Deep Cuts

She is my muse, she is my muse, that makes me a musician

Muse plus -ician. And John can't help himself either: he told AP and Elvis Duran he follows his muse 'no pun intended.'

Sources: NPR · Genius · AP · iHeart

She got a set of horns / And this one a set of ears / And that one a set of wings

Devil horns, bunny ears, angel wings: the club's costume parade, sinners and saints in one line. And 'a set of horns' is literal too: the track has a full horn section arranged by Terrace Martin, sousaphone included.

Sources: Genius · Shatter the Standards · Apple Music

Came here with nothing but leave with your account

Account as in your bank account, and as in your whole story. The Shatter the Standards review called it 'the funniest thing on the album.'

Sources: Genius · Shatter the Standards

Dance like a sinner but pray like she's devout

The title track's muse is a dancer. In Greek myth, dance had its own Muse, Terpsichore. Fits that the album opens on her.

Sources: Genius · Wikipedia

instrumentals) Matt Jones Orchestra

Her Introduction / Under The Bridge Introduction

The two short intros are their own orchestra, conducted by Matt Jones, who is also the credited writer of Her Introduction. So Muse has two string sections: Larry Gold's and Matt Jones's.

Sources: Apple Music · Apple Music · Shatter the Standards

publishing credit) More Water From Nazareth

Easter egg in the credits: Pharrell's publishing company is listed as More Water From Nazareth.

Sources: Genius

I want you / Early in the morning / Are you awake? / You're my morning star

Daylight is quietly a church song. 'Morning star' is scripture (Revelation 22:16, 'the bright and morning star'), 'I'll be here in the morning' echoes Psalm 30:5 ('joy cometh in the morning'), and the 'help me sing it!' ad libs are choir-director talk. John led his church choir by 11 and directed a church choir for nine years.

Sources: Spotify · Bible (KJV) · Bible (KJV) · Encyclopedia.com

credits) Brent Paschke, electric guitar

A real Neptunes nod: Brent Paschke is N.E.R.D's guitarist. His band Spymob signed to the Neptunes' Star Trak label, and he played on 'In Search Of...'

Sources: Apple Music · Premier Guitar

Imagine me and you, imagine we could make it true

'Imagine me and you' opens The Turtles' 'Happy Together' (1967), a love song that historian James Perone says lives 'only in dreams.' That's exactly where Next Time ends up: 'in another world, another life.'

Sources: Genius · Wikipedia

Sometimes silence is way worse than violence

Malice's line answers a question from earlier on the album. On 'Are You Ok?' John asks 'Baby, you choose silence / Or you choose violence?' Bio says both songs came from the first sessions.

Sources: Genius · Genius · Shatter the Standards · Roc Nation

story) written while watching MobLand

John said Bodies reminds him of 'Again' and 'Another Again' from Once Again: 'songs filled with tension and friction.' He wrote the lyric with Samm Henshaw while watching MobLand. And Clipse are returning the favor after John's hook on 'The Birds Don't Sing.'

Sources: Roc Nation · Apple Music · Wikipedia

Only Heaven can save us, stretch my hands to the Lord

Straight out of Psalm 143:6, 'I stretch forth my hands unto thee.' The hook goes from war to prayer.

Sources: Genius · Shatter the Standards · Bible (KJV)

Send them cars back to the dealers

Pusha splitting the divorce assets, but 'dealers' coming from Pusha T after his whole catalog is a wink you can't miss.

Sources: Genius

While they was counting X's, you was counting blessings

X's as in exes (and the X's on a text), set against counting blessings. Malice, the brother who found God, gets the blessings line.

Sources: Genius

Summertime fireflies light up what lays in the streets

Sounds like a sweet childhood image until you know what's lying there. John told NPR the fireflies in the song are lighting up dead bodies in the street. Both of them grew up with real fireflies, Pharrell in Virginia and John in Ohio, where he called them lightning bugs.

Sources: Spotify · NPR

Where the markets ain't super, process on your plate / Then they process you for jail

One word, five meanings in a row: the projects, processed food where there's no supermarket (a food desert), being processed into jail, funeral processions, and finally a flip of Philly's Sixers rallying cry, 'Trust the Process.' The first four are right there in the lyric; the Sixers flip is our read, and it lands for a Penn guy.

Sources: Spotify · Wikipedia

The projects mean process where I was raised

Pharrell is the only credited songwriter on Fireflies, so 'where I was raised' is his story: he grew up in Atlantis, a housing project in Virginia Beach. John still called it the most autobiographical song on the album 'for both myself and Pharrell.'

Sources: Apple Music · Little Village · NPR · Spotify

And I'm my ancestors' thoughts / And their wildest dreams

A twist on the saying 'I am my ancestors' wildest dreams,' adding their thoughts too. John said he would well up with tears singing the bridge and playing it back.

Sources: Spotify · NPR · iHeart

choir credit) Voices of Fire, chorus director Bishop Ezekiel Williams

The gospel choir on Fireflies is Voices of Fire, led by Pharrell's uncle, Bishop Ezekiel Williams. It's the same choir on Clipse's 'The Birds Don't Sing,' the hook that kicked off this album.

Sources: Apple Music · Wikipedia · Wikipedia

delivery) the talk-sung verses

The spoken, preacher-like delivery on the verses was Pharrell's idea. John told AP the verses feel 'like I'm orating, like I'm speaking, rather than like I'm singing a melody.'

Sources: AP

video) the seamless white backdrop

Billboard pointed out that the Fireflies video's white backdrop echoes the 'Ordinary People' video, his first single era from Get Lifted.

Sources: Billboard

I, I'm a candle in the dark / And I come from a divine spark

Close to Proverbs 20:27, 'The spirit of man is the candle of the LORD.' The candle and the divine spark are the same idea.

Sources: Spotify · Bible (KJV)

Ain't no ten, five, one-year plan where I was raised

Boardroom words in a song about the block. With 'I hockey-stick every chart,' it's startup and strategy language, sung by a guy who worked at Boston Consulting Group before Get Lifted.

Sources: Spotify · Encyclopedia.com

credits) Kawan "KP" Prather, songwriter on five tracks, background vocals on Daylight

Pray For Ya / Her / Get Back / Are You Ok? / Under The Bridge / Daylight

KP is the Columbia A&R who signed John (his own site says so) and helped build the Get Lifted and 'Ordinary People' run. He co-wrote 'P.D.A.' on Once Again and produced 'Green Light' on Evolver. He also co-wrote Kendrick's 'Alright' with Pharrell, and back at LaFace he oversaw Usher's breakout. Twenty years later he co-writes five Muse songs.

Sources: Apple Music · Apple Music · Apple Music · KP · Wikipedia · Wikipedia · Wikipedia · Wikipedia

credits) Larry Gold, strings conductor and arranger on 11 tracks

Pray For Ya / Her / Daylight / Get Back + 7 more

The strings come from Philly. Larry Gold is the Philadelphia arranger behind The Roots and Jill Scott, and he's done strings for John before. He conducts on 11 Muse songs. Philly is where John went to Penn and started out.

Sources: Apple Music · Phila. Inquirer · JD Mgmt

credits) Terrace Martin, horn arranger, saxophones

Muse / Are You Ok? / Bodies On The Floor

Terrace Martin, a key architect of Kendrick's To Pimp a Butterfly, arranged the horns and plays sax. On Bodies On The Floor he plays alto, tenor AND baritone. With Pharrell and KP in the room, two of the writers of 'Alright' are on this album too.

Sources: Apple Music · Wikipedia · Wikipedia

interview) 'All of Me' and the 'Glory' of it all

Album

John's own wordplay on his catalog, from his SiriusXM takeover: people get 'caught in the All of Me and the Glory of it all' and forget he wrote 'Tonight (Best You Ever Had).'

Sources: SiriusXM