Drops of Jupiter released by American rock band Train in 2001 has a lot of relevance to journeys spread throughout the lyrics. Although with no real direct points to what kind of a journey it relates to, as certain parts of the song can symbolise a journey of the emotional, physical, imaginative or even spiritual sense. This is the type of song which leaves you with a lot of room for personal interpretation. There are many theories to what this song is about, from a woman leaving a man for some ‘ soul searching’ thinking there was more out there for her and realizing that it wasn’t all she thought it would be.
To life after death, with the view that the ones we loved are still ‘ here’ but just in different ways then before, this being the idea that people never really leave. But it varies from person to person when it comes down to how you choose interpret it. The way I interpret it is that it follows an emotional journey experienced by a women. This is shown by man speaking about a woman who left him to set out on a journey, this journey being the voyage of self-discovery – not necessarily by travelling to distant lands.
Then whilst she was doing this, she got caught up in the pretentious trends of the day changing to a completely different person then realizing that it wasn’t all she thought it would be. The representation of journeys is displayed in this song several times, so I have chosen to analyse a few small verses to help display this. The song begins with the verse ‘ Now that she’s back in the atmosphere, with drops of Jupiter in her hair’ the use of ‘ back in the atmosphere’ shows that she has obviously been elsewhere, not necessarily another place but perhaps trying to discover something in her thoughts. Then the line ‘ with drops of Jupiter in her hair’ added onto this it shows that wherever she has been or has encountered it has affected her, leaving traces. In the next verse ‘ Now that she’s back fro that soul vacation, tracing her way through the constellation’ the use of the words ‘ soul vacation’ are to represent the fact that she is on a emotional journey to find herself, whilst the use of the words ‘ tracing her way through the constellation’ is to show the contrast between her usual life or mind frame and the one she is currently experiencing, this being the contrast between earth and space, showing that it’s almost as if she’s in a whole other world. A few lines down it then goes on to two verses being ‘ She acts like summer and walks like rain, reminds me that there’s a time to change’ and ‘ Since her return from her stay on the moon, she listens like spring and she talks like June’ which through these it shows that since she has returned from her journey (in other words back to her usual life) she appears to be very different, proving that the journey was a change of life one.
The song not only represents the journey she experiences but also demonstrates some of the most important factors that make up the sense of a journey, things that are quite often encountered throughout. A prime example of this is found in the verse ‘ But tell me, did you sail across the sun? Did you make it to the Milky Way to see the lights are faded and heaven is overrated? ‘ These words put together quite clearly represent the fact that you don’t always find what you set out to, or even what you expected and that there’s always the chance it the whole journey could be a disappointment. Whilst another prime example is found in the verse ‘ And tell me, did Venus you’re your mind? Was it everything you wanted to find? And then you missed me while you were looking for yourself out there. ‘ The composer of this song uses the technique of rhetorical questions to help represents the fact that no matter what you are after when you set out on these journeys and how satisfied you may be with what you find, you are always bound to encounter some sort of challenge throughout. Her challenging being the fact that she has found what she was looking for, but she then realized she misses the man.
