The Gamblers Song Analysis Essay
Country Music
The song that I chose was The Gambler by Kenny Rogers. I have heard this song before but I’ve never listened that closely to the song. As the title suggests that it is about gambling. This song is about a man with some emotional troubles who is on a train going nowhere. While he’s on the train he sits in silence with a gambler. The gambler breaks the silence by giving the man some advice seemingly about gambling but also about life. The gambler then puts out his cigarette, goes to sleep, and dies. This advice repeats in the man’s head as the chorus repeats in the song. The song never officially says that the gambler dies but certain lines in the song suggest it. “And the best that you can hope for is to die in your sleep” and
“And faded off to sleep, And somewhere in the darkness, The gambler he broke even, But in his final words, I found an ace that I could keep” these lyrics suggest that when he went to sleep he broke even and died in his sleep. The advice that the gambler gave was “You've got to know when to hold 'em, Know when to fold 'em, Know when to walk away, And know when to run, You never count your money, When you're sittin' at the table, There'll be time enough for countin', When the dealin's done”. This means that in life, sometimes you need to stay, sometimes you need to leave.
There was definitely a lot of musicality in The Gambler. Some things that I noticed are… The Gambler only uses three chords for the entire song. The chords are I, IV, V7. It continuously goes I, IV, I, V7, I, IV, I, IV, I, V7. This pattern repeats for the entire song.
I don’t like country music because I find it annoying. I think it’s annoying because most of the songs are very similar. The stereotype of country is that all the songs are about drinking beer, small towns, blue jeans, smoking cigarettes, driving trucks, and women. I don’t believe that that stereotype is completely true but those are prominent themes in a lot of country music. One of the reasons I chose The Gambler is that it didn’t fit the stereotype and I wanted to really see what else is in the genre. Another similarity in most country music is that many more recent songs sound incredibly similar. There was a video that took six country hits between 2011 and 2014 and played them all at the same time. The songs sounded almost exactly the same. The final reason that I don’t like country is that I don’t relate to the genre. I have not experienced things like drinking beer, driving an old truck, smoking cigarettes, or picking up women. I know that not every song is about those subjects but those are very common topics among that genre of music.
I have learned some facts about country music during my research. The first thing I learned was that the song was released in 1978 and charted 16th on the US Billboard Hot 100. I learned that the genre started in the Appalachian area and the tunes were based on Irish and Scottish jigs. I learned about country music fans as well. I discovered that 30% have at least some college education, and 75% own their own homes. According to Nielsen, Country music is the second most listened-to format for the 18-34 demographic. During my research and mainly listening to The Gambler I found that I don’t completely hate country, I just don’t really like it, especially compared to other genres like classic and alternative rock.
The song that I chose was The Gambler by Kenny Rogers. I have heard this song before but I’ve never listened that closely to the song. As the title suggests that it is about gambling. This song is about a man with some emotional troubles who is on a train going nowhere. While he’s on the train he sits in silence with a gambler. The gambler breaks the silence by giving the man some advice seemingly about gambling but also about life. The gambler then puts out his cigarette, goes to sleep, and dies. This advice repeats in the man’s head as the chorus repeats in the song. The song never officially says that the gambler dies but certain lines in the song suggest it. “And the best that you can hope for is to die in your sleep” and
“And faded off to sleep, And somewhere in the darkness, The gambler he broke even, But in his final words, I found an ace that I could keep” these lyrics suggest that when he went to sleep he broke even and died in his sleep. The advice that the gambler gave was “You've got to know when to hold 'em, Know when to fold 'em, Know when to walk away, And know when to run, You never count your money, When you're sittin' at the table, There'll be time enough for countin', When the dealin's done”. This means that in life, sometimes you need to stay, sometimes you need to leave.
There was definitely a lot of musicality in The Gambler. Some things that I noticed are… The Gambler only uses three chords for the entire song. The chords are I, IV, V7. It continuously goes I, IV, I, V7, I, IV, I, IV, I, V7. This pattern repeats for the entire song.
I don’t like country music because I find it annoying. I think it’s annoying because most of the songs are very similar. The stereotype of country is that all the songs are about drinking beer, small towns, blue jeans, smoking cigarettes, driving trucks, and women. I don’t believe that that stereotype is completely true but those are prominent themes in a lot of country music. One of the reasons I chose The Gambler is that it didn’t fit the stereotype and I wanted to really see what else is in the genre. Another similarity in most country music is that many more recent songs sound incredibly similar. There was a video that took six country hits between 2011 and 2014 and played them all at the same time. The songs sounded almost exactly the same. The final reason that I don’t like country is that I don’t relate to the genre. I have not experienced things like drinking beer, driving an old truck, smoking cigarettes, or picking up women. I know that not every song is about those subjects but those are very common topics among that genre of music.
I have learned some facts about country music during my research. The first thing I learned was that the song was released in 1978 and charted 16th on the US Billboard Hot 100. I learned that the genre started in the Appalachian area and the tunes were based on Irish and Scottish jigs. I learned about country music fans as well. I discovered that 30% have at least some college education, and 75% own their own homes. According to Nielsen, Country music is the second most listened-to format for the 18-34 demographic. During my research and mainly listening to The Gambler I found that I don’t completely hate country, I just don’t really like it, especially compared to other genres like classic and alternative rock.