Tell me now, what more do you need?
Take me to Walter Reed tonight
Baby I've lost the will for fighting
Over everything
And there's a few things I gotta say
Make no mistake, I'm mad
'Cause every good thing I had
Abandoned me
A sad and lonesome me
I'm the walking wounded
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This song contains an extended metaphor that compares a dejected man frustrated by fighting with his partner to a wounded soldier. "Walter Reed" is an allusion to the Walter Reed Army Medical Center, which is part of a health care system operated by the U.S. Army. A broken heart rarely requires hospitalization, so Michael's request to be taken to Walter Reed is hyperbolic.
As the title of the song encompasses the metaphor and the comparison is the foundation of the lyrics, the song can be considered a conceit.
The verb "abandon" generally has a person as its subject: people abandon places ("to abandon a sinking ship," "to abandon a decrepit building"), other people ("to abandon one's child"), things and thoughts ("to abandon a car," "to abandon the idea of writing a novel"), and themselves to feelings ("to abandon oneself to grief"). Things rarely abandon people, so "every good thing I had abandoned me" can be considered an example of personification. It is unlikely that each and every good thing Michael has ever had "abandoned" him, so this is another example of hyperbole.
These lyrics contain two examples of alliteration: "Make no mistake, I'm mad" and "walking wounded."
dictionary.com: metaphor dejected allusion hyperbole personification explicit alliteration
Download "Fresh Feeling" here.
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You don't have a clue,
what it is like
to be next to you.
I'm here to tell you,
that it is good,
that it is true.
Birds singing a song,
old paint is peeling,
this is that fresh
that fresh feeling.
Words can't be that strong,
my heart is reeling,
this is that fresh,
that fresh feeling.
Try, try to forget,
what's in the past,
tomorrow is here.
Love, orange sky above,
lighting your way
there's nothing to fear.
Some people are good,
babe in the hood,
so pure and so free.
I'd make a safe bet,
you're gonna get,
whatever you need.
That fresh feeling.
This is that fresh feeling.
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One interpretation of these lyrics is that the singer is encouraging someone to forget the past and focus on the "fresh feeling" of the present and the promise of the future. He uses imagery that can suggest a feeling of happiness: "birds singing a song." The image of old paint peeling can bring to mind the idea of walls needing a fresh coat of paint or a snake shedding its skin.
The line "I'm here to tell you that it is good, that it is true" contains an example of anaphora.
The phrase "fresh feeling" is alliterative.
The idiom "babe in the woods" refers to an innocent, naive person; it originated in a 16th century ballad about two children who get lost in a forest. The phrase "babe in the 'hood" is a pun that modernizes the concept by replacing "woods" with a shortened form of "neighborhood" and furthers the sentiment that some people are good by virtue of being pure.
- imagery: the use of descriptive language to create mental pictures or represent ideas
- anaphora: the repetition of a word or set of words at the beginning of successive phrases, clauses, or sentences
- alliteration: the repetition of the same sounds at the beginning of words in a group
- idiom: a term whose figurative meaning does not reflect the literal definitions of the words it contains
- pun: a play on words suggesting different meanings of either the same word or phrase or words or phrases that sound alike
