Slinky by 311 song analysis

Shifting from a near hopeless attempt at getting a girls attention to fantasizing about their relationship in "Slinky" 311 utilizes lucid imagery,subtle hyperbole, and concise narrative to show that she "has the power" and "that's okay". The song "Slinky" although having many short verses rather than fewer longer ones is still full of imagery. At the beginning of the song when the speaker is first noticing this girl one receives a good description of the events. When the speaker says "I don't smoke, but I asked her for a cigarette" one can get a good idea of what happened. One could picture him going up to someone and asking them for a cigarette just as an excuse to start a conversation. This line also contains indirect characterization; this excuse the speaker has created shows that this girl makes him nervous and he doesn't want to blow it. This shows how much she means to him because he is a mess for a guy who is usually confident. Hyperbole is used in the song to show how hard the speaker has fallen for this girl and show how much power she has over him because he would do anything for her. The speaker says "She can move me and that's okay, Has the power to turn paper inky". This displays her affect on the speaker, she could likely actually pick up the speaker and move him but the lyrics are ment in a figurative sense. Also she has the power to turn paper inky is just a figure of speech and an exaggeration used to show how much control she has over the speaker. "Slinky" is structured so that there is a short verse than the chorus following every verse. Even though there isn't a lot of words in each verse the song still manages to contain a narrative that explains the speaker's encounters with this girl. The speaker first meets her a club and uses a lousy cigarette excuse to start a conversation. This first scene depicted displays how they meet and the awkwardness involved in meeting someone new. The next verse is the speaker talking about how much he likes this girl. He says " She's the one girl that I just dig, love" and he proceeds to talk about how amazing she is. In the final main verse he talks about how she is in control "She stole my brain, Girls that do me like that, there's not many". The song ends without clearly informing the listener if the events in the second and final verse actually happened. The most likely outcome was that the speaker had met her and was just thinking about her and fantasizing in the third verse like the second. For a relatively concise song "Slinky" is able to tell a story about a man's pursuit of a girl he meets at a club. Although on the surface it appears a simple narrative it goes deeper than that. With a second look a hidden ambiguity is revealed. From there it is left to the listener to interpret the lyrics and decide if the song has solely a literal meaning or if the speaker was simply imagining parts of the song.