Musical Analysis #2 Everybody's Free (To Wear Sunscreen)

The song I’ve selected for my second analysis is called, Everybody’s Free (To Wear Sunscreen). The main reason I selected this song is because it is not a song in the traditional sense, but rather a spoken word piece which has been laid over some “vibey” music. The lyrics in this piece are powerful and I will speak more on them later, but I believe this song is an important listen for anybody, regardless of what stage of life they’re in and it is exceptionally applicable to college students. 

The song was produced by and is often credited to Baz Luhrmann of Australia. However, Luhrmann was not the only one who contributed to the song, in fact there are many different works and people that came together to make this iconic piece. The lyrics for the song derive from an advice column written by Chicago Tribune Columnist, Mary Schmich in 1997. When Luhrmann first read the column, he thought that the lyrics would go perfectly on his upcoming album, Something For Everybody, as a spoken word song. The instrumentation for the song is actually a choral rendition of Zimbabwean singer, Rozalla’s, 1991 hit song Everybody’s Free (To Feel Good). The choral version was produced by Nellee Hooper and was featured in the 1996 Baz Luhrmann directed film, Romeo and Juliet. Finally, the man who recorded the lyrics for the song was Australian born Lee Perry. 

As you can see above, it truly does take a village to create a masterpiece! In the following paragraphs, I will dive into the five musical elements of this piece which aided in turning this song into a genuine, timeless piece of art. But before I do, please have a listen to the song.

The first musical element is the most standout of all: the lyrics which were written by advice columnist, Mary Schmich. Schmich is a talented writer who writes with heart, soul, and a wisdom that is well beyond her years. The main contributor to Everybody’s Free (To Wear Sunscreen)’s success is the lyrics that have calmed the soul of many a weary human being just trying to get by in the beautiful thing we call life. The lines that I found most impactful were:

“Don't worry about the future; or worry, but know that worrying is as effective as trying to solve an algebra equation by chewing

Bubblegum. The real troubles in your life are apt to be things that

Never crossed your worried mind; the kind that blindside you at 4 PM on some idle Tuesday”

It’s true that nothing I’ve spent hours racking my brain over has really ended up being as life-ending as I thought it to be in my head. It’s such a seemingly unattainable thing to ease a worried mind, but I can only imagine the bliss that comes with just taking life as it comes. I am always working on this. 

“Don't feel guilty if you don't know what you want to do with your life. The most interesting people I know didn't know at 22 what they wanted to do with their lives. Some of the most interesting 40-year-olds I know still don't”

As I’ve gotten older, I’ve found that most people don’t know what they’re doing. Many have a very strong sense of self, but most do not have a confident grasp of their “life purpose”. I think that’s beautiful. If we all knew what we wanted to do with our lives and were satisfied with that, then there would be minimal room for growth. 

“Get to know your parents; you never know when they'll be gone for good

Be nice to your siblings; they are your best link to your past and the

People most likely to stick with you in the future”

I fear the day my parents and grandparents will pass away, although I know it’s inevitable. I try to spend as much quality time with them as possible, even though I live a thousand plus miles away from them being up here in Alaska. I always tell them how much I love them and how grateful I am to have grown up being loved by them. The same goes for my two older sisters. 

“Accept certain inalienable truths: prices will rise, politicians will philander, you too will get old-- and when you do, you'll fantasize that when you were young prices were reasonable, politicians were noble and children respected their elders”

This was written in 1997 and it is extraordinarily applicable today. 

The last thing that I will say about the lyrics is that I love that sunscreen is the “poster child” for this song. Really, the sunscreen is the least profound piece of advice given throughout the song, but it is perfect for the introduction and I absolutely love that the song ends with the line, “But trust me on the sunscreen.” Mary Schmich is a gift to the world of writing. 

The next musical element that I will focus on is the rhythm. Throughout the song, the rhythm is steadily maintained by the drums. It is very important because it helps accentuate the flow and rhythm of the spoken word lyrics. Without the percussion, the song would lack the “tap your foot to the beat” type of feeling, but with the percussion, there is a real steady pulse throughout the song. What I really enjoy is how the use of percussion changes through each “segment”. First, we have a nice steady beat played out on what most people would consider the traditional drum set. In the next section we are blessed with my favorite percussion instrument: BONGOS! I believe that the use of bongos here helps to add differentiation between the segments as well as exemplify the middle section. 

The third musical element is the chords, specifically those which are used in the choral background of the song. The choir sings in a minor key, which gives the music its somber sound. There are three parts to the chords: soprano, alto, and bass and each note of the chord is held out for four beats before shifting to the next chord. If the vocals were just spoken over the choir without any percussion or additional instruments, the song may have felt a lot more dismal rather than uplifting. I like the minor chords because they give the song an extra emotional feeling and when they are paired with the instruments in this arrangement, they come together to build a song that triggers inspiration. 

The fourth musical element is the harmonic texture of the song. The harmonic texture is fairly simple as there are not a lot of different sounds coming together to create the song.  However, the song still has a polyphonic texture. The different components are the percussion, guitar, choir, synthesizer and spoken word. The spoken word remains consistent throughout the song with a steady, poetic rhythm. The percussion holds a different rhythm than the spoken word and has some variation throughout the song when it changes from the traditional drum kit to the bongos and then back to the drum kit for the third segment. The choir comes in and out throughout the song with the chords that are each lasting for four beats. We get one strum of the guitar after the introduction and it comes back in steadily after the song goes on for two minutes. In the climax of the song (around 3 minutes) the drum kit, bongos, choir, guitar, and spoken word all come together. The last instrument which I believe is a synthesizer, frequently acts as a melodic line throughout the song. It helps give the piece an ethereal feeling. 

The fifth musical  element is the form of the song. Because the lyrics derive from an article and take on a more non-rhyming poetic form, the song does not carry a traditional pattern because there is no main repeated chorus. Instead, the lyrics are read out and the instrumentation varies throughout the song. The form is as follows:

-Introduction

-Stanza one:

-Drum kit

-Stanzas two-seven:

-Drum kit

-Choral backing

-Synthesizer (added halfway through stanza four)

-Stanza eight:

-Bongos

-Guitar

-Stanza nine:

-Bongos

-Drum kit

-Guitar

-Choral Backing (added halfway through the stanza)

-Stanzas ten-twelve:

-Guitar

-Synthesizer

-Electronic Beats

-Stanzas thirteen-fourteen:

-Drum kit

-Guitar

-Stanza fourteen

-Bongos

-Drum Kit

-Guitar

-Synthesizer (added for the final stanzas)

There doesn’t really seem to be a rhyme or reason for the shifts in background instrumentation, but the producers were wise to create a shift in the sound every few stanzas because it adds variation in the piece and keeps the attention of the listener. I believe that if this were to just be one constant sound, it would become more of a drone, than an appealing listen, especially since the lyrics are spoken and not sung. 

Unsurprisingly, when the song was first being released in 1997, big radio stations were opposed to playing the songs on the radio due to its length, so Baz Luhrmann began pitching the song to college radio stations and that’s where its success in the United States grew. In an interview with the Guardian, Luhrmann states, “...it was a breakout smash. Jay Leno even flew out the choir and Lee Perry to perform it on his show”. They recorded versions of the song for the classes of 1998 (which is linked below), 1999, 2000 and they thought they may never have to stop recording new versions because of how well received the song was!

Although this song does have a very 90’s feel to it, I don’t see that as a bad thing. It reminds me a lot of early 2000’s inspirational posters that teachers would have hung up in their classrooms and I find there’s a lot of nostalgia and comfort in motivational songs like this. When looking at this song from a modern, post-covid perspective, writer Clemmie Harvery wrote, “The advice itself is a subtle combination of the quotidian as well as the profound. It is advice that reaches out and seeps into the fabric of what it means to have a very average but happy day as well as touching upon the various profound and life-changing moments that we can experience from time to time.  It is this combination that makes it so accessible.”

However, it is not to be ignored that, although profound, this is not a song that is universally liked. For example, my partner heard me listening to this song and repulsively said, “that is not a song, that’s garbage camouflaging as music.” (We still love him though! :P) I also believe that there is a really good reason why many big radio stations rejected this song when Luhrmann was trying to increase its popularity. It dares to be different and many people don’t like that, but that’s okay, as long as they remember to wear sunscreen!

Works Cited

Harvey, Clemmie. “Why Baz Luhrmann’s ‘Everybody’s Free (To Wear Sunscreen)’ is More Apt than Ever Before.” Babystep Magazine, 23 June 2021, www.babystepmagazine.com/single-post/why-baz-luhrmann-s-everybody-s-free-to-wear-sunscreen-is-more-apt-than-ever-before.

MacNeill, Kyle. “‘I Thought It Was a Speech by Kurt Vonnegut’: Baz Luhrmann on Making Everybody’s Free (to Wear Sunscreen).” The Guardian, 7 May 2024, www.theguardian.com/culture/article/2024/may/06/baz-luhrmann-mary-schmich-everybodys-free-to-wear-sunscreen-kurt-vonnegut-slaughterhouse-five.