Photo Credit: Johnny Depp on Instagram
After one of the most vindicating years of his life, Johnny Depp has, yet again, been remade in the little hours we’ve had of 2021. In a self-expressive manner so breathtakingly authentic, Depp puts his full musical sensitivity and lyrical ear on the table with his cover of John Lennon’s ‘Gimme Some Truth’ - after all, music touches us where just words or actions often fail to. Once again, Depp concentrates his creativity upon the immortal words of songster John Lennon and blazingly embodies that sense of clandestine freedom with his voice - the freedom so easily denied to a man of his spectacle and one that he now longs for more than ever. This is a track that shows not a bird breaking free from his cage, but one picking at the bars, testing their strength and teasing the audience, who already know whats to become of him if he stays complacent, before he makes his grand escape.
A few of my favorite lyrical nuances, and their connections to Depp & his life, fall below:
“I've had enough of reading tweets by neurotic psychotic pig headed politicians”
I just know that Johnny had a good chuckle to himself while changing this lyric in the sound booth. I think everyone is aware of the chaos that the political sphere has fallen into (or maybe always was). What’s worst about it now is this major corruption of power, these outwards displays of the lunacy of those in power, is only broadcasted with the addition of social media to the political playground. We can see the idiocy of the elected officials, or those who want to sway us with beautiful, empty promises and lack of action in real time. The Commander in Chief used Twitter as his personal diary, seemingly tweeting in the heat of the moment without a second thought to the consequences of his actions - the same philosophy he applied to running an entire country. While it is comedic for a moment, we’ve all become a lot more aware of what’s really going on.
“With just a pocketful of hopes”
This is the only time within the song that “hope” is mentioned. In the otherwise bleak picture this song paints, I think the mention of anything somewhat positive stands out like a sore thumb. This is a line directly from the original, in which it is implied that one of the corrupted fellows of the world is trying to brainwash the singer, only to entice them with false promises of the utopia that will be built with the lack of uniqueness, thus the “pocketful of hopes”. The interesting part is that the word “hope” is replaced with the word “soap” in the rest of the song, implying that this brainwashing character no longer intends to entice the people with false futures but instead intends to take their individuality by force, with the “soap” of washing the “dirty man clean”.
“Money for dope//Money for rope”
Everyone can feel the extra emphasis in these two lines. The little edge, the scream that’s been all-too-muffled for too long, the violent veracity laced in these words. We know of the heartbreak, the addiction, the text-written refusal of Johnny to live in the cage of the world for any longer, begging for an escape in things he knows is slowly killing him. We all remember the day he came public about his suicidal thoughts, of the tears that poured in front of the typewriter in the church, with a glass of vodka to accompany his existential misery. We know it. We see it in the repeating of the phrases in the lyric video. We feel it in these two lines, like an explosive confession, where all the emotions that have been living below the surface have come tumbling out of your throat, spewing off your tongue, out onto the microphone. And we allow him the space to feel it, knowing that we’re here to catch him.
“I’ve had enough of reading things by neurotic psychotic pie headed journalistas.”
This is another lyrical change by Johnny. I like to imagine I am exempt from this line, so I am going to write about it objectively. The rhythm of these words is smooth, fitting in perfectly to the already-set manic guitar baseline - the adjectives are taunting, laughing, something one would expect of a schoolboy who doesn’t know the right words to expel when someone has just hit a nerve. But by all means, carry on. The corruption of the media as we know it has been so blatantly obvious throughout the entirety of the public battles of Johnny Depp. It seems as though journalists, who, as I see it, are guardians of the written word - who are supposed to be the people taking the information given to them and getting it to the people in an unbiased way in order for them to form their own opinions have lost their moral compasses and integrity in order to fit into carefully curated narratives that allow their bosses to profit over brainwashing of the people.
“All I want is the truth just give us the truth,
All I want is the truth just give us some truth,
All we want is the truth just give us some truth.”
In the original outro, the repetition is “All I want is the truth, just gimme some truth.” However, Depp flipped the perspective to sing to the world at large - the media that vilifies, the journalists that write the lies, the prima donnas who seek him out for glory, the justice system that made the whole situation more gory. “We” includes every single person who is on the right side of the roaring rapids, and “we” are not just asking - we’re demanding.We want the the truth, the full truth we can hear through the audio tapes, the security camera footage, the faked charity donation statements. We want it all, out there, reported on fairly, and accepted by even those who this situation does not fit into their personal narratives for right and wrong. We long for the truth to be the prejudice by which we judge, not by gender, race, ethnicity, or ability.
Dedicated to the man who deserves peace and clarity more than anyone - I hope I have helped you in your journey. May he always play on.
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