Joe Cocker (born May 20, 1944) is a pop music singer.
He started his musical career in the city of his birth Sheffield, England in some minor bands at the age of 15: the first band was the Avengers (under the stage name Vance Arnold), then Big Blues (1963), and then The Grease Band (1966).
His first big hit was the song 'With a Little help from my Friends', a cover of the song by The Beatles, with guitar played by Jimmy Page. The same year he appeared at the Woodstock Music Festival.
Onstage, he often exhibited a physical intensity as he sang, and his unique stage presence was often spoofed by comedian John Belushi on Saturday Night Live, a famous American sitcom.
In the beginning of 1970s he had problems with drugs including alcohol that had a bad influence on his musical career. He managed, however, to make a comeback in the 1980s and 1990s with several massive chart hits like:
- Up where We Belong;
- You are So Beautiful;
- When The Night Comes;
- N'oubliez Jamais or Unchain my heart.
http://letras.terra.com.br/joe-cocker/
http://www.lastfm.com.br/music/Joe+Cocker
In the first stanza, we see that the person of music is questioning someone ‘What would you do if I sang out of tune (doing something wrong or unusual)/Would you stand up and walk out on me’. This way, the person is talking to someone ‘Lend me your ears and I'll sing you a song (he/she will tell something important)’.
So, the person begins to tell his story, he says he will face all the problems but for this he needs the help of his friends:
‘ohh baby I get by,
(by with a little help from my friends)
All i need is my buddies
(try with a little help from my friends)
I said I want to get high I will
(High with a little help from my friends)
Who-Ho-Hoo-yeah’
‘(Does it worry for you to be alone?)/ (Are you said because your on your own)/ (Do you need anybody)/ (Could it be anybody) ’ it seems the voice of another person (the person who is hearing the story).
We see in the entire lyric that the person of music is afraid of being alone –‘ (Are you said because your on your own)/I hope you Don't say it no more’ - he needs to have people that love him to continue forward ‘All I need is someone, who knows just where I'm going yeah/Somebody who knows quiet sure, baby’.
He tries to convince this other person that he can change and live well again.
Despite many exophoric references, this music has coherence / sense. This song talks about the importance of having friends, we need to have friends in good and bad times of our life. After all "no one is happy alone".
Because of exophoric elements we cannot know who are the people of the music (I / you), we also not identify what are the person's problems of the song (why he needs the help of friends?) could be problems with drugs, if we account the historical context, however, we do not have this answer.
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