As It Was

Columbia, under Sony. The melody smiles. The house in the lyric is empty.

Columbia put it out. Sony owns Columbia. People danced to a song about a life that used to have someone in it. The dancing is why it traveled. The sentence is that it is not that way anymore.

A house can hear the loss. It should not learn from the shrug.

The eight

Industry
7/10
Pop written with a light hand, and the hand is trained.
Household
4/10
A father and a child flicker in it. They do not sit down.
Piety
3/10
Nostalgia, not reverence.
Courage
4/10
He admits the change. He does not resist it.
Republic
3/10
A private drift. No neighbor.
Temperance
5/10
Sad, and not a binge.
Truth
6/10
He does not pretend the old room is still there.
Stewardship
4/10
A mood. Not a way back.

Live historicallyIf it is on while people are actually home, ask what 'as it was' refers to in this house, and whether anyone is going back to it.

Song · Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, Pandora, and YouTube Music · 1998

Roc-A-Fella · Universal Music Group

Hard Knock Life

Roc-A-Fella, under Universal. The sample is a child's hardship. The verse is his own.

Roc-A-Fella released it, through Def Jam, inside Universal. Annie's orphans and a man from the Marcy Houses share a chorus, and the sharing is uneasy. The poverty is real. The use of a child's song to crown a victory is the part to weigh.

Hear the knock. Do not applaud the crown automatically.

The eight

Industry
7/10
The hook is borrowed and welded shut. That is a builder's job.
Household
4/10
No father in the picture. The lack is the subject.
Piety
2/10
The struggle is exhibited.
Courage
5/10
He names the project and does not ask to be pitied.
Republic
5/10
A public poverty, told as a credential.
Temperance
3/10
The boast rides on the hardship.
Truth
6/10
The hard knock is not invented.
Stewardship
4/10
A report. Not a childhood to hand on.

Live historicallyIf a teenager is singing the hook, ask whose childhood it was, and what they are being asked to want.