Poetic license is loosely defined as an act by a writer or poet of changing facts or rules to make a story or poem more interesting or effective. In the case of "The Long Way", a country pop love song written by Brett Eldredge, Matt Rogers and sung by Brett Eldredge, enables the use of "mama" and "Impala" in a way that makes us car wonks cringe.
Taking the video for the song at face value, the song is about a romance between a man and a young girl woman whom have a sizeable age difference between them. Mr. Eldredge is 31 years old going on 50 and his love interest is 20 years old, going on 13, Sadie Robertson of Duck Dynasty fame. Allegedly, he cast the reality TV star in the video after following her on social media and feeling drawn to her personality. Nothing creepy or stalker-ish at all, right? The two had never met until the first day of the video shoot and they became instant friends.
May-September romance aside, the song is a conventional if formulaic ear worm. This being a car blog, let's focus on the songwriters use of "'99 Impala" to reinforce the protagonist's infatuation with his new found love interest. Why? Well, Chevrolet didn't make an Impala in 1999. What's more, while the producers of the video chose to feature an Impala in the video for the song, the Impala in the video is a 1964 Impala. We wonder if the producers of the video believe that viewers will think this car is the "hand me down '99 Impala" the song makes reference to. You never know. Regardless of poetic license, Millenials are so out of touch with cars that they probably assume it is.
Can't say we blame them for using a "'64 Impala" in the video instead of a '99 Impala. If there was such a thing it would have looked like this sad lump. Sexy. Maybe they were referring to a 1999 Chevrolet Lumina? That would have been even worse. Honestly, though, outside of the Corvette and maybe the Camaro, Chevrolet hasn't done much in the way of designing anything that could be remotely considered romantic in decades.
Ah, romance. Then again, most likely the songwriters didn't even care about a physical car instead wanting nothing more than to have "Impala" sing well in the song. Who knew that Impala rhymed with mama anyway? Actually, it doesn't but such is "country music". Writers and singers not only using poetic license to achieve a pretentious final result but bending pronunciation of words to get said effect accomplished. For the video, few types of cars were as "romantic" as GM's old full size convertibles. Even one with oh-my-god-awful fender skirts like the '64 in the video.
Poetic license in pop music is nothing new. For instance, U2 took some liberties with historic events with their 1984 hit song, "Pride (In The Name of Love)". Mr. Bono sings, “Early morning, April 4/Shot rings out in the Memphis sky.” The lyrics are a reference to the April 4, 1968 assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Only thing is, Dr. King was shot by James Earl Ray in the early evening of April 4, 1968. It's ok, Bono because, you know, poetic license.
The former lead singer of Journey, Steve Perry used poetic license when he wrote the anthemic, "Don't Stop Believing" for Journey's seminal 1981 album, "Escape". In the song, Perry sings about "a city boy born and raised in South Detroit". This just in...there is no South Detroit (per se). Unless he's referring to a small town in Brown County, South Dakota or Windsor, Ontario of all places. Perry admitted recently that he made up the lyrics and didn't look at a map when he did so. He's from south central California so we'll cut him some slack for his use of poetic license.
Having discussed "car casting" in videos with artists as often as I have, you'd be surprised at how many of them not only know nothing about cars, but could care less that what they're singing about makes little to no sense cloaking bizarre lyrics under the tarpaulin of poetic license. Flawed as the lyrics are to "The Long Way" and as, sorry, somewhat creepy the video is given not so much how old Eldredge looks but how child like Ms. Robertson appears, the sentiment of the song and the video are not lost on us dyed in the wool, factually and historically anal gear heads.
Imagine, though, if instead of "ninety-nine Impala" they used "sixty-nine Impala" in the song and a '69 Impala convertible in the video. That would have legitimized the song as an actual experience of the song writer(s) rather than a conveyance to further along a rising star's career. Then again, if "sixty-nine Impala" was used instead, this blog about "The Long Way" would be about sexual metaphors making the video even more unsettling. Just as well they took the long way with as much poetic license as they did.
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