Allusions

This subsection of the "Music" section of Rawley Revisited covers musical allusions in Steven Antin's Young Americans (2000).  Songs and instrumentals played in the soundtrack of Young Americans are described in separate "Songs" and "Instrumentals" subsections of the "Music" section.  A tracklist of all songs and of attributed instrumentals and one unattributed instrumental is given on the main page of the "Music" section.

This subsection contains only this one page that covers all eight aired episodes of Young Americans . The unaired pilot episode is not covered.

The compilation of this subsection has benefitted from the opening post and subsequent posts on the “Music of YA” thread on the Young Americans board of FanForum.  Corrections or suggestions of this subsection may be posted on that thread.

Ichabod Grubb

Created: April 2014

Last updated: May 2014

Episode 1 (The Beginning)

“Love Minus Zero/No Limit,” by Bob Dylan (written and performed privately 1964, published 1965)

The first line of this song, “My love she speaks like silence,” is seen scrawled in large letters across Finn’s black board during the scene in which Will writes his essay about why he wants to go to Rawley.

My love she speaks like silence 

Without ideals or violence 

She doesn’t have to say she’s faithful 

Yet she’s true, like ice, like fire

People carry roses

Make promises by the hours

My love she laughs like the flowers

Valentines can’t buy her

In the dime stores and bus stations

People talk of situations

Read books, repeat quotations

Draw conclusions on the wall

Some speak of the future

My love she speaks softly

She knows there’s no success like failure

And that failure’s no success at all

The cloak and dagger dangles

Madams light the candles

In ceremonies of the horsemen

Even the pawn must hold a grudge

Statues made of matchsticks

Crumble into one another

My love winks, she does not bother

She knows too much to argue or to judge

The bridge at midnight trembles

The country doctor rambles

Bankers’ nieces seek perfection

Expecting all the gifts that wise men bring

The wind howls like a hammer

The night blows cold and rainy

My love she’s like some raven

At my window with a broken wing

Comment:  The presence of the first line of this song on the blackboard of Finn’s classroom in episode 1, while Will writes his essay about why he wants to go to Rawley, is conspicuously anomalous, given that Finn teaches literature – notwithstanding that the first line of the song may owe something to Shakespeare’s Sonnet 23.  Why is it there?

The first line of the song, scrawled on Finn’s chalkboard, describes how Jake and Hamilton love each other – communicating chiefly with their eyes, faces and body language, rarely saying anything important with words.  However, it also describes how Antin loves his viewers; it is the aesthetic manifesto of Young Americans.  The drama loves its viewers the way Hamilton loves Jake – beautifully but subtly, indirectly, obliquely, allusively, symbolically, gently, almost never saying what it means, conveying its message by visual images rather insofar as possible while using words ironically.  In this context, the line is a paean to the power of film to tell a love story better than words ever could – and hence to Antin’s hope of re-telling old stories in new and better ways.

The last line of this song – “my love she’s like a raven at my window with a broken wing” – describes Hamilton’s initial attraction to Jake as perfectly as its first line describes how he subsequently loves her.  Hamilton first sees Jake from his window-perch above the school door as she rides up in black jacket and helmet on her blue and black motorbike, a girl so wounded emotionally that she’s pretending to be a boy at an all-boys’ boarding school, despite being straight.  And what he responds to, even more than to her courage, is her emotional neediness, her “broken wing.”  The first Jake-Hamilton scene is described by that line so perfectly that, in context of the conspicuously anomalous allusion to the song on Finn’s chalkboard, it seems likely to have been crafted to do so.

Other lines in this song’s also resonate with the drama, but this is not the place for a long essay.  Suffice it to say that one should bear the lyrics of this song in mind as one watches Young Americans.

The presence of “my love she speaks like silence” on Finn’s chalkboard in episode 1, and the apparent crafting of the first Jake-Hamilton scene around its last line, suggest that Antin might have liked to have used “Love Minus Zero/No Limit” as the theme song of Young Americans, but could not afford to.  Although “Six Packs” may be the drama’s commercial theme song for purposes of marketing to a largely teenaged audience, “Love Minus Zero/No Limit” may be its moral and aesthetic theme song.

This, the first musical allusion in Young Americans, is also by far the most important. 

Episodes 2 and 3:  No musical allusions are apparent. 

Episode 4 (Cinderbella)

“I Try,” written by Macy Gray, Jeremy Ruzumna, Jinsoo Lim, and David Wilder, performed by Macy Gray (1999)

Lyrics from this song are cited by Jake and Lena during Finn’s class, in context of a discussion of Robert Browning’s “Love Among the Ruins.”

Games, changes and fears 

When will they go from here 

When will they stop 

I believe that fate has brought us here 

And we should be together, babe 

But we're not 

I play it off but I'm dreaming of you 

I'll keep my cool, but I'm feignin' 

I try to say goodbye and I choke 

I try to walk away and I stumble 

Though I try to hide it, it's clear 

My world crumbles when you are not near 

Goodbye and I choke 

Try to walk away and I stumble 

Though I try to hide it, it's clear 

My world crumbles when you are not near 

I may appear to be free 

But I'm just a prisoner 

Of your love 

I may seem alright and smile when you leave 

But my smiles are just out front 

Just out front 

I play it off but I'm dreaming of you 

I'll keep my cool, but I'm feignin' 

I try to say goodbye and I choke 

Try to walk away and I stumble 

Though I try to hide it, it's clear 

My world crumbles when you are not near 

Goodbye and I choke 

Try to walk away and I stumble 

Though I try to hide it, it's clear 

My world crumbles when you are not near

Here is my confession 

May I be your possession 

Boy, I need your touch 

Your love, kisses and such 

With all my might I try 

But this I can't deny (deny) 

I play it off but I'm dreaming of you 

(but I'm dreaming of you, babe) 

I'll keep my cool, but I'm feignin' 

I try to say goodbye and I choke (yeah) 

I try to walk away and I stumble 

Though I try to hide it, it's clear 

My world crumbles when you are not near 

Goodbye and I choke 

Try to walk away and I stumble 

Though I try to hide it, it's clear 

My world crumbles when you are not near

Comment:  Jake recites several lines of this poem, ostensibly in response to a question from Finn, but with the aim of expressing to Hamilton her inability to hide her feelings for him.  However, she refrains from voicing the line that expresses her emotional neediness:  “My world crumbles when you’re not here.”  It is left to Lena to do that.  Jake, even while saying she can’t hide her feelings, tries – and, thanks to Lena, fails – to hide the feeling that matters most, the one that compels Hamilton to go for her:  she needs desperately for him to give her a miracle, to sacrifice his sexual gender preference for her, to prove to her that she can be loved truly, for her personality, not her body. 

“Angel,” by Sarah McLachlan (1997)

 Indirect and uncertain allusion.

Comment:  In episode 4, the first thing Jake says to Hamilton after telling him, “I’m a girl,” is “Look, I'll prove it to you: I’m obsessed with Sarah McLachlan ...” – as if that were evidence of her gender.  Given that better evidence is at hand and is soon displayed, this seems to be less an argument by Jake than an allusion by Antin, presumably to McLachlan’s best-known song, the lyrics of which aptly describe Hamilton’s love for Jake.  In Young Americans, Rawley is “perfect,” “heaven under our feet” … “where dreams really do come true,” and Hamilton, the Dean’s son who passes a modern form of the classic “test of true love,” personifies Rawley.  Consistent with that, the oblique allusion put into Jake's mouth suggests that Hamilton is an angel.

Spend all your time waiting for that second chance

For the break that will make it OK

There's always some reason to feel not good enough

And it's hard at the end of the day

I need some distraction or a beautiful release

Memories seep from my veins

Let me be empty and weightless and maybe

I'll find some peace tonight

In the arms of the Angel far away from here

From this dark, cold hotel room, and the endlessness that you fear

You are pulled from the wreckage of your silent reverie

You're in the arms of the Angel; may you find some comfort here

So tired of the straight line, and everywhere you turn

There's vultures and thieves at your back

The storm keeps on twisting, you keep on building the lies

That you make up for all that you lack

It don't make no difference, escaping one last time

It's easier to believe

In this sweet madness, oh this glorious sadness

That brings me to my knees

In the arms of the Angel far away from here

From this dark, cold hotel room, and the endlessness that you fear

You are pulled from the wreckage of your silent reverie

In the arms of the Angel; may you find some comfort here

You're in the arms of the Angel; may you find some comfort here

Episode 5 (Winning Isn't Everything)

“Just What I Needed,” by The Cars (1978)

Mentioned in episode 5 as part of the musical allusions game played by Scout and Bella as putative siblings, replacing the “how much time would it take?” game that they play as lovers in episode 1.

I don't mind you comin' here 

and wastin' all my time

'cause when you're standin' oh so near

I kinda lose my mind

it's not the perfume that you wear

it's not the ribbons in your hair

I don't mind you comin' here

and wastin' all my time

I don't mind you hangin' out

and talkin' in your sleep

it doesnt' matter where you've been 

as long as it was deep, yeah

you always knew to wear it well and 

you look so fancy I can tell

I don't mind you hangin' out

and talking in your sleep

I guess you're just what I needed (just what I needed)

I needed someone to feed

I guess you're just what I needed (just what I needed)

I needed somone to bleed

I don't mind you comin' here

and wastin' all my time

'cause when you're standin' oh so near

I kinda lose my mind

it's not the perfume that you wear

it's not the ribbons in your hair

I don't mind you comin' here

and wastin' all my time

I guess you're just what I needed (just what I needed)

I needed someone to feed

I guess you're just what I needed (just what I needed)

I needed somone to bleed

I guess you're just what I needed (just what I needed)

I needed someone to feed

I guess you're just what I needed (just what I needed)

Comment:  This allusion underscores that Charlie’s belief that Scout and Bella are half-siblings, although false, is “just what they needed,” albeit not at all what they wanted.  The false allegation that they are half-siblings, by making them see that they are unwilling to take risks to investigate its veracity, makes them understand that, contrary to Bella’s assertion at the end of episode 1, they do not truly love each other.  Although the lesson is slow and painful, it is less slow and painful than the alternative would have been:  they could have wasted far more of each other’s time, something the choice of song lyrics of the song underscore in this context.  This false but mercifully instructive allegation appears to be a gift from the Providence of Rawley – the mature Krudski-as-dreamer, who loves Scout and Bella deeply.

“American Woman,” by The Guess Who (1970), as performed by Lenny Kravitz (1999)

Mentioned in episode 5 as part of the musical allusions game played by Scout and Bella as putative siblings, replacing the “how much time would it take?” game that they play as lovers in episode 1.

         Foxy, Foxy

You know you are a cute little heart breaker

Foxy yeah,

And you know you are a sweet little lover maker

Foxy

(Refrain:)

I wanna take you home, yeah

I won't do you no harm

You've got to be all mine, all mine

ooh Foxy Lady

Foxy, Foxy

Now-a I see you come down on the scene

oh Foxy

You make me wanna get up and-a scream

Foxy, oh baby listen now

I've made up my mind,

I'm tired of wasting all my precious time

You've got to be all mine, all mine

Here I come

(Refrain)

Here I come, baby

I'm comin' to get ya!

Ooh, Foxy Lady, yeah yeah

You look so good, Foxy

oh yeah Foxy

You make me feel like-a, feel like singin', Foxy

Foxy Foxy

Ah, yeah, Foxy Foxy

Yeah, Foxy Lady!

Comment:  This late 1960s classic is an anthem of male chauvinism, so strong that Hendrix was obliged to say publicly that he didn't really approach women in the way it suggests.  In episode 6 of Young Americans, Hamilton's allusion to it marks the beginning of his over-the-top male-chauvininist behavior at the restaurant.  A viewer who fails to catch the allusion might think that Jake over-reacts to a harmless compliment by Hamilton.  However, when Hamilton's calling Jake a "foxy lady" is understood as an allusion to this Hendrix song, which he makes deliberately and which Jake gets immediately, Jake's negative reaction becomes more understandable.

Understanding that Hamilton's first remark to Jake at the restaurant is a male chauvinist allusion makes it consistent with his subsequent behavior at the restaurant.  Throughout their restaurant date, Hamilton is uncharacteristically offensive in a highly consistent way.

The question left for the viewer is why Hamilton does this - and then, at the marina immediately after their restaurant date, turns back into the perfect lover, telling Jake with exquisitely subtle irony that he loves her. That seeing Jake in a sexy dress turns him into a caricature of a male chauvinism won't wash - that wasn't how he behaved in episode 5.

A more plausible although less naive interpretation is that Hamilton is deliberately trying to piss Jake off, provoking her into giving him an excuse to tell her, without seeming to be gratuitiously unkind, that he's aware of how emotionally screwed up she is - aware that she's "a cross dressing she-man" who "doesn't know who she is" - so that when he tells he he loves her, she'll know that he sees her problems and loves her anyhow, warts and all.  On that view, Hamilton's behavior in the restaurant is a deliberate act - as multiple references in the restaurant scene and the subsequent marina scene to "not knowing how to act" ironically suggest, playing on the double meaning of "act" as both "behave" and "pretend."  This allusion suggests that Hamilton starts that act as soon as he and Jake are seated at the restaurant.

Hendrix's "Foxy Lady" is a musical embodiment of loving a woman for her body, without regard for her personality.  Hamilton Fleming embodies exactly the opposite:  he has passed the classic "test of true love," proving he would love Jake even if she were a boy, although he prefers girls and desperately wants not to be gay.  For Hamilton Fleming to cite "Foxy Lady" is so richly ironic that it's hilarious.  It subtly helps show his male chauvinism at the restaurant to be an ironic act setting the stage from Hamilton's telling Jake, in words, what his deeds have already shown:  he loves her.

Episode 7 (Free Will)

Minuet constituting the last third of Hans Zimmer’s True Romance theme (aka “You’re So Cool,” 1993).

Indirect and uncertain allusion.

In episode 7, in a tutoring scene set in the Rawley Boys’ common room, Will tells Caroline that he thinks she’s ready to write.  Surprised and flattered, she responds:  “A poem?”  Will sarcastically retorts:  “No, a minuet. … Yes, a poem.”

  Comment:  Any reference to the minuet, an 18th-century dance form, in a year-2000 American mass-market teen TV drama, is conspicuously anomalous – or, as the teen viewers might say, “weird.”  It demands explanation.  Will does not seem to be heavily into 18th century upper-class culture.   So why is it there?

It may be there to call attention to the fact that the best part of the piece of music most often played in Young Americans is, in fact, a minuet.  The last third of Zimmer’s True Romance theme, the part of it played most often in Jake-Hamilton scenes, has the musical form of a minuet:  ¾ tempo and this rhythm:

This is not the kind of thing that Will Krudski would notice.  But it may well be something that Robin Antin, the choreographer for Young Americans and the sister of its creator, would notice, and that her brother would find it amusing to allude to in the script of the drama. 

 Episode 8 (Will Bella Scout Her Mom?)

“Iris,” by The Goo Goo Dolls (1998).

Indirect and uncertain allusion.

In the final episode of Young Americans, on the last day of Rawley’s summer session, we see on the wall of Scout’s and Will’s dorm room, near Will’s bed, something that has never been there in any of the many previous scenes set in that room:  a poster for The Goo Goo Dolls’ 1998 album, Dizzy Up The Girl.  Since Scout has already packed out in preparation for leaving school, the poster clearly is Will’s. 

Comment:  The sudden appearance of this poster as a prop unique to the final episode begs for explanation.  Why is it there?’

It may be there to allude to the longest and by far the most popular and best-known song on Dizzy Up the Girl:  “Iris,” written for the soundtrack of the highly successful 1998 film, City of Angels.  Moreover, while the Dizzy Up the Girl poster is shown in episode 8, Will calls Finn's August break plans "so Indiana Jones," perhaps obliquely suggesting that the poster allude to a movie.

The lyrics of "Iris," sung in City of Angels by an Angel who is falls in love with a mortal woman, neatly describe Will’s situation – not just in his dream of Rawley but also as its mature dreamer – in the final episode of Young Americans, at the end of which Wil-at-narrator, by switching the tense of his narration from present to past, drops his pretense of telling a story about the present from the perspective of the present.

Will is about to “lose his scholarship” and be forced to leave Rawley – a metaphor for his dream ending.  But he he, like the angel in the film, doesn’t “want to go home right now,” doesn’t want to leave Rawley, “the closest to heaven that he’ll ever be.”  

The final lines of the lyrics of “Iris” seem particularly redolent of Will’s situation:  “And I don't want the world to see me / 'Cause I don't think that they'd understand … I just want you to know who I am.”  In other words, he wants to let viewers know that he, as narrator, is a mature man, and that Young Americans is his dream … but he doesn’t want to let his friends inside the dream know that, because “I don’t think that they’d understand.” 

The sudden appearance of this poster on Will’s wall on the last day of summer session in the last episode of Young Americans suggests that it is a goodbye message.  Will - and Steven Antin, for whom Will as the mature dreamer, writer and narrator of Young Americans is a proxy - may be trying to say goodbye to viewers of Young Amerians though the lyrics of “Iris”: 

And I’d give up forever to touch you

‘Cause I know that you feel me somehow

You’re the closest to heaven that I’ll ever be

And I don’t wanna go home right now

And all I can taste is this moment

And all I can breathe is your life

When sooner or later it’s over

I just don’t wanna miss you tonight

And I don’t want the world to see me

‘Cause I don’t think that they’d understand

When everything’s made to be broken

I just want you to know who I am

And you can’t fight the tears that ain’t coming

Or the moment of truth in your lies

When everything feels like the movies

Yeah, you bleed just to know you’re alive

And I don’t want the world to see me

‘Cause I don’t think that they’d understand

When everything’s made to be broken

I just want you to know who I am

And I don’t want the world to see me

‘Cause I don’t think that they’d understand

When everything’s made to be broken

I just want you to know who I am

And I don’t want the world to see me

‘Cause I don’t think that they’d understand

When everything’s made to be broken

I just want you to know who I am

I just want you to know who I am

I just want you to know who I am

I just want you to know who I am