I am aware that most people hear “Wonderland”1 by Big Country as a simple love song. And you would be halfway correct in thinking that, by saying that, I have implied that I do not think “Wonderland” is a simple love song.
It has taken me an almost full year (and what an obsessive year it has been, haha!) since I first heard this song to realize that my perception of it is…probably at least a little bit unconventional. You’ve heard of a conventional love song, haven’t you? Well, I do wonder if this one may be, then, an unconventional love song, though probably not in the way you’re thinking. (What way are you thinking of? What does “unconventional”, much less an “unconventional love song,” imply to you?)
While the chorus alone points to it being a conventional-enough love song, so much of the context of this song (almost too much) seems to point to where it could transcend the trappings of a love song. Still, of course, this is my analysis of it, written through my personal lens and my biases (although that is individually true of everything anybody ever writes…). I mean, just because the songwriter, Stuart Adamson, was a heterosexual man and intended this song to exclusively be sung to/written for a woman does not actually mean that everyone can and will possibly hear it that way (plus, the song’s narrator never specifies the gender of his partner – the person he’s singing to/for), not to mention the fact that not everything a person writes is about themself, even if everything they write or say is a reflection of themself (and at least, to me, those are two separate ideas which I believe can apply to this song). Personally, I think the less specific a writer is, the more opportunity there is to embrace many diverse ideas about the subject of their writing. So, this is just one of those ideas among, I would hope, a sea of ideas.
With that said, I intend to analyze how this song remarks upon more than just a type of love restricted by the conventions of a simple love song, and, to a lesser extent (being my analysis), to exhibit why I think it’s one of the greatest songs ever written. (And no, I do not lightly bestow that concept/title on just any song.)
The first 25 seconds of this song makes it more than worth it to hear on repeat 30+ times in a row: the light percussion and the ringing guitar riff (played by Bruce Watson), followed quickly by that HUGE drum sound courtesy of good production choices (thank you, Steve Lillywhite) and Mark Brzezicki on drums that is just so exhilarating (and, from my listening perspective of Big Country’s first five albums, a rather trademark sound for them), and then that hard rock guitar riff (played by Stuart Adamson)…literally what better way is there to bait and hook a listener who loves rock music? Oh, and then of course Adamson comes in with that BEAUTIFUL “Woah-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-ooooh” semi-screamed/yelled opening that is so full of admirable effort that you can forgive the scream (if, like me, you’re not a fan of hearing men screaming in music) and the brief little crack in his voice which I actually find so endearing…I’m sorry, but how was I not supposed to immediately love this song?
Musically, Watson’s guitar riff and Tony Butler’s bassline work together startlingly well to emulate the sense of wonderland – something vaguely dreamy or dream-like – that underscores everything more aggressive and subjectively overwhelming like Adamson’s guitar riffs and Brzezicki’s drums. It’s an incredible balance of ‘Here’s what the ideal (also known as wonderland) sounds like’ versus ‘Here’s what reality is/sounds like,’ and it’s displayed quite effectively in the arrangement. You can also hear this idea even better in the 12″ mix, as all of the instrumentation is far less restrained and the volume of the vocals is also turned up to better hear the harmonies punctuating the hopefulness of wonderland. (Not to mention that the 12″ mix offers the opportunity to hear Butler’s genius bass playing more isolated, and Brzezicki’s drums sound positively WILD! The outro also incorporates Adamson’s lively guitar lick that often introduced “Wonderland” in Big Country’s live performances.)
When it comes to the verses, I will analyze what role love plays in wonderland, and how the verses present evocative, thoughtful impressions to illustrate wonderland.
So for the first verse we are introduced to:
“If you could feel how I must feel
The winds of quiet change
If you could see what I must see
Still hidden in the rain
But when the thunder rolls
It comes and covers up my soul”
With lines like “If you could feel how I must feel –/The winds of quiet change,” and (my favorite, even though it’s conceptually a bit muddied) “But when the thunder rolls/It comes and covers up my soul,” the narrator clearly has an idea of what wonderland could be like (the former lines), all while voicing the reality of…well, reality (in the latter lines). Because not only is he certain he feels “the winds of quiet change” and that he sees what is “still hidden in the rain,” his idea of wonderland is someone not just believing these things, but knowing (feeling and seeing) them as confidently as he does. To quote the marvelous, beloved writer James Baldwin in proving how that idea relates to love, “If I love you, I have to make you conscious of the things you don’t see.”2 As for the meaning of the line “But when the thunder rolls/It comes and covers up my soul,” I have immense gratitude to a friend for suggesting that he probably means the sound of thunder drowns out his soul – or, analyzed further, his environment that is represented by weather (thunder is usually conceptualized as scary…considering that it’s sounds that occur beyond human control) drowns out his introspection/his ability to hear and thus understand his soul.
The next two verses continue to reinforce what the narrator’s version of wonderland looks like and works the hardest to subvert the typical love song (and, as I hope to prove, it succeeds!).
“If you could hear what I must hear
Then nothing would replace
The fifty years of sweat and tears
That never left a trace
But when I look at you
I see you feel the same way too”
The first part of the verse is one of my favorite lyrics in the song: “If you could hear what I must hear/Then nothing would replace/The fifty years of sweat and tears/That never left a trace” because it is clear here that what the narrator means is ‘I don’t want this reality of fifty years of sweat and tears not leaving a trace – I wish this had made its mark actually, and I wish everyone acknowledged it!’ If it wasn’t already clear from the first verse what he meant, we come to understand that the narrator’s idea of wonderland is not needing to wonder about the future (because of the way the past was neglected); in his version of wonderland, the past was never neglected – it was properly acknowledged, felt, seen, and heard, and that knowledge and those feelings were built upon to create the future that wonderland represents. If you’re following me here, you may start to understand that, unconventionally, this is not just a love song to a person, let alone a singular person (but I’ll explain more later on). Finally, not only does the narrator evoke empathy through the lyrics “But when I look at you/I see you feel the same way too,” but it continues to reinforce what his idea of wonderland is like and how love fits into that – through empathy.
In the final, heart-achingly beautiful verse, we get:
“You still remember other days
When every head was high
I watched that pride be torn apart
Beneath a darker sky
With innocence within ourselves
We sing the same old song”
Most interestingly, the perspective in the first line of this verse abruptly shifts to narrate “You still remember other days when every head was high” before switching back to first person, “I watched that pride be torn apart beneath a darker sky.” The first line makes me ask: ‘Who remembers other days, when every head was high?’ We’re led to believe via the following line that the perspective in the first line is someone of a previous/older generation, and the narrator asserts that it is people within his generation who has witnessed the fall of said pride. The final lines of the verse beautifully illustrate his generation’s hope (and the hope he has for himself and his partner through wonderland): “With innocence within ourselves/We sing the same old song”. By relating to each other through a child-like optimism (the stage of life everyone goes through, when they’re as innocent as can be, and the ironic use of “we sing the same old song,” which is recognizing that everyone once knew that feeling of innocence and optimism and that it can and should be harnessed again, now), he hopes it will rally their motivation to create their ideal future or wonderland. (ALSO, to get meta for a moment, I used the term “rally” very deliberately, because musically, during the duration of those lines in the song specifically, Brzezicki strategically plays a militaristic-like drum roll there!) I also think it’s important to point out that the beginning of this verse deals with literally such dark, adult realities – “You still remember other days/When every head was high/I watched that pride be torn apart/Beneath a darker sky” – and it’s resolved by this mobilizing offer to return to (or more like: to bring back) childish innocence in order to break the cycle of these dark realities. Technically, that’s also what he’s asking of the person he’s singing to, like in the second verse, and who he’s ultimately asking to escape to wonderland with. Additionally, the childish connotations in the final two lines from the pre-chorus were also necessary, “And you will take my hand/And make believe it’s wonderland”, considering that ‘make believe’ is most often referred to as something that children play at (and, generally speaking, children tend to play make believe unrestrained, with very little inspiration needed – they create their own inspiration). And yet that all reads as very naïve – like ‘Yeah, so, if we all just pretended to have the same innocence we once had as children we could get along better and make more progress creating the future/reality we want instead of refusing to learn from or acknowledge the past so that our current reality is in some cases worse than ever before’ – but it’s also rather meta because it could also, therefore, still not be taken seriously (like, how often are children taken seriously to begin with!?), and I definitely think Adamson intentionally wrote it that way. (And what a great, legitimate example of when and where men should be asked “So how does fatherhood affect your music/writing ability?” the way music writers/interviewers always assume motherhood affects the work of women songwriters! But *coughs* that might be a rant for another post…or many other posts…)
To give you all a break after that very long, meandering commentary of a paragraph, my point, especially proven by that verse, is that the love meant to be found via wonderland is ultimately not meant for just a single person/lover/significant other/beloved/etc. – wonderland is his vision for the future as much as it is a place to escape to amid the everyday horrors of reality (amount of privilege not considered in the level of those horrors at this time…), and it is not meant for just one love but to be a loving place in general, for all.
Reaching what I will refer to as the pre-chorus, I will analyze them here separately from the rest of the chorus.
In short, in the pre-chorus “And you will take my hand/[and be with me in/make believe it’s] wonderland,” ‘wonderland’ acts most overtly as a method of escapism, although, based on all of the verses (and where I mentioned ‘reality/what is‘) prior to the choruses, we understand why that escapism is so necessary. To reiterate what I said two paragraphs ago, ‘wonderland’ is not just a place to escape to, but a place to dream; a place to escape to, in this case, for the narrator and the person (and people, overall!) he’s singing to, where they can imagine (dream) and thus build a loving, thoughtful, and respectful future that supercedes the present (a current time, therefore, which he is also implying is not loving, thoughtful, or respectful).
Finally for the chorus where I absolutely, shamelessly swoon:
“I am an honest man
I need the love of you
I am a working man
I feel the winter too”
To state what this chorus illustrates through a meme: it’s called vulnerability. Look it up. Maybe you’ll discover something wonderful. *coughs* Really, the chorus is simply a display of vulnerability, WHICH – YES, I’M GOING TO SAY IT – IS NOT POPULARLY SHOWN BY MEN, particularly vulnerability that is not demonstrated manipulatively (aka receiving benefits that are not mutually shared by the demonstration of vulnerability, such as men who think that being emotionally vulnerable with women entitles them to sex), and from the pre-chorus alone (at least I would argue that “And you will take my hand/And be with me in wonderland” is not a demand but a gentle, polite suggestion) we can absolutely infer that reciprocity is expected, so YES, it does bear acknowledging. In the rhythm of the chorus, supported by the unmistakably skipped drum beat and the bass that punctuates each line, the chorus sounds a lot like a list of how he describes himself – ‘I: am an honest man, need the love of you, am a working man, feel the winter too.’ It could also be understood as the ways in which he pursues the ideal world of wonderland (being honest and utilizing love in order to actively work toward the future he dreams of in wonderland) while admitting the barriers or cycles of negativity that exist to stall his efforts. The reason why I see the line “I feel the winter, too” as a barrier is because, to put this idea into context with the rest of the song, which I feel is also supported by context present in many other Big Country songs (easy context to find, though, such as in “In a Big Country”), it is a metaphor for depression and anxiety – “the winter” represents a state of being (mentally, emotionally, and physically) that freeze one’s endeavor to create the ideal world/state of reality that is sought after through wonderland. I also see the last line possibly being read ambiguously, as though mutually acknowledging that he and whoever he is singing to (particularly in the line “I need the love of you“) both “feel the winter”. Regardless, the last line works perfectly as the final line in the chorus because it acknowledges that progress is often not linear, as though to say that if one looks back at where one has been (and remembers all of the motives that keep one moving forward), it actually is easier to see where one needs to go; it is as hopeless a line as the rest of the song is hopeful, which is a reminder that the rest of the song is hopeful. (And that, I feel is necessary to add, is a devastatingly beautiful, unique attribute of Adamson’s songwriting, especially with Big Country.) I will say again that, in its entirety, the chorus acts as a display of vulnerability, which, therefore, must mean that vulnerability is also an expectation of wonderland, and if it is to be a loving place, it must also be a place to freely express that vulnerability. (NOW is this song on your list of, I don’t know, “Greatest Love Songs of All Time”?! Me, it’s just on my list of “Greatest Songs of All Time.” Love doesn’t need to have anything to do with it, although it could be a benefit…)
To return to the idea of conventional vs. unconventional love songs, overall, the most unconventional aspect of this love song is that, while the narrator’s love is clearly intended for one person (like a conventional love song), his hope represented through wonderland illustrates a more universal, shared and cultivated love that is not restricted to only himself and his partner. I actually specifically suggested that his hope for love extends to generations, which is broad enough to include everyone, anyway, but most importantly (I hope I’ve argued) for the future and future generations.
To sum up the perceived goal of this song in one sentence, I hear it sounding like this: We will learn from the past, dammit, and we will not stand for a future without love…and it will start with us, but we are not the only ones.
If I’m in the minority of people who appreciate even their favorite love songs to be a little political (hi, that’s the first time in this analysis I’ve specifically called it ‘political’!), that’s fine. I’m grateful to dream within “Wonderland” as much as I intend for it to inspire me to manifest my dreams outward, just as, I believe, Stuart Adamson hoped for through this song. As far as love is concerned, “Wonderland” is simply a song to hope with as much as a song to hope for.
- Big Country. Wonderland, jfng, bigcountryinfo.com/originals/wonderland.htm. Accessed 28 Jan. 2024.
↩︎ - BALDWIN, JAMES. “THE BLACK SCHOLAR INTERVIEWS: JAMES BALDWIN.” The Black Scholar, vol. 5, no. 4, 1973, pp. 33–42. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/41065644. Accessed 29 Jan. 2024. ↩︎