Lyrical Analysis - Gone Gone Gone

Ah, Phillip Phillips. Your name sounds like it was created as the byproduct of peyote and inbreeding. It doesn't help that you also create probably the least inspired and irritating music. Case in point: Gone Gone Gone - a poor man's rip-off of a poor man's rip-off of a hoe-down band. It clearly shows that your mental faculties were stressed beyond their limits with lyrics which give way to preschool-level rhyming couplets, incessantly repeated lines and a simple theme about love, dedication and loss. 

Actually, upon reviewing your lyrics, I cannot find even one line which rings true with my initial assessment. Delving deeper, the theme of the song just comes across as a disturbing, obsessive, stalkerish, maniacal and quite clearly homicidal tone toward an unrequited love interest. The song's progression also doesn't seem to follow a natural flow with opening lines (within the initial stanza) of:

'I'll be at your door tonight' ... or ... 'I'll shut down the city lights'

This is apparently to prove his dedication to her, or his willingness to perform jihadist and SWAT tactics; so far, so unhinged.

'I'll lie, cheat, I'll beg and bribe to make you well'

Maybe this implies that she is on her death bed or very sick. But, still, it doesn't bode well for his moral compass. 

'When you fall like a statue. I'm gon' be there to catch you. Put you on your feet, you on your feet'

The psychiatrist in me clearly sees his objectification of her; something to be maintained and kept under lock-and-key rather than seen as an individual in her own right. I can see similar correlations with how Buffalo Bill conversed with his victims with his usage of 'it' rather than 'you/her/she'.

'You would never sleep alone'

Which would be perfectly fine - as long as you are in a relationship with her. But lines like 'I'll share in your suffering to make you well, to make you well. Give me reasons to believe, that you would do the same for me.' clearly show that this is a one-way street and falls into the same category as Every breath you take and that he also gets pleasure from sado-masochistic stimulation.

'I love you long after you're gone'

Now that just sounds wrong. It's not if you're gone but after you're gone ... as if it's a foregone conclusion that either she escapes his clutches or dies at a time of his choosing. And then we have this doozy:

'Like a drum baby don't stop beating'

Apparently I need to explain to Mr Phillip Phillips that a drum does in fact stop beating as soon as you stop hitting it - or maybe that was his intention. Dictating when to stop drumming also implies that he controls when she dies. And then we have the natural Romeo and Juliet conclusion where he joins her in his pact to end his life upon her death with:

'Like a drum my heart never stops beating for you'

So, yes. We have naturally come to the conclusion that Mr Phillip Phillips has created an upbeat and motivational track about terrorism, stalking, obsession, murder and suicide. Your parents, Phillip Phillips Sr and Phillipa Phillips, must be so proud.