Welcome to our first weekly "Music Monday" post where I talk about a song I'm listening to.
In anticipation of the Full Moon in Pisces tonight, we'll start with a piece from one of our favorite Pisces Fishes of all times: Rihanna.
When me and my roommate moved into our new high-rise apartment in Hell’s Kitchen we played “Same Ol’ Mistakes” by Rihanna incessantly, obsessively, over and over again. The song is a cover, not an original, and while beautiful and ominous, the song is about Saturn returning.
Astronomically speaking Saturn takes 29.5 years to complete a full orbit around the Sun. In Astrology, Saturn is the planet representing responsibility, hard work, and determination, all traits associated with Capricorn. This particular part of the zodiac is affiliated with competence, knowledge, and power.
Saturn as a planet in Astrology has a lot to do with learning lessons about life. Many believe that Saturn's return is connected to our past life. It is said that one must overcome and learn some big lesson, usually through the accumulation of long hard work, determination, and discipline, in order to ascend into the higher levels of consciousness. There’s a debt that’s owed somewhere cosmically speaking. Can you recognize what it is? Do you know what to do and how to pay it? Are you strong enough to pay it?
This hefty lesson will continue to repeat itself throughout your life until you learn the lesson you're supposed to. Once you pay your karmic debt, change your ways moving forward, your soul is settled and can finally rest in peace. If I'm totally honest, most people never overcome their Saturn return. Why? Because it is just too darn difficult and they usually lack discipline.
The first verse of this masterpiece is about being faced with a conflict where you know what the right choice is, but you just can’t help but consistently make the wrong decision: “I can just hear them now, ‘how could they let us down?’”
This could be for a myriad or reasons with a long list of excuses. This is where we all need to exercise a little more Cap/Sat (Capricorn/Saturn) energy and get a little more self-control.
Saturn's return happens when you realize that you find yourself in the situation that keeps repeating itself over and over again. And it keeps repeating itself because you’re too lazy to exercise discipline.
For instance: a person complains that they can't lose weight but can't find the willpower to make healthier lifestyle choices. They might be overwhelmed from life and this is their coping strategy. The problem escalates to become a health problem.
Deep down this person knows what the solution is (diet and exercise) but the immature and undeveloped part of them just wants to eat pizza and watch TV. The person doesn't want to go to the gym or make healthier nutritional decisions because it requires too much responsibility, hard work, and determination (Cap/Sat traits).
It's way easier to just be lazy and eat pizza, so what do you think they're going to do? We already know what they're going to do. They already know what they're going to do. Shiiiiiiiiit, Rihanna already knows what's going to happen bc the final lyric of the first verse is sung with a resigned sigh: "going with what I always longed for."
Then the chorus presents itself with 2 conflicting voices battling for dominance. The immature child has the lead vocals, starting off with a jovial burst, probably from the short-lived thrill of eating another slice of pizza: "FEEL LIKE A BRAND NEW PERSON!" And the Cap/Sat energy is blended into the background, harmonizing with the lead, almost as an afterthought: "but you make the same mistakes," they sing all echo-y in the background.
Immature brat hears this and responds with: "WELL I DON'T CARE I'M IN LOVE!" Meanwhile, the background vocals become a whisper, constantly repeating and reminding the protagonist that they make the same mistakes, that they need to stop before it’s too late, and that they don’t have what it takes.
The first post-chorus is gorgeous when Rihanna sings: "AND I STILL DON'T KNOW WHAT'S HAPPENING! I STILL DON'T KNOW!" - because that's what most people are like with their Saturn Return: they’re ignorant of their own poor decision making.
They find themselves overweight and depressed after pizza because they’re still chasing the thrill of a short-lived high. The second verse is more or less the same as the first. The songwriter is being told several different things from those around them and they’re still finding ways to justify the wrong decision. This verse is a little more confrontational and argumentative. The final couplet finishes with Rihanna already knowing that she’s going to make the wrong choice, again.
The bridge is my favorite part. The bridge is hypnotic and puts me into a dream-like state where time feels it has slowed. And you can't just skip to the bridge either. You have to go on the journey and build your way there. They don’t call it a bridge for nothing, kiddo!
You could fast-forward to it, but it’s just not the same without the lead-in verses. Think about that: the journey of the song makes any bridge in a song more fulfilling, which in and of itself is a poetic play on instant vs. delayed gratification that the song centers around thematically. Once the bridge is over, it slingshots us straight back into the song with the final chorus.
And what a beautiful final round of choruses where the childish voice gets louder while the background vocals are virtually an aural after-thought. Rih obtains a sense of finality in the closing lyrics: “STOP THINKING YOU'RE THE ONLY OPTION!”
And so we listen to this masterpiece. Over and over again. While looking out our windows at the Manhattan View. Contemplating all the hard work, determination, and discipline it took to get here. Feeling blessed and highly favored. I ache to share it with you as I patiently await Saturn’s return..
This song is neither happy nor sad, the song simply just is: