Drinking Song by Haley Heynderickx

There’s a light at the end that I know
Where culprits on carpets make sense of it all
And the sky is all indigo
And the young ones just want to go home

And the edge of the world makes it seem
That everyone gone is still singing the same song
And I can believe in these things:
That everyone’s singing along
The good and the bad and the gone

And there’s a light at the end of a dock
Sending green little postcards to a city I love so much
And the water makes sense of her laugh
And wrinkles the backs of my hands

There’s a light at the end where I smoke
And your name puffs in colors with people I know
The song that was stuck in her head
Becomes all the words you forget
And everyone is singing along
The good and the bad and the gone

Drinking Song by Haley Heynderickx

This is Drinking Song by Haley Heynderickx, released in January 2016 in her album I Need to Start a Garden. My girlfriend listens to her music frequently and one time while hanging out, they pointed the song out to me. They knew I was taking a writing class on The Great Gatsby, and I quickly recognized the reference within the lyrics. Haley sings about a light at the end of a dock, an explicit reference to one of the most iconic symbols in The Great Gatsby we all know. After this realization, I listened to the song more closely to analyze its connections to The Great Gatsby and explore an interpretation of the novel through the song.

The main reference to The Great Gatsby is in the third verse of the song, where Haley mentions a light at the end of the dock. This is clearly alluding to the green light at end of the Buchanan home, which Nick saw Gatsby reaching out to. However, the song can be intrepreted through the lens of the novel, as if Gatsby himself sang the song. Reading the lyrics in this way reveals more potential connections to the novel.

There’s a light at the end that I know
Where culprits on carpets make sense of it all

The first line foreshadows the Great Gatsby reference. The second line is more interesting. Culprits on carpets could be referring to guilty rich people. In The Great Gatsby, Daisy and Tom are culprits on carpets. They comfortably let Gatsby take the blame for Myrtle’s murder while they live their high class life somewhere safe.

That everyone gone is still singing the same song
And I can believe in these things:
That everyone’s singing along

These lines can relate to Gatsby’s refusal to move on from the past. He believes that Daisy is still willing to be with him, that she sings the same song. He’s naive enough to think that nothing has changed between the two of them since he left for the war.

And there’s a light at the end of a dock
Sending green little postcards to a city I love so much

The first line is the reference to the iconic scene, of course. The rest of the lyrics require a more creative interpretation. The second line makes me think of Gatsby showing off for Daisy. She is the city he loves and the postcards really represent his attention to her. We send postcards to those who care about us, to share with them how our vacation is going and the places we see. By interpreting the song as Gatsby’s, he keeps giving Daisy his attention, or his postcards.

And your name puffs in colors with people I know
The song that was stuck in her head
Becomes all the words you forget

This part of the song is interesting when applied to Gatsby. He listens to the conversations among his party guests for any mention of Daisy, since the parties are ultimately for the purpose of finding a connection to her. Though the second line uses the pronoun of “her”, I continue to interpret it through Gatsby. The song stuck in his head is the love he had with Daisy, but Daisy has forgotten the words. Her song is stuck on repeat in his head, but she has moved on and left him. The name of the song would be especially fitting if Gatsby reacted to this with depression and dejection and resorted to alcoholism, but he remains ever hopeful and naive.