Dissect - S4E4 - See You Again by Tyler, The Creator

Episode Date: May 14, 2019

Our season long analysis of Flower Boy continues with "See You Again." Tyler describes an idealized partner he only sees in his dreams. But as we'll discover, this fantasy lover is a manifestation of the chronic loneliness Tyler feels in the waking world. Listen to Dissect on Spotify and get episodes a week early and exclusive bonus episodes. Visit spotify.com/promo/dissect for 60 free days of Spotify Premium. Follow @dissectpodcast on Twitter and Instagram.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

From Spotify Studios, this is Dissect, long-form musical analysis broken into short digestible episodes. I'm your host, Cole Kushna. Today we continue our serialized analysis of Flower Boy by Tyler the Creator. On our last episode, we dissected the album's second track Where This Flower Blooms. There we heard Tyler establish himself as the album's protagonist by revisiting his childhood roots of poverty. He then flashed forwards to when he first found success, likening his growth from the bottom, to a tree or flower blossoming from dirt. Having established himself as a kind of rag to Rich's story,

where this flower blooms ends with a cliffhanger of sorts. Flower boy tea, nigga, that's me. Routed from the bottom, blooming to a tree. Took a little wild, nigga making leaves, keep it in my branches, family, he'd favorite color green, energy is scrone. Giving niggas life birdie and the bees, dropping them seeds, not what you want. You don't know what I keep in the trunk. Tyler's verse is abruptly cut off when he says,

you don't know what I keep in the trunk. As we noted on our last episode, Tyler seems to be hiding something. Just what that something is is unclear at this point, but more information presents itself as Flower Boy continues into its next track the interlude entitled Sometimes.

Written and produced by Tyler the Creator, sometimes features American actor Shane Powers playing a radio station host soliciting requests from his listeners. It's golf radio. You're on the air with Shane Powers. We're taking requests. Get that one. What's your name?

Hello. Okay, well, since you want to be Mr. fucking secret agent, what song you want to hear? The one about me. This skit seems to be inspired by the introduction to Janet Jackson's 1997 song, Got Till It's Gone, featuring Q-Tip. What's the next song?

The one about me. In both tracks, we hear a male voice say they want to hear a song about them. In the background of sometimes, we also hear Tyler singing, sometimes I sit in my room and think about us. This helps establish the skit as a kind of daydream, something Tyler talked about in conversation with Gerard Carmichael.

How long did you make it, like initially? And why... I wanted it super short, just as one of those just interludes that I just keep on in the replay. But that's like the music that plays in my head, just daydreaming, just those chords. It's just, like in my dream world, it's chords that just play in the air, like 24-7, like on my dream planet. That's what it is.

But that's literally just my daydream, just music, just notes. And that's what it is. No drums, just melody. And then that's what goes to see it again. And then Shane Powers voice. Indeed, the daydream of Sometimes extends directly into the album's next track, the subject of the rest of our episode today. See You Again. See You Again is written and produced by Tyler the creator and features guest vocals by Callie Uchis.

As we just heard, the song is about a person that lives in Tyler's dreams and fantasies. Given the sometime skit directly preceding it, it's heavily implied this person is a man. But before we get too deep into our lyrical analysis, let's take a moment to see what's going musically. The majority of CU again is constructed on a single chord progression, F-sharp major 7, D-sharp minor 7, G-sharp minor 7, and G-natural 7, and now the entire progression. The first three chords of this progression are relatively straightforward, that is, they stay within the rules of traditional harmony. Each of these three chords is found within the song's key signature of F-sharp minor. So while very beautiful, it's pretty standard harmonically speaking.

But when we get to the fourth and final chord, G-natural-7, we find Tyler up to his old tricks. This chord doesn't belong in the song's key signature. Now this is where all that time we spent on music theory last episode is going to pay dividends. From that episode, you know that a chord not found in the song's key signature is called a borrowed chord, because we're quote-unquote borrowing a chord from another key. You also know that to use such chords effectively, a composer must employ any number of compositional techniques that we liken to sleight of hand, techniques that trick our ears into accepting these foreign chords outside the song's key signature. We detailed two such techniques, the use of common tones and the use of stepwise motion.

Common tones refers to notes two chords share or have in common. This gives our ears something familiar to latch onto when transitioning to a foreign or borrowed cord. Stepwise motion occurs when a note moves to the closest neighboring note next to it. This helps to smooth out a transition to a borrowed cord because the notes are so close to one another that our ears accept it. Remember, we compared this to raising a volume knob to 8 to 9, something you're not likely to notice, rather than 8 to 20, something you'll definitely notice and find jarring. So wouldn't you know, Tyler employs these same exact techniques, both common tones and stepwise motion, when transitioning to the borrowed chord on CU again.

The progression's third chord, the one just before the borrowed chord, is a G-sharp minor 7, which contains the notes G-sharp, B, D-sharp, and F-sharp. The borrowed chord that follows is comprised of a G-natural, B, D-natural, and F-natural. The second note in both of these chords is a B natural. This is the common tone shared between them. The remaining three notes in both chords use stepwise motion.

Specifically, they use descending stepwise motion because they all move down one note. The G sharp moves one note down to a G natural. The D sharp moves to a D natural. And the F sharp moves down one half step to a F natural. The borrowed chord is the fourth and final chord in the progression. The progression then returns to the first chord and begins again. What's interesting is that this move back to the first chord from the borrowed chord employs stepwise motion.

Literally every note descends down one half step. Keeping that in mind, let me play you the third, fourth, and first chord of CU Again's main chord progression. Now let's compare that to the three-cord progression played throughout the previous song where this flower blooms. Sounds pretty similar, right? Well, it doesn't end there. Let's hear the progression found on Flower Boy's opening track Forward. Now let's hear them all back to back.

See you again, where this flower blooms and forward. Pretty similar, right? They all use a borrowed chord, and they all use common tones in descending stepwise motion to transition in and out of that borrowed chord. To make this even more clear, let me isolate and play just the first note of each chord in these three progressions. See you again?

Where this flower blooms and forward. The root note movement and all three progressions are identical. They all use what's called chromaticism, which is essentially a chain of stepwise motion moving in one direction. So some of you might be thinking, well, that's kind of cheap. Tyler essentially used the same chord progression

on all three songs we've discussed so far on Flower Boy. Is he just a one-trick pony, rewriting the same song over and over again? Well, of course not. What Tyler is doing, whether he realizes it or not, is akin to what we refer to in classical music composition as Motivic development. In short, Motivic development occurs when a composer takes one small musical idea and alters it and reiterates that one idea in various ways throughout a piece of music.

I think it'll make the most sense if you just hear it in action, so let's quickly dissect perhaps the most famous use of Motivic Development and Music History, Beethoven's Symphony No. 5 in C minor. In one of the most recognizable opening moments in music history, Beethoven establishes the motif or small musical idea that will be used throughout the entire symphony. The motive contains four total notes. The first three notes are short, and the fourth note is long. Remember that. Short, short, short, short, long.

As the piece continues, Beethoven takes this simple motive and plays it a step lower. So basically, the most famous individual, Introduction in classical music history is one simple idea, repeated verbatim, just played a little lower. As the piece continues, Beethoven manipulates this motive over and over and over again. Okay, let's quickly break this down. After the dramatic intro we just covered, Beethoven simply takes the established short, short, short, long motive, and sequences it up higher. And higher, and higher. All of these use the short, short, short, short, long motive.

When he's done with that phrase, he just repeats it. Same short, short, short, short, long motive, just sequenced a little higher, and higher, and higher still. And now let's hear the entire sequence. Again, it's just the same motive, just repeated, manipulated, and stacked on top of each other, creating tension and momentum while keeping the piece thematically cohesive and interconnected. hear those opening moments again, listening for the established short, short, short, long motive and how that motive is manipulated over and over again.

This is motivic development at its finest, variations on a single idea throughout a composition. And by the way, these opening moments of Symphony No. 5 are just the tip of the iceberg. Beethoven manipulates this simple motive throughout all four movements of this 35-minute symphony. That simple, short, short, short, short, long motive becomes the glue of the glue. for the entire piece. And this is the point of motific development. It gives a piece of music its distinct identity. It gives it unity. It also gives our ears something small but familiar to latch onto. Bringing this back to Flower Boy, the near identical chord progressions employed on its first three songs are very much akin to this technique of motific development.

Even though Tyler uses similar progression in three songs, there's enough variation in placement, rhythm, tempo, instrumentation, melody, dynamics, and texture to conceal the similarities, allowing them to help unify and contribute to what is one of Flower Boy's greatest strengths, a consistent, recognizable, and unified sonic identity without the feeling that every song sounds the same. We'll keep all this in mind as we continue our analysis of See You Again. But first, a word from our sponsors. Welcome back to Dissect. Before the break, we detailed the four-core progression used throughout See You Again. We first hear this progression played by a solo piano as Tyler enters singing in a high-pitched falsetto.

Tyler makes clear from the beginning that the subject of See You Again exists only in his imagination. He says, You live in my dream state, relocate my fantasy, I stay in reality, you live in my dream state. He continues a metaphor, anytime I count sheep, that's the only time we make up. You exist behind my eyelids. Now I don't want to wake up. It's an endearing take on the idea of one's dream girl or dream boy, the ideal partner that's perfectly tailored to your precise specifications, everything you find attractive and desirable in a lover. Because this person only exists in Tyler's dreams, he wishes against waking up so that they can spend more time together. It's an at once very sweet but very melancholic sentiment, a manifestation of the loneliness Tyler feels in his waking life.

Coming off the heels of the interludes sometimes, and the male voice wanting to hear a song about him, this introduction seems to imply that Tyler is dreaming about a man. We also note that Tyler's Twitter byline was for a period of time, quote, He exists behind my eyelids, a line taken from the intro of See You Again, but with an added male pronoun. As See You Again continues, Tyler begins adding to his compositional arrangement. What began as a solo piano with minimal guitar accents, becomes embellished with a brassy synthesizer and deep subsynth bass.

When Calli Uchus enters to perform the song's hook, we'll hear the introduction of a beautiful descending string line which rounds out this lush orchestral-minded arrangement. Lyrically, Tyler extends the dream metaphor established in the introduction while Callie Uchis enters with a timeless romantic hook. I wonder if you look both ways when you cross my mind. I said, I said, I'm sicker, sicker, sicker, sicker, chasing.

You're the one that's always running through my daydream. I can only see your face when I close my eyes. Can I get a kiss? And can you make it last forever? I said I'm about to go to war. And I don't know if I can see you again. Tyler plays up the fact that his eyes are closed when seeing this dream person, saying,

20-20 vision, Cupid hit me with precision. In classical mythology, Cupid is the god of desire, love, attraction, and affection. Cupid is often portrayed with a blindfold on, which ties nicely into Tyler's ongoing depiction of his eyes being closed, and the notion that his vision of his fantasy lover is pristine or 20-20 when he's dreaming. By saying Cupid hit him with precision, Tyler is alluding to Cupid's golden arrow. A person struck with Cupid's golden arrow is filled with uncontrollable desire. Tyler continues, wonder if you look both ways when you cross my mind.

This is of course a play off the saying, Look both ways before you cross the street, a cautionary phrase we tell children to keep them safe when crossing the street. Likewise, Tyler hopes this person uses caution because his feelings for them leaves him extremely vulnerable. Given that this person is imaginary, this is a kind of dream logic, as Tyler is technically talking to and warning himself. As noted, the song's hook is performed by Callie Uchus. She sings a simple but timeless series of lines. Can I get a kiss, and can you make it last forever? I'm about to go to war, and I don't know if I'm going to see you again. Like Tyler's lines,

it's a beautifully romantic sentiment touched with the tinge of tragedy. Because waking up is inevitable, and because we can't control our dreams, Tyler never knows if he'll see his imaginary lover again. He frames us like a soldier going to war and saying goodbye to their loved one, not knowing if they'll ever return. That's what I'm supposed to literally be about just a dream person. Like, you literally, I only see you in my sleep and in my dreams when I could never find you. I've been, where are you? And that's what all those things are. And can I get a kiss?

Can you make a last, whatever I'm about to go to war? I don't know if so you could go to war, that's just I'm going to wake up. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm going to wake up and go to the real world. Yeah. That's literally what that is. And then I was like, this needs to go somewhere. So I was like, I'm going to just have an eight bar rap verse really short,

but I just wanted to fucking punch. And that's when it switches. Yeah, it's switch it. Okay, okay. You hear me in the background like, I'm going to switch it up. Okay, boom, boom. I said, okay, okay, okay, doke, doke it. My infratuation entrelating to another form of what you call it.

Oh, yeah, oh yeah, oh yeah. As Tyler described for I stopped the chasing like an alcoholic. You don't understand me what the fuck do you mean. As Tyler described and as we just heard, CU again undergoes a sudden transformation following the first iteration of the song's hook. Most obvious is the entrance of drums, complete with aggressive 808 bass hits. On top of this, we have layered a synth line and laser-like effects. Listen closely to the synth line and see if you can recognize anything familiar.

Did you hear it? Let's listen again to this synth line, but we'll isolate it this time around. Let's hear this line on piano. I'll speed it up a bit for time's sake. Now let's drop this line an octave, which means we play the same notes but just in a lower register. Recognize it now? Yep, it's a chromatic three-note descending line, just like we heard in the chord progressions found on forward, where this flower blooms, and see you again.

Do you remember what this technique is called? You guessed it, Motivic developed. Here on See You Again, Tyler transitions to a totally different and contrasting musical texture, but uses a chromatic descending synth line to help keep things unified and cohesive. With all that in mind, let's take another listen to this contrasting section, appreciating the details with which Tyler is composing. I said, okay, okay, okay, dokey, my infatuation. It's relating to another form of what you call it.

Stop the chasing like an alcoholic. You don't understand me, what the fuck do you mean? Tyler begins his only rapiers, my infatuation is translating to another form of what you call it, love. Tyler begins his only rap verse, my infatuation is translating to another form of what you call it, love. It's a clever way to express the transition or evolution from the initial infatuation stage of a relationship to falling in love. But Tyler is quick to remind us that he's yet to actually meet this person and expresses that he's growing impatient in his search for them. He says, I ain't met you, I've been looking, stop the waitin' for I stop the chase in like an alcoholic. It seems Tyler is worried that if he doesn't

find this person soon, his infatuation will evolve into an uncontrollable addiction. He continues the verse preserving the album's ongoing flower imagery, describing this fantasy person's rosy cheeks and brown eyes. He says, it's them rose-tinted cheeks, it's them dirt-colored eyes. Interestingly, Tyler released a song entitled Rose Tinted Cheeks, a year after Flower Boy debuted. Labelled a rough draft or demo, Tyler explained on Twitter that the track was meant to be included on Flower Boy. The song is a love letter to who we can only assume is the same person Tyler is dreaming about on See You Again. While the significance of rose tinted cheeks will reveal itself on our analysis of the album's penultimate track, Glitter, for now what we should take away is that Tyler seems to be dreaming about a specific person.

While this person only exists in Tyler's imagination at the moment, the reason for this could be he doesn't yet have the confidence or courage to tell this person how he feels in real life. So rather than a romantic relationship materializing in real life, it exists only in his head. Tyler concludes his verse, Sugar, Honey, Ice, Tea, Bubble B on the scene. This line contains a few possible references. The phrase sugar honey iced tea began as a euphemism, a clever way to disguise a curse word as the first letter in each word spell S-H-I-T. The phrase has since evolved to be used as a name of endearment for a loved one and has been used in a number of songs in the past few decades. Written and produced by Pharrell in the Neptunes, we know this 2003 track Sugar Honey Ice Tea by Kellis is a favorite of Tyler's as he tweeted about it by name back in August of 2012.

There's also the 2015 song Sugar Honey Ice Tea by Charlie Wilson, a soul singer Tyler collaborated with on his last album, Cherry Bomb. The oldest musical reference to Sugar Honey Ice Tea I could find is the Goodfellas' 1996 single of the same name. Now there's something very interesting about this particular song. See if you can hear it. Let's now isolate the bass line of this track. And now I'll reduce this baseline.

That is, I'll take out the rhythm and play a truncated version of the notes it plays. plays. Sound familiar? Yep, the chord progression used throughout sugar honey iced tea by the Goodfellas uses the same three-note chromatic descending line we found in Forward, Where This Flower Blooms, and See You Again. Now I have no evidence that this was intentional, nor do I know if Tyler is even aware of this song's existence. But regardless, this fine is too interesting not to point out, even if it's just a random coincidence. Getting back to the closing lines of see you again, Tyler uses the phrase sugar honey iced tea as a term of endearment, but he also uses honey to tie back to the flower imagery as he follows saying bumblebee on the scene.

We heard a reference to bees in the previous song Where This Flower Blooms, and of course it plays a prominent imagistic role on Flower Boy's album art. The relationship between bees and flowers is reciprocal. Flowers provide bees with nectar and pollen, which bees collect to feed their colonies. Bees, on the other hand, provide flowers with the meat, to reproduce, by spreading pollen from flower to flower and a process called pollination. Without pollination, plants cannot create seeds and thus cannot procreate. With Tyler comparing his fantasized lover to a rose in the previous line, it makes sense that he then compares himself to a bee. The two need each other like bees need flowers and vice versa. As See You again continues, Tyler returns to the start, repeating the song's pre-chorus, which is again followed by the

hook performed by Callie Uchis. But whereas the first iteration of the song's hook was drumless, Tyler lays the drumbeat that entered on the contrasting rap verse beneath Callie's vocals. Remember, when we first heard these drums, they seemingly came out of nowhere, and combined with Tyler's aggressive rapping, the song took a complete 180 from its more lush orchestral opening minute. Adding the drums here to the hook helps to unify these two contrasting sections, yet another technique Tyler employs to create cohesion between two seemingly unrelated parts. Tyler did a similar move on the opening track forward. The first half of the song was built around that sampled drum loop.

Then midway through the song, the drums drop out and a brassy synth takes over. I know what I'm driving is usually paid and fool and my ego and possessions will not let me be one because I got a mansion. My mansion got some rooms and rooms got some windows and my windows got some views and views. Like the entrance of aggressive drums and Tyler's rapping on See You Again, the entrance of this synth on Forward is entirely unexpected and contrast with what had been established up until that point. But just like See You Again, Tyler brings the drumbeat back,

this time beneath the synth, not the guitar chords the drums were first paired with. By doing so, Tyler glues together two contrasting sections, creating unity and cohesion between what seemed like two unrelated parts. Just like the three-note chromatic descending line we discussed at length today, Tyler employing the same or similar compositional techniques in multiple songs helps to create continuity not only in each individual song, but continuity across the entire album. It's what makes Flower Boy feel less like a collection of unrelated songs

and more like a beautiful world you step into. Conclusions In both forward and where this flower blooms, Tyler presents a dichotomy between material goods like sports cars, and natural elements like flowers, trees, and water. We took the clues laid out and forward to interpret this dichotomy as symbolizing Tyler's battle between the superficiality of his materialistic intuitions

and is searched for things that are truly meaningful and that will allow him to continue growing, continue blooming. See You Again marks the first song on Flower Boy that addresses just one side of this dichotomy, the first song that does not mention material goods at all and instead focuses solely on the natural, the meaningful. See You Again makes clear that for Tyler, love is included amongst the meaningful. He describes his lover using natural descriptors, likening them to a rose and himself to a

bee. It's a beautiful song, both musically and lyrically, an endearing, heartfelt ode to Tyler's idealized lover. But despite its beauty, at its heart, See You Again is bittersweet at best and tragic at worst. That's because Tyler's love interest only exists in his dreams, a manifestation of the chronic loneliness he feels in his waking life. Indeed, Tyler describes living in the real world as going to war and wishes he can stay asleep forever.

That's lonely at best and suicidal at worst. We might start to wonder why Tyler, a successful, wealthy, famous musician, is lonely to the point of it manifesting in his dreams. We also remember that in both forward and where this flower blooms, Tyler eludes to hiding something. In forward, he was hiding in the woods amongst flowers. And where this flower blooms, he was hiding something in his trunk. We may start to suspect his loneliness and his hiding something are interrelated, that the revelation of his secret just might unlock the key to his lonely heart. As Flower Boy continues, the daydream that is, See You Again, ends,

and we find Tyler back in the real world. What follows is a complete 180 from the heartfelt and vulnerable sentiments of see you again. The real world finds Tyler's all sports car, all superficial and materialistic, a protective shield of machismo, ego, and chaos. Of that boy, who him is, him that knit, I swear, Standout guy, him don't need no chair, well what the fuck him at? Because, nigga, I'm right here.

I don't shop at them all, y'all, y'all. Just dumb motherfucker, I'm a goddamn artist. You can give me some. Of course, we're talking about who dat boy. A raucous high-octing track will examine note by note, line by line. Next time on Dysect. Dysect is written and produced by me.

Original theme music by Beirocratic. Song Recreations by Andrew Atwood. If you enjoy Dysect, please help me spread the word by telling a friend, family member, or co-worker about the show. Follow Dysect Pod playlist on Spotify, where you can find music playlist curated by yours truly. Also, be sure to say hi at Dysect Podcast on Twitter and Instagram, and join our newsletter at Dysectpodcast.com. Okay, thanks, everyone. I'll talk to you next week.