Sara Bareilles is an American singer, songwriter, and pianist. She grew up in Eureka, CA, and at the age of 18 she moved to Los Angeles, CA to pursue her career (Sara Bareilles). According to She is a graduate of UCLA’s Communication Studies Department. While in high school, she performed in community productions and also high school events. Although she was involved in numerous singing acts, she never had any training in either voice or piano. Bareilles has been a songwriter for almost all of her life. Her two first works, “Star Sweeper” and “I Love a Parade,” didn’t win her any Grammies, but they are a representation of the fact that she has been song writing for a very long time (Sara Bareilles).
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According to Bareilles’ biography on Vh1.com, she began to perform in local bars and open-mic nights after she graduated college. After gaining enough confidence to feel comfortable on stage, she began to perform at local venues and musical festivals. She had made a CD, and began to shop it around and eventually signed a deal with Epic Records in April of 2005. A produced by the name of Eric Rosse worked with her the following February to help perfect her record. They worked on the record just over a year. Sara Bareilles second album was titled Little Voice and released in July 2007. Her first single “Love Song” and the album reached the Top Ten after being released (Sara Bareilles). She has been awarded four Grammies; two in 2008 and two in 2009.
Historical Context
“Gravity” was originally written for Bareilles first album entitled Careful Confessions (Careful Confessions). After she was signed to Epic Records and teamed up with Eric Rosse, the single was added to the track list for the album Little Voice. Gravity was written in the early 2000’s. During this time there were many events happening which included George W. Bush being president, the major terrorist attack in New York, George Harrison died and the war in Iraq began (United States Timeline).
These events probably didn’t have much effect on Sara Bareilles reason for writing “Gravity.” Not much was found for her reasoning, but it was possibly based on past relationship that she has had, or a reflection on either one or multiple relationships.
Analysis
The overall theme of “Gravity” is how one can be drawn toward another person in their life, even if they don’t want to. Sara Bareilles starts the song by “Something always brings me back to you, It never takes too long, No matter what I say or do, I still feel you here ’til the moment I’m gone” (lines 1-4). Here she is saying that there is a force that is making her return to someone in little time, and it doesn’t matter what she does to stop this or go in a different direction because there is always a feeling that she has that wants to be near, let’s say, this man that is drawing her near.
The second verse is “You hold me without touch, You keep me without chains, I never wanted anything so much, Than to drown in your love and not feel your rain” (lines 5-8). When she says “You hold me without touch,” she is saying that she can feel him even though he is not there. “You keep me without chains,” means that he can control her without him even trying to. The last two lines can be translated into that she has a strong feeling to want to be embraced in his love and not feel like she can’t have it. The reason for this is because when you are drowning, you are fully covered in water, and when you are being rained on, you just get glimpse of water and you’re not fully drenched in it.
The chorus of the song is “Set me free, leave me be, I don’t wanna fall another moment into your gravity, Here I am and I stand so tall, I’m just the way I’m supposed to be, But you’re on to me and all over me (lines 9-13). When the song goes into the verse, it seems that the song is switching gears a little bit. She wants to be set free from this force that she is feeling. She doesn’t want to be pulled into him anymore. She wants to be her own person without him, but she feels it may be impossible to stop this force.
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The third verse is “You loved me ’cause I’m fragile, When I thought that I was strong, But you touch me for a little while, And all my fragile strength is gone (lines 14-17). She is saying that she thought she was strong enough to not need a man in her life, but she was actually weak, and all the strength she thought she had went away when the man came into her life. After the third verse the chorus repeats.
The hook is “I live here on my knees, As I try to make you see, That you’re everything I think I need, Here on the ground, But you’re neither friend nor for, Though I can’t seem to let you go, The one think that I still k now, Is that you’re keeping me down, You’re keeping me down (lines 18-26). This is the climax of the song. She is explaining that maybe she thinks she needs to have him in her life. He is not a friend or an enemy, but she can’t let him not be a part of her life, because he is what keeps her sane.
This song goes through multiple ups and downs. The artist seems to not be sure what this man is to her in her life, but in the end she comes to the conclusion that he is what keeps her grounded.
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