“The Last Ten Years(Superman)” Sang By: Kenny Rogers

“The Last Ten Years(Superman)”
Sang By: Kenny Rogers
Presentation By: Tierra Scott
The Novelistic, Dramatic
Approach
All the U.S can do is sit by
and watch as the super
Superman is found dead and there’s
nobody to save the U.S.
villain destroys the U.S.
Nobody could come to the rescue
Takes place in the U.S.
and happens over a period of ten years.
A man wanders where superman has been
because terrible things have been happening in the U.S.
and the villain got away with his
Terrible deeds including the
destruction of the twin towers.
The lesson given from this song is that even though we
think something could never happen, it’s always a
possibility and it affects us all. The song talks about all
these events that have happened, even losing superman.
Superman is suppose to be indestructible, but even he
has died. Every time the author mentions an event that
has taken place over the years he always says “we
watched”. We watched as a whole when these events
took place and nobody was alone. He is saying none of
us do this by ourselves. For example, he says “we all
cried when we watched those towers fall”. He means we
cried together when the twin towers got hit. Nobody
would have ever thought somebody would attack the
U.S. At one point he says “what’s gonna happen next is
anybody’s guess” and later on he says “it’s all become a
part of who we are”. This means that we don’t always
know what’s going to happen and the unthinkable has
become a part of us.
The Realistic Approach
This song relates to me well. I remember when I was in third
grade, it was 2001, the twin towers in New York fell. The song says
“we all cried when we watched those towers fall”. This is true in
my case. Even though I was only eight years old I still remember
crying. It seems like it was only yesterday. I didn’t know any of
those people who were in the planes or even in the towers, but I
knew it was terrorists who had done it and all I could do was cry.
My whole class that day was in tears. I didn’t really understand
why I was crying, but I knew it was for a good reason. Many of the
events in the song I can remember, but not as well as those towers
falling.
The Thematic Approach
The setting takes place in the U.S. and the speaker is an
anonymous man waiting for somebody to save the United
States from the super villian. The protagonist is Superman
who is suppose to save everybody, but the villian has
captured him and he is found dead. The antagonist is the
super villian who has not only destroyed the U.S., but has
also destroyed the one man who was never suppose to die.
Oklahoma got bombed, a U.S. president got caught, and
the twin towers fell. The final outcome is nobody knows
how to stop the villian and we’ve lost the person who was
suppose to be the strongest. What people don’t realize is
the villian is actually the world itself.
The Allusion Approach
Superman an allusion to Finny
The song is an allusion to a separate peace. Superman
is Finny. Superman and Finny both are godlike and when
they are around everything is at peace. When superman
isn’t around everything is destroyed and everybody’s in a
panic. Although everybody might not be in a panic when
Finny isn’t around, there’s still some type of uneasiness.
When Superman was gone the twin towers fell and
Oklahoma was bombed. When Finny is gone the boys that
go to Devon don’t get along as well. Superman in the song
and Finny in A Separate Peace, are the peace keepers and
the strong. They both die in the end.
The Musical Approach
A
Oh, the last ten years, it's been
quite trip
A Over thirty-six-hundred spins
around without a cosmic slip
B But within the realm of our
atmosphere
B We're 'bout as out of whack as
we've ever been in a million
years
C We watched the Y2K scare in a
panic
D An' we watched as time proved
Nostrodamus wrong
E An' we watched as Mother
Nature shook the planet
F An' cellular replaced the
telephone
G We lost Charlie Brown, Ray
Charles an' Johnny Cash
H We even lost Superman, mhm.
A
Well, the last ten years, look at
the hills we've climbed
A The best golfer's black, the best
rapper's white an' it's about
damn time
B But we best beware, there's a
brand new fight, you see
C An' I hate to say we might be
our own worst enemy
D We watched Oklahoma sifting
through the damage
E An' we watched a US President
get caught
F We watched shareholders watch
their savings vanish
G We all cried when we watched
those towers fall
H We lost Minnie Pearl, Ron
Reagan and Sam I Am
I
We even lost Superman, mhm.
A
B
C
D
D
D
E
Expensive gas an' free
downloads
The dot-com boom, an'
reality shows
What's gonna happen next
is anybody's guess
Satellite radio and hybrid
cars
Hand-held computers an' a
trip to Mars
It's all become a part of
who we are
In the last ten years.
A
B
In the last ten years
We lost George Harrison,
John Paul and June CarterCash
C Hell, we even lost Superman
D Gonna miss you. Chris...
During most of the poem the author uses mostly
anapest, amphibrach, and dactyl. Also, he used trimeter
and pentameter. It stays constant through the whole
song.The author used a lot of alliteration through out the
song. He used it to emphasize the important lines, so the
reader would pay close attention to them. He uses it most
often on the words we and watched. There’s a big
importance about those words he wanted us to understand.
He wanted us to understand that nobody was alone and that
everybody watched together the events that have happened
over the last ten years. Alliteration is used in most of the
places to highlight the events he talked about.
The English Teacher Approach
Oh, the last ten years, it's been quite a trip
Over thirty-six-hundred spins around without a cosmic slip
But within the realm of our atmosphere
We're 'bout as out of whack as we've ever been in a million years
We watched the Y2K scare in a panic
An' we watched as time proved Nostrodamus wrong
An' we watched as Mother Nature shook the planet
An' cellular replaced the telephone
We lost Charlie Brown, Ray Charles an' Johnny Cash
We even lost Superman, mhm.
Well, the last ten years, look at the hills we've climbed
The best golfer's black, the best rapper's white an' it's about damn time
But we best beware, there's a brand new fight, you see
An' I hate to say we might be our own worst enemy
We watched Oklahoma sifting through the damage
An' we watched a US President get caught
We watched shareholders watch their savings vanish
We all cried when we watched those towers fall
We lost Minnie Pearl, Ron Reagan and Sam I Am
We even lost Superman, mhm.
Anaphora= blue Repition= underline Alliteration= aqua Personification=
italicized and bold Internal Rhyme= pink Idiom= green
Expensive gas an' free downloads
The dot-com boom, an' reality shows
What's gonna happen next is anybody's guess
Satellite radio and hybrid cars
Hand-held computers an' a trip to Mars
It's all become a part of who we are
In the last ten years.
In the last ten years
We lost George Harrison, John Paul and June Carter-Cash
Hell, we even lost Superman
Gonna miss you. Chris...
By using personification in the author’s song he gets the emphasis he is
looking making the reader understand that the incident that happened effected
more than just one person. For instance he says Oklahoma sifting through the
damage to make the reader realize that not just one person, but the whole of
Oklahoma had to go through this devastation. The repetition of the word We is
an emphasis of how the whole world was affected by the events of the last ten
years. For example, he says we all cried when we watched those towers fall. It
makes whoever is listening to the song feel like they were a part of that
particular event in time. It makes the listener remember those disasters. He
was trying to get a personal feel about it.
The Significant Event Approach
When Kenny was writing this song he was thinking
about all the events that had happened in the last ten years
and of the most famous people who had died. This inspired
the song that became so popular today. He wanted people
to remember the events that had become a part of their
history or as he says in he’s song “a part of who we are”.
Since he wanted people to remember these events instead
of saying I in his song he said we. Also, at the end of every
verse he thought it was important to remember some of the
people we had lost along the way. He felt he should add
Superman in there since when people thought of him they
thought of him as being indestructible. Superman was one
of his heroes. Although, I couldn’t find what was going on
in his life when he wrote this song, the thought of these
events was his inspiration for writing it. It’s evident in his
lyrics when he says the word we in almost every line. He
wanted to make sure people were noticing and
remembering the events and deaths that had happened in
the past.
The Art History Approach
Images
Thirty-six-hundred spins without a cosmic slip
Mother Nature shook the planet
Look at the hills we’ve climbed
There’s a brand new fight
Oklahoma sifting through the damage
We watched the Y2K scare in a panic
We even lost superman
The images affect the reader and meaning by bringing up the past.
The imagery makes the reader remember the tragedies
and the good things that have come from the past. More specifically
the line where he says “look at the hills we’ve climbed” is symbolic to
the events we’ve had to face and the obstacles. In the line where he
says “we even lost Superman” symbolizes the things we never
thought would happen. Superman is never suppose to die. It makes
the reader realize the impossible can happen.
The Structural Approach
Shifts
The author shifts between bad and good and back again. In the first
stanza.the author talks about the Y2K scare that happened in 2000 and
how Mother Nature shook up the planet. This is the bad events that
happened. He feels that the whole world went through these unthinkables
and wanted the listener to remember these events. Then in the next stanza
he talks about how we’ve climbed hills and how the “best golfers black
and the best rappers white”. All these things are talking about how we’ve
come around to new ideas and its not all that bad. The author made this
shift because he didn’t want the reader to remember the bad things, but
also the good things. Then he switches back to how Oklahoma has to sift
through the damage after their bombing and “shareholders watching
their savings vanish”. This switches back over to the devastating events
that has occurred. Then in the third stanza he talks about free downloads
and the internet exploding and the reality shows. This brings him back to
the good that’s come after all the horrible events. He’s making these shifts
to show how good things can come out of the bad. He feels that even
though horrible events have taken place, he still has to remember the good
too.