Thoughts on two songs by two artists that are both very important to me

I know that I have mentioned Zach Bryan in posts before, but I believe I have yet to dedicate a post to him. The same goes for Frank Ocean. There are certain artists that are somewhat difficult for me to write about because of how highly I regard them. I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to write about The Beatles for that reason. Anyways, I had this idea for a song(s) of the day post featuring these two, but I decided to go a bit more in depth. I have to give credit to good friend S.W for planting the seeds for this post in my head.

Zach Vs. Frank

Zach Bryan and Frank Ocean, in my eyes, are opposites, yet I would consistently rank these two as my two favorite solo artists. Zach is the current face of non-radio (AKA, the good kind) country music, and Frank is regarded as one of the most influential RnB/pop artists of all time. Zach is known for consistently (alarmingly fast, sometimes) putting out great music, whereas Frank has quite the reputation for not putting out any music. For comparison’s sake, since 2019, Zach has released eight singles, five full albums, three EPs, and one live album. Frank released his first mixtape, Nostalgia, Ultra in 2011, Channel Orange in 2012, and Blonde in 2016. He also released a visual album in 2016 as well. Besides a pair of singles in 2020, it has pretty much been radio silence from Frank in terms of any plans to release music. There’s always rumors; even Frank himself said he’s working on new stuff, but I’ll believe it when I see it. Frank is known for staying out of the public eye for the most part, not yet a recluse, but he certainly seems to appreciate his privacy, maintaining a fairly minimal social media presence as well. Zach is pretty constantly deactivating and reactivating his socials, typically due to a drunken rant or, most recently, invoking the wrath of the “Swifties”.

Despite their differences in genre and lifestyle, Frank and Zach have both managed to carve out a pretty incredible legacy for themselves in a relatively short amount of time. Both of these men are phenomenal songwriters and artists that have put out incredible music that has impacted me and many others in prominent ways.

God Speed – Zach Bryan

I’ve been a Zach fan since the Youtube days, before he had released any music anywhere else. I was following this guy before “Heading South” was even on anyone’s radar, in fact he actually replied to a comment I left way back when he first posted that song on TikTok. I don’t say this to say “I’m a bigger fan than everyone else”. I can’t stand when people act like that. It is just really damn cool to see someone that I’ve been following since the jump reach these heights in terms of popularity and more so watching him grow as an artist. His first album Deann, in my opinion, is about as pure of a singer/songwriter album as you can get. It’s raw, heart breaking, and honest, all the while maintaining a sense of hope throughout.

At the time of writing (took roughly 2 months to write this album) Zach was active duty in the United States Navy. For those unfamiliar, there’s certain travel restrictions and time constraints that come with being in the military, so while he was stationed in Jacksonville, FL, Zach and his buddies rented an Airbnb in the city, put up some mattresses on the walls for soundproofing and acoustics, and low and behold, 48 hours later they came out of that Airbnb with an album, named for his late Mother, that affected me in a way that I really didn’t understand at the time.

I already had a deep love for music, and there had been plenty of songs and albums before Deann that I loved and had affected me in various ways, but Deann was the first one that really “spoke to me”, as cliche as that sounds. Of course there had been plenty of relatable songs, songs that even were so powerful that they could make me emotional. Something about Deann was different though, particularly a song called “God Speed“.

Well, I wanna send a post card
From the edge of a place I’ve never been
And I wanna make love hard
Under the stars in the back of a beat up ol’ K-10
And I wanna love a girl who
Doesn’t worry about the pictures when we kiss
And wake up one day and not be so hit and miss
Lay in bed all day and call that shit pure bliss

I’m movin’ at God speed
Only God and my mama know what I need
And I feel the hardwood floors on my knees
As I beg you just to take it easy on me

I’m movin’ at God speed

Well, I wanna see the road melt
Into the mountains away as I drive
And make it out of this damn town alive
And not let the dreams I shoulder die

‘Cause I’m movin’ at God speed
Only God and my mama know what I need
And I feel the hardwood floors on my knees
As I beg you just to take it easy on me

Well, I wanna die an old man
Messed up stories of me and all my old friends
And laugh about how we all thought it won’t end
How we all wind up where we begin

Movin’ at God speed
Where only God and our mamas know what we need
And we feel the hardwood floors on our knees
As we beg the world to bring us to our feet

‘Cause I’m movin’ at God speed
Only God and my mama know what I need
And I feel the hardwood floors on my knees
As I beg you just to take it easy on me

I’m movin’ at God speed

The first time I really listened to this song, I was alone in my dorm room. I had been in college for less than a month at this point, my first time living away from home; my parents’ divorce was still fresh and weighing on me, and I was constantly questioning if I was cut out for college. What the hell was I going to do with my life? I remember being excited about Zach’s album dropping, and I did recognize the title of the song from his YouTube channel. I think it would’ve been impossible for me not to have clicked on it and listened to it prior to the album coming out, but for whatever reason, when I listened to it in the dorm that day, it broke me. But in a good therapeutic way, not in a sad way. I was finally able to let whatever feelings I was having about everything out. Zach had managed to put everything I wanted for myself, all the feelings I felt, and express them perfectly in this song. Every verse meant something to me in that moment, and they still do.

Link to song – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Abngf0FgD5M

Godspeed – Frank Ocean

Frank Ocean is one of the most influential and important artists to me in terms of my taste in music. He totally reshaped my approach to how I listen to music and truly expanded my mind in terms of what I liked to listen to. In high school, I was aware of him, but I didn’t really give him much of a second thought. Sometime during my second year of college, I decided to finally see what the fuss was about. I already knew I liked a couple of his songs, but had never sat down and listened to his albums. As corny or cliché as it sounds, sitting down and taking the time to really listen to Channel Orange and Blonde had a profound effect on me. The way I perceived music and how it is made, what makes it “good” or “bad,” even the way that I go about listening to albums. The closest thing I can compare it to is the first time I heard Nirvana.

Blonde is, to me, not only one of my personal favorite albums; I think it is genuinely one of the greatest albums ever created. I hold this album in the same regard as I hold Led Zep II, The White Album, Thriller, etc. I’m not comparing any of these; I think that would be impossible. I’m just trying to establish the way I feel about this album overall. Every time I listen to this album, I discover something new; it’s one of the few albums that I think gets better every time I listen to it.

I have to admit, “Godspeed” isn’t my absolute favorite off of Blonde, like “Godspeed” is off of Deann. That being said, Frank’s “Godspeed” still has the ability to stop me in my tracks in a similar fashion. From the moment he began to sing, I knew what this song was about, or rather I think I knew what this song would mean to me.

I will always love you
How I do
Let go of a prayer for you
Just a sweet word
The table is prepared for you

Wishing you godspeed, glory
There will be mountains you won’t move

Still, I’ll always be there for you
How I do

I let go of my claim on you, it’s a free world
You look down on where you came from sometimes

But you’ll have this place to call home, always

This love will keep us through blinding of the eyes (oh)
Silence in the ears, darkness of the mind (until it’s time)
This love will keep us through blinding of the eyes (oh, oh-oh)
Silence in the ears, darkness of the mind (oh, oh-oh, oh)
This love will keep us through blinding of the eyes (oh, until it’s time we die)
Silence in the ears, darkness of the mind

I’ll always love you until the time we die

For me, Godspeed is about letting go, coming to peace with saying goodbye, whether that be to a relationship, loved one, or maybe even youth? The song may be about letting go, but it is also expressing gratitude and appreciation for the impact of whatever or whomever we are saying goodbye to. I don’t know if it’s the gospel themes, the way he sings it, or just the overall ambiance of the song, but the build-up of the music and then the pregnant pause leading into the first line is enough to invoke emotion in me. I think it’s the best delivered line on an album full of incredible songwriting and music. For a fairly simple and short song, it holds a ton of weight, so much so that it almost sneaks up on you. Or at least it did on me. Something about Godspeed is so comforting to me, it leaves me with a feeling like everything is going to be okay, regardless of the circumstance. As we all go through life, we have to say goodbye to things, ideas, and people, but that doesn’t mean that we have to stop loving them.

Link to song – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P18g4rKns6Q