“Lucky Seven” - Stylistic Analysis

Today, we are celebrating 49(!) years of Chris Squire’s “Fish out of Water”, so I decided to write a little something.

STYLISTICS:

The academic discipline of Stylistics is a twentieth-century invention. It studies rhythm, narrative features and the context behind any cultural production, trying – in a way – to find its ‘hidden meaning’.

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CORPUS:

Chris Squire's “Lucky Seven”

Originally released 11/21/1975

Its Deluxe Edition (2018) is a 7-disc album

Here it is on Youtube.

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TECHNICAL INFORMATION:

Album: Fish out of Water

Track #: 4

Length: 6:54 (almost 7!)

Tempo: 7/8 (jazzy!)

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SYMBOLS:

SEVEN

- Numerology: wisdom, truth. It is also the number of mysteries and isolation. The outsider. It is often repeated in different religious mythologies.

- Gambling: “Lucky Seven” is a mode of competitive solitaire*, which works around the formula of the strange loop (where, despite moving up or down, one finds himself back where he started).

- Squire's lucky number. That's one of the reasons why he chose it, and why he only released the album on the 21st (multiple of 7).

* A game which, as the name implies, is played alone.

LUCK

Well.

You know. You can get lucky in two very different ways.

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LYRICS:

In the shadows of the fading light [7 words]
Nothing in sight, nothing in mind [6 words]
Nothing gained when you're feeling restrained [7 words]
The more you look, the more you'll find [9 words]
Take a bite from the apple of life's not as bad [12 words]
As its right, as it's right [7 words]

And I think you could be LU- [7 words(?)]

CKY TO(O)-NIGHT

By the fates that drive us on [7 words]
Upon the sea we swiftly sail [6 words]
In the wake of the carnival trail [7 words]
The more we try, the less we'll fail [9 words]
You and I, the more we strive in our search for truth [12 words]

Love and honesty could be LUCKY [7 words]

TO(O)-NIGHT

Sugar eyes [2 words]
Sugar eyes [2 words]

From the trees by the silvery sands [7 words]
To the ice of the golden midnight lands [8 words]
Runs a thread of the tears that are shed [9 words]
With laughter on the other hand [6 words]
Keeping up with the plans and the schemes [8 words]
Chasing dreams, hard to tell what it means [8 words]

But I think we could be [6 words]

LUCKY TO(O)-NIGHT

Send the sign [Almost inaudible] x4

NOTE: this doesn't end in a moment of silence. The last note is the first to the next song.

ANALYSIS:

1st READING: THE GAME

        If we consider the song to be about a game of cards, and the number of words in a verse to be the number of the cards themselves, we have 7/6/7/9/12/7 happening twice (first and second stanzas), separated by the odd chorus which – in the manner of the odd loop – seems to shorten or lengthen itself as to fit the number 7 – if this was done with or without cheating is another matter entirely.

        Said winning streak is broken by “Sugar eyes”, two words, spoken twice – either representing the actual eyes or a misinterpreted blink (should they be cheating). The third stanza, after it, is completely different from the others: 7/8/9/6/8/8.

        The fact that the prevalent number goes from 7 to 8 can possibly represent that the situation has become “too much”.

        This is where the chorus stops fitting the ‘lucky number’ of words/sounds, as well – with a greater pause between “be” and “lucky tonight” (as it should have been in the first place). It is not a coincidence that ‘being’ should be separated from ‘lucky’ right as the poetic persona starts losing.

        “Send the sign”, after it, is muffled by the music. This could either be a cheater trying to discreetly ask their partner if they should call, or – if you choose the romantic version of this story – waiting for some sort of reciprocation (which is why the ‘to’ in “tonight” sounds all the more like “too”)

2nd READING: THE LYRICS

        When it comes to the chorus, the theme is still desire, entwined with the gambler's mindset of ‘risking it all’.

        The second stanza is a build-up of past temptations, with a very clear offer of accompliceship as the poetic persona inserts itself into the receiver's trajectory: “You and I, the more WE strive in OUR search(…)”

        Finally, the third stanza speaks of an imaginary future in which the poetic persona and the receiver are ‘chasing dreams’ together, though much like the song itself it ends abruptly and without a solid resolution: “Chasing dreams, hard to tell what it means”.

3rd READING: METAPHOR

        As a ‘forbidden desire’ can be anything, this song has a wide variety of meanings. If only to retain myself to our previous definition of what “getting lucky” means, it plays its part wonderfully as both of those by portraying desire as a gambler’s need to win - even if they should cheat - and/or some kind of romantic gratification (with someone that is unavailable or 'forbidden').

        This analysis could go on. What do you think?