"3 Hour Drive--A Color Show" by Alicia Keys ft. SiR, Sunday, July 2021

Netflix documentary series Song Exploder takes a look at the writing process Alicia Keys and co-writer Samphra, a London-based electronic Soul/R&B singer, took when writing this emotional ballad. Musically, Keys takes a minimal approach: electronic beats and subdued piano chords. But like many of the songs of July, in the minimalism of this track, the meaning lives in the lyrics. The little details, too, like the sounds of water, the electric guitar at the end, give this track a quiet emotion. The song is inspired by motherhood. Singer Samphra's mother had recently died, and Keys thought about her children and that one day she too would die, leaving her sons to grieve her death, just as Samphra was grieving his mother's death. The four-minute track captures a moment of humanity--being alone with your thoughts, reflecting on something that's happened or going to happen. It talks about the moments you have enough time to let your mind wander where it needs to go. 

I'M HEADIN' NOWHERE. It had turned to pure hell out on the Interstate. The Sunday-after-Thanksgiving traffic made the four-hour trip between Mern and Chattanooga to a good five-and-a-half hours. By the time Allan hit Knoxville, the eight lanes of traffic, minus one for construction, were like the seven layers of hell. He shouldn't have stayed the three extra hours. The cold rain that began falling made tail lights brighter as the other drivers rode their brakes. "If only I can get back in two and a half hours, I can start my Classics term paper," was the stressful motif playing on a loop in Allan's brain. Listening to Copeland's Eat, Sleep, Repeat had a simultaneous calming and panicking effect as the lyrical themes are searching for love and meaning and learning to be content with a state of lacking. Allan's thoughts of which lines from Homer, Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides he would need to show that that Donnie Darko is actually a Greek tragedy in disguise, intermixed with Aaron Marsh's voice and the memories of a home life that was becoming more alien to him and a social life that he wished for, yet it seemed to hard to obtain. He thought about his roommate Mike was talking to that girl. He didn't have much time for the Allen or Jim. And Jim, though he was dating Alicia, always seemed to have time on the weekends. He thought about Lena and how she had been so kind to him. She didn't seem attached until he tried to make a move. Then she was always busy with some other guy. Traffic was backed up on I-75, too. It would be a long night of writing.

KEEP TRAVELIN' BY, LOOKIN' FOR LOVE. Long train rides were a time to process the weekends for Josh. As the summer turned into fall, traveling to Seoul every weekend had become an expensive lifestyle. But new relationships took effort, and it was a lack of effort that made his last relationship unravel. But Min Jin was a polar opposite to Sung Jae. Min Jun had introduced Josh to a lot of friends, most of whom were also gay. Min Jun had his own place and Josh could visit any weekend he liked. And Min Jun was a year younger than Josh, and Min Jun’s dream was to leave Korea someday. Josh thought about their time together riding back on the train every weekend, switching from the two hour  fast train to the four hour slow train mid-October to save money. Josh thought of the blue light in the room as Min Jun fell asleep to an episode of Will and Grace, a show he had never allowed himself to enjoy. It’s like the same structure as Seinfeld, but with gay characters. He thought about the time in September they both had gotten food poisoning from some undercooked chicken and how Min Jun had taken care of him, even coming into the bathroom as Josh was throwing up.  He thought about how Min Jun was teaching him virtues he had never learned in Sabbath School of self-acceptance and self-care. As the nights got longer and the sun started setting in a different northern city every week, eventually departing in darkness, Josh was falling in love.

Original:

A Color Show (Live) recording:

Read “3 Hour Drive” by Alicia Keys on Genius

Read “Three Hour Drive - A COLORS SHOW” by Alicia Keys on Genius