Okay, don’t laugh. Or do, no skin off my nose. But my kids really enjoy the Parry Gripp songs and so I’ve listened to quite a few, but in my opinion one of the peak works is Neon Pegasus. Please do observe.
Now, why do I like it? Clue in the title: I think it does an amazing job of creating a world and a character within this 3 minute silly song. And so I’m going to analyze it for you verse by verse!
Spread your wings, Neon Pegasus,
And go flying through the night.
They can take your glitter
But they can’t take away your sparkle.And the thousand-armed robot octopus
Will try to grab your golden reins,
But your wings are strong from the battle
Over Cupcake Mountain.
First stanza— character. We know instantly who Neon Pegasus is from their name. They’re neon, they’re a pegasus. They fly at night which gives us a vibe. Then “They can take your glitter but they can’t take away your sparkle” tells us that this pegasus has been through things that have tried to diminish what and who they are but the pegasus has the inner strength to keep sparkling. Peak intro. I love it.
Second stanza— world building. We’ve got robot octopi in this world. Okay, interesting. So the world holds to the whimsical feel expected from a “neon pegasus.” And given that the pegasus has been so well introduced in the first verse, we believe in them as our hero, so the octopus is on the bad side. The golden reins draw an allusion to Greek mythology, where Bellerophon tamed the pegasus with a golden bridle that made it instantly biddable. I believe he then used the pegasus to defeat the chimaera. Using common backgrounds is fertile ground for building quick empathy or understanding. But clearly, if our pegasus is the hero of this story, we don’t want them controlled by others. So they escape control by the robot octopus with the strength of their wings. And we get a hint of that dangerous past that took their glitter with “the battle over Cupcake Mountain.” It must have been an arduous and probably long affair to leave the pegasus with wings strong enough to evade capture.
On to the chorus!
Never again to be lonely
Never again to be without a home
Never to bow to the Gummy King’s throne
Never again, never again!Never again to be put down
By the Marzipan Girl at the Silverlake Lounge
Soaring over it all, high up in the clouds
Never again, never again!
“Never again” is a strong, defiant phrase. And with the intro to the Neon Pegasus being about the struggle against losing themself, and their “sparkle,” followed by evasion of capture, this chorus brings us more context to that struggle against capture. The pegasus has been lonely. The pegasus has been homeless. The pegasus was forced, presumably, to bow to a tyrant. But that is over and past, the pegasus has risen above and past that and will not be tied down again.
Clearly, one of the things that tied them down was the Marzipan Girl, whoever she is. My guess is she is the one who put the golden reins on the pegasus in the first place. Maybe she found them lonely and made promises of home and companionship but then it turned into a negative relationship where she was controlling. Or that’s my assumption from context. And now the pegasus has freed themself and will never allow themself to be in such a situation again.
Bridge and verse two:
Yeah!
When I first saw you defeating the Gummy King’s gluten-powered armada in the darkness of space I knew you were no ordinary pegasus!
Un-break your heart, Neon Pegasus,
And go climbing through the stars,
Out there with your dreams;
Your sparkly dreams!And the genetically modified salamander
With a face just like George Clooney
Can’t track you down with
The Rockabilly Worm from Spaceland!
I’ll admit the bridge isn’t my favorite part; spoken parts normally aren’t. And the visual of the star’s teeth is just not my thing. But! It does tell us the pegasus escaped from the grasp of the Gummy King and fought against him instead. How? Unsure. Maybe with the Marzipan Girl or maybe when they were free from her as well.
Third stanza— “Un-break your heart” is a poignant phrase. Again, the pegasus has been through the mill. Their heart was broken, but like their wings, it has grown strong and can fly again. And we come back to sparkle! The pegasus’s glitter is gone but the sparkle remains, presumably because they kept hold of their dreams.
Then the fourth stanza— World building again. Somehow in this world there’s genetic modification and apparently giving things the face of George Clooney is popular? Worms are not only sapient but love music and have hair and work for theme parks? Presumably the theme park isn’t great, nor is the salamander, because they too want to stop the pegasus from escape and subjugate them again. Basically, while the world is full of whimsy and unbounded possibilities, many of these bright and fun-sounding elements hide a sinister side. The Gummy King is a tyrant. The Marzipan Girl is controlling in her relationships. Spaceland is sending out bounty hunters I think? But the world is also wide enough that the pegasus can find freedom from all of this and fulfill their sparkling dreams.
Then a repeat of the chorus and an outro:
(Never again, never again)
(Never again, never again)
No matter how insane and ridiculous they seem
You must follow your dreams!
(Dreams, dreams, dreams, dreams, dreams…)
We’ve got that repeat of the defiant “never again” and the following your dreams. We know that at one point, the pegasus was in a very low point where flying away and following its sparkly dreams must have seemed impossible, but they did it anyway. An inspiring and noble story.
Now is this a little silly? Sure. But I’m dead serious that I love the inspiring story that this silly little song makes anyway. And it proves to me how much world-building can be done in short, carefully-chosen lines.
Intellectual Property of Elizabeth Doman
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