In tonight’s show, Johnny and I will be listening only to songs entitled “Breathe”. It’s part of an occasional series that I loosely call “you can’t copyright a title” (true, in the US Copyright code, which states that the law does not protect “words and short phrases such as names, titles, and slogans”). For the show, I always try to choose themes that are applicable to a variety of styles, artists, and eras. It turns out that songwriters have been thinking about breathing for a long time!
In the end we found more than 30 songs with this exact title, plus hundreds more that mentioned breathing in the lyric more generally, usually as some sort of metaphor for an emotion – loss, relief, recovery, respite, or self-expression. For completeness we’ve posted the whole list here; the ones we featured on the show are shown at the top. The full list provided a satisfyingly broad range of genres, from classic rock to soul, and electronic dance to blues. These songwriters are using the idea of “breathe” in an enormous number of different ways – call to action, a respite from hard times, an intimate moment with a lover, or a reflection of existential dread.
We begin with Pink Floyd’s “Breathe (In the Air)” , released in 1973. The Dark Side of the Moon‘s first track sets the album’s atmospheric tone with its dreamy guitars and soft vocals. David Gilmour’s electric guitar, bolstered by a Uni-Vibe effect, creates a floaty, ethereal sound that compliments Richard Wright’s Miles-Davis-influenced piano work. Roger Waters called the album a bit “adolescent”, but its simplicity is precisely what lends the song its lasting appeal.
The Prodigy – breathing for freedom
The Prodigy’s “Breathe” became an unexpected musical symbol of freedom and rebellion for the youth of Serbia when it was performed live in Belgrade in December 1995, shortly after the breakup of Yugoslavia. The song was released in 1996 as the second single for the band’s 1997 The Fat of the Land. The song samples a drum break from Thin Lizzy’s “Johnny the Fox Meets Jimmy the Weed”, and the whiplashing sword sound effect is a sample from Wu-Tang Clan’s “Da Mystery of Chessboxin”.
Anna Nalick’s debut single “Breathe (2 AM)” was first released in 2004, and then re-released a year later in 2005. This track is structured in three vignettes, each exploring human vulnerability, from late-night confessions to the inner turmoil of a young soldier.
I broke my own rules with Kate Bush’s “Breathing” (1980), slightly stretching the theme with an “ing”, but it is so hauntingly beautiful that I really wanted to include it (how they heck have we done 30 shows with no Kate Bush so far?!). The track is narrated from the perspective of a foetus witnessing nuclear fallout. Bush has stated that the track has musical roots in Pink Floyd’s The Wall, and although I think I can sense a sort of space-prog feeling, the production is so original that I’m finding it hard to hear the influence of a specific track. “Breathing” was the lead single from Bush’s third album Never for Ever; it was Bush’s first No. 1 album and was also the first album by a British female solo artist to top the UK Albums Chart, as well as being the first album by any female solo artist to enter the chart at No. 1.
Blu Cantrell’s “Breathe”, featuring Sean Paul, samples Dr. Dre’s “What’s the Difference,” from his album 2001, which in turn interpolates (i.e. re-records) the opening horns from Charles Aznavour’s 1966 song “Parce Que Tu Crois.” Here, “breathe” is used to emphasise emotional freedom in a romantic context. Sean Paul did not feature on the original album version, but was asked to record vocals for a remixed version of the song in 2003 – which went on to be Cantrell’s most popular song.
Our last song analysis is ‘Breathe’ by British DJ and producer Jax Jones and Norwegian singer-songwriter Ina Wroldsen, released in 2017. Wroldsen co-wrote Kylie Minogue’s 2023 song “Padam Padam”, and regular listeners of the show will recognise the musical and stylistic similarities between Minogue’s LGBTQ anthem and ‘Breathe’. Remember our recent show on pentatonics? That ‘dom dom dah dah dah dom” vocal hook is minor pentatonic all the way.
If time allows, we will get to Taylor Swift’s “Breathe”, in which Swift uses breathing as a metaphor for processing or coming to terms with heartbreak, and finding a way to continue. The song is from her second studio album Fearless, released in 2008, and features country singer Colbie Caillat.
Was Doja Cat influenced by Olivia Newton-John?
In our soundslike this week, we explore the melodic similarities between songs by Doja Cat, Olivia Newton-John, and Miley Cyrus and Dua Lipa. Should Doja Cat’s songwriting team have given a credit to the writers of ONJ’s 1981 hit just for three notes? Or is that three-note chorus fragment the ‘essence’ of ‘Physical’, and entitled to more protection because it’s a title hook? It just shows that music copyright doesn’t give us hard and fast rules on influence, much as many lawyers would love to see a ‘bright line rule’ on melodic similarity.
For the quiz you will need to identify famous pop hits that feature significant breaths from their signature expirations alone. I think there are some super easy ones here, but also some that only full-on pop nerds will get. As always, find the show and blog at joebennett.net/5live, with occasional Instagram extras at @joebennettmusicology.
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- Words: Joe Bennett and John Pierce O’Reilly.
- Audio production and machiavellian mashup manipulation: Rafi Waters and John Pierce O’Reilly.
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