The supreme wordsmith will write to our mind's ear.
The poet especially.
By the old Moulmein Pagoda, lookin' lazy at the sea,
There's a Burma girl a-settin', and I know she thinks o' me;
For the wind is in the palm-trees, and the temple-bells they say:
"Come you back, you British soldier; come you back to Mandalay! "
The songwriter puts actual sound to the words.
Commander in Chief. Strong! That is a strong term, two strong words hooked together by a small word: one strong, powerful term.
COMMANDER(!)
CHIEF(!)
One who commands. The CHIEF commander. He wills it; others must obey!
It is an awkward term, five syllables, unmelodious; it looks jerry-rigged. An unlikely term to be put to song, and repeated over and over in verse after verse. Has it ever been?
Phonetically it is com-man-der in chief but is so familiar to Americans that we say it without any emphasis, CommanderInChief.
Demi Lovato keeps the emphasis on the "man" (even stronger!) syllable, slows the term down, draws it out and sings it as,
man
Com der in
chief
She drops it! She sings a strong, familiar, three-word, five-syllable term into weakness!
Commander in Chief, honestly
If I did the things you do
I couldn't sleep, seriously
...
Commander in Chief, how does it feel to still
Be able to breathe?
...
Won't give up, stand our ground
We'll be in the streets while you're bunkering down
Loud and proud, best believe
We'll still take a knee while you're
[Chorus]
Commander in Chief...
Chorus! She makes that awkward term the CHORUS!
I try to picture the moment of creation, Demi Lovato, perhaps sitting at her piano, pecking, trying sounds, and I cannot get a credible mental image of a songwriter having a Eureka! moment over commander in chief. But she did.
What Demi Lovato does in Commander in Chief is the work of genius.
