victims, in which in his case are female lovers, if you will. He is describing how he does it with resigned confidence, he just slips on through. He does the deed and gets on with life, but...

The Inciting Incident occurs in a movie when the protagonist first realizes that they are going to be in a  situation that will offset the status quo in their world. This is when the guy meets his soon to be love interest for the first time. Or when the superhero learns of the first crime committed by the villain.

Should have turned around
And left before the sun came up again
But the sun came up again


Here is my favorite part of the song. Mayer, the assassin, should have executed the deed and been out of there as usual, but this time it didn't happen. He is still at the scene and it is now the next day. This part is followed with a dramatic play of the instruments and the drums play a larger role before it calms down again...

During Plot Point 1, the protagonist endures a surprising event that forces them to confront the source of their problem or the antagonist.

Into the morning light
To find the day is burning
The curtains and the wine
In a little white room


No I'm not alone
Her head is heavy on me
She's sleeping like a child
What could I do?


What could he do? The Assassin is now in a situation where he let the sun come up rather than leaving immediately after the deed was done. It is now morning and there she is still, laying on top of him. He has just confronted his conflict, which is his life as an assassin which has been put to the test by this woman...

Pinch 1 is a scene that reminds and reinforces the the main conflict the protagonist has.

You get in, you get done

And then you get gone

You never leave a trace

Or show your face, you get gone

Should have turned around

And left before the sun came up again

But the sun came up again

The Midpoint is where the first half of the story is driven to. Field believes the Midpoint serves to keep the second act from being too boring. Here at the Midpoint, however, the story takes another turn due to a revelation or some new information. 

I was a killer, was the best they'd ever seen

I'd steal your heart before you ever heard a thing

I'm an assassin and I had a job to do

Little did I know that girl was an assassin too

Ha! So initially, Mayer was the assassin and had no idea why or how he was in the predicament he was in. But there is the revelation or reversal of fortune in the story, she is an assassin too. The story is now headed in another direction, though the first part of the story set this up. 

Pinch 2 is another reminder of the central conflict of the story, which is Mayer's conflict about being an assassin.

Suddenly I'm in, over my head and

I can hardly breathe

Suddenly I'm floating, over her bed and

I feel everything

Suddenly I know, exactly what I did

But I cannot move a thing...

Mayer is reminding us of his predicament. Again his struggles with being an assassin is displayed. He knows what's happening, but he seems to struggle with doing anything about it.

Plot Point 2 is a point in which the protagonist decides to confront the conflict to put it away once and for all.

And suddenly I know, exactly what I've done

And know what it's gonna mean to me, mean to me

I'm gone!

Mayer seems to have decided that he is going to stand up against his conflict and take the road from whence he came. I knows that if he continues, he will be forever changed. In life, do people every really change? Or do they have slips or ephemeral modifications of behavior before they return to their normal selves? 

The Showdown is where the protagonist lives up to their choice from Plot Point 2 to confront the conflict to put an end to it. They will either conquer it or fail, in which they usually conquer it. Hardly in movies do you see the protagonist fail before the credits roll. 

I was a killer, was the best they'd ever seen

I'd steal your heart before you ever heard a thing

I'm an assassin and I had a job to do

Little did I know that girl was an assassin too

Here it is laid out once again. Mayer is an assassin and she is an assassin. They battle between the two go into a stalemate. They are equals. 

The Resolution is where the story is resolved, of course.

She's an assassin...

She's an assassin...

She's an assassin...

She's an assassin, and she had a job do

There you have it. He battles his conflict and comes to the resolution that she is an assassin with a job to do just as he does. After realizing this, he then leaves it alone and accepts it. His conflict is resolved: he will remain an assassin and she has to be accepted and dealt with as an assassin. And that's it.

The Tag, or denouement, is where the audience is given closure. Sometimes, I don't really care for closure. I totally respected the way The Sopranos ended because it ended without the contrived dramatic conclusions for all the characters. Life just goes on, and David Chase depicted that brilliantly in my eyes. In Mayer's case, the Tag has no words. Music does leave room for the imagination. The music plays for the next 44 seconds before fading. This is where I picture Mayer, the assassin, walking away from the scene while flipping the collar up on his jacket on a chilly early morning. While walking away, there is closure. His world is back the way it was in beginning before his conflict arose. 

Assassin is brilliant to me for its lyrical sophistication, dramatic and fluctuating instrumentation, and subtle dark tone that keeps Mayer away the basic pop sound. It also reminds me of the movie Boomerang, starring Eddie Murphy. Marcus (Murphy) is a playa until he stumbles upon his new colleague, Jacqueline (Robin Givens). Jacqueline was not just another booty call to Marcus. No. This time, Marcus had actual tangible feelings for Jacqueline. However, Jacqueline was just a women really into her career who was just looking for a good romp from time to time. Marcus ran into his match and he became the victim this time. He could not conquer this one. Mayer was in a similar situation. He ran into an assassin that had a job to do as well.