Mr. Mayer's Clarity

I am a giant fan of John Mayer's. I love the enveloping melodies he constructs and the bright lyrics that season them. But of all the John Mayer songs I listen to, Clarity had been to me the most head-scratching. I've listened to it hundreds of times, and attempted innumerably to achieve the enchanting "ooo OOO"s with, admittedly, comical results; but for the life of me, I could not understand what he was talking about. Surly It had to do with some girl, a pin-drop of heartache, or maybe it was a lay to his tortured, velvety-voiced soul? On that line of thinking I would circumambulate, coming around so many times I could see my own backside--but no conclusion.

You speak in riddles, John Mayer. RIDDLES!

But then I remembered something. Way, way back, long ago, when was still spring, I was sitting in Dr. Vaughan's British Lit class and we were discussing William Wordsworth's idea of poetry. Wordsworth wrote that he would had small epiphanies called "Spots in Time" during which he would be able to see thing in a new light and come up with amazing verse. He lamented, though, that they never lasted, and he could never predict when they would happen. Starting to sound familiar? If you're a John Mayer fan, you'll recognize this is exactly what the guitar maverick youth describes in his smash hit, Clarity!

"But This morning, there was a calm I can't explain. / The rock candy's melted; only diamonds now Remain."

"By the time I recognize this moment / this moment will be gone..."

"[...]And I will wait to find / if this will last forever, / and I will pay no mind / when it wont, and it won't because it can't. / It just can't. / It's not supposed to."

Listening to the song, thinking of Spots in Time, it now makes perfect sense to me. I don't know if John Mayer reads any Wordsworth, but it seems to be a concept very closely related to the kind of idea's present in Johnny's music, not to mention the name of the song itself. I don't think it has to do with a relationship specifically, even though it mentions one. I think that is more or less part of what he now clearly sees in his Spot in Time--his moment of Clarity.

This would be a fascinating idea for a research paper, right? But as I clearly wouldn't get a grade for it, I'll probably just be left as a fascinating idea. Haha.