Hello, folks! This time I’m going to analyze one of my favorite songs written by Stewart and it was once again THE MAN HIMSELF who asked me (through Giovanni) to do it (I can’t believe it! My dream is going on!). Darkness is that kind of sobering song in which anybody could find a piece of his/her true self. Maybe there is Stewart’s true self too, that’s why it is the most mysterious of his songs.
Doubts, fears and contradictions pervade the lyrics but such a feature gives the song communicative vigor rather than unintelligibility. Walt Whitman once said: “Do I contradict myself? Well… I contradict myself, I am large, I contain multitudes”. I totally agree. Stewart is large rather than confused.
The protagonist (should I call him Stewart?) is probably in a dark room. Surprisingly, he’s not lying on a bed but he’s sitting in his seat, an image which evokes a man who is thinking intensely about something: in this position he can dream up schemes. Is he dreaming of lofty ideals? Maybe.
Is he accurately planning ways of deceiving others? I suspect so. I think it’s not because he takes pleasure in conspiring, but because he must find the way to survive in the world outside. It’s like a jungle out there! Everything seems perfect till he comes into contact with this world, till he gets to his feet, realizing that life was easy when it was boring, when there were not so many responsibilities to take, so many compromises to accept, so many bitter pills to swallow. In this line there’s probably an autobiographical reference to the showbiz rules that sometimes are hard to follow.
The use of the modal “could” rather than “can” introduces the shades of grey of the second verse, whose meaning is particularly tricky to fathom. Darkness prevents our man from making a mark: his actions seem to have no effect on others, he could be replaced by any bonehead, nobody would notice that! The adversative connector “but” introduces a metaphorical line which is a bit of a contradiction with what said above: darkness lets you see things as perfect, flawless, but can also prevent you from finding the solution to a problem that’s already solved, the key to a door that’s wide open.
The line which follows seems to be another reference to the not easy life of a VIP who has constantly to worry about his appearance. He feels he could hide in the dark, he could be someone that nobody knows. Everything looks the same in the dark. Darkness is democratic.
The fourth and last verse is identical to the first one, a stylistic device which emphasizes that nothing has changed. The man is still alone, in his seat, in the dark, with his fear to try.