Now and then I think of all the times you screwed me over
But had me believing it was always something that I'd done
But I don't wanna live that way
Reading into every word you say
You said that you could let it go
And I wouldn't catch you hung up on
Somebody that you used to know
Now you're just somebody that I used to know
~ Gotye
Oh, I bet you know this song! I can't believe it's five years old already. And I still never get tired of hearing it. In selecting which lyrics to include in this post, I jumped right to those that are sung by Kimbra, the New Zealand singer who plays the female antagonist to Gotye's heartbroken persona. Maybe it's just because of the way she accuses him of screwing her over. I like her assertiveness.
Gotye, a Belgian-Australian singer-songwriter, admits that the song is grounded in the memory of his failed love affairs. He refers to it as "a curated reflection of multiple past relationships." And if the song's popularity is any indication, Gotye is not alone in these mixed emotions of sadness and anger as a result of having one's heart broken. "Somebody That I Used to Know" has been designated one of the best-selling digital singles of all time with over 13 million copies sold worldwide.
As much as I loved the original song when it came out, I really went nuts over the version by WOTE (Walk Off The Earth), the Canadian band who do all kinds of amazingly creative things with their music and their videos. In the case of "Somebody That I Used to Know," the five members of WOTE all play one guitar. If you have never seen this video, here it is: https://youtu.be/d9NF2edxy-M. So clever! (I love "clever.")
So "Somebody That I Used to Know" is a heartbreak song. We've all collected and cried over heartbreak songs at one point or another. And we all have "somebody that we used to know" out there, and sometimes those somebodies rear their heads and cause some chaos in a new relationship. But that was love and it's an ache I still remember. Best to let it go.
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