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“More Than This” – Roxy Music
(Words/music: Bryan Ferry, available on Avalon, Virgin Records 1982)

“More Than This” will always remind me of the karaoke scene from Lost in Translation.  At the end of the sequence, a subdued, slightly uncomfortable Bill Murray sings the song in a mix of deadpan and exhaustion.  Coming from his character, Murray makes the song sound reluctant, in particular when he delivers the chorus while looking at Scarlett Johansson.  In the context of the movie, “More Than This” underscores the fleeting nature of their connection – a pair of lonely insomniacs who met halfway across the world and grow close enough only to make their separation uncomfortable.  Even in his overtly fatigued voice, Murray’s character recognizes his situation yet falls short of embracing the uncertainty.

Buoyed by beautifully shimmering synthesizers, Bryan Ferry sings “More Than This” sweetly, contrasting with the acceptance of nothingness.  It creates a sense of cognitive dissonance – a beautifully sung and arranged song that laments the impermanent nature of the human existence.  The common interpretation (at least that I’ve come across) reads “More Than This” as a sort of “live in the moment” song, but lyrically it seems more focused on endings and nothingness than opportunity.  This makes me think that its Ferry’s vocal performance (and the arrangement) that turn the song from nothingness to carpe diem.    It raises a couple questions.  First, can the meaning of the song bend based on the performance.  This seems obvious with sarcasm and irony factored in, and even with “stripped down” arrangements that often make a sad song seem a little darker, but can a song shift significantly just from a single vocal performance?  If so, doesn’t that render the music (and/or personality) more important than the words in a “it’s not what you say but how it’s said” sense?  I’m even willing to suspend this thought for the sake of covers and re-interpretations; however, in a case like this where Ferry sings his words differently than they’re read off the page, I’m torn by it.  Ferry knows the motivation behind the song better than anyone else, so I’m inclined to think that his bittersweet interpretation brings out a silver lining I can’t see in the lyrics alone.

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