BUCKCHERRY, ‘Sorry’
“I’m sorry I’m bad, I’m sorry you’re blue
I’m sorry about all the things I said to you
And I know I can’t take it back
I love how you kiss, I love all your sounds
And baby the way you make my world go ’round
And I just wanted to say I’m sorry.”
EXPERT SAYS:
* “Strong and explicit, but unspecific about what will change in the future.”
— Barry O’Neill
Grade: B
AKON, ‘Sorry, Blame It On Me’
“I realize everything I do is affecting the people around me
So I want to take this time out to apologize for things I have done
And things that have not occurred yet
And the things they don’t want to take responsibility for.”
EXPERT SAYS:
* “Basically, what Akon is telling people in this song is, ‘If you want to use me as a scapegoat and blame me, go ahead and I’ll take it.’ And that’s not an apology.”
— Etiquette expert Lizzie Post
Grade: F
LIFEHOUSE, ‘Whatever it Takes’
“It kills me that I hurt you this way
The worst part is that I didn’t even know
Now there’s a million reasons for you to go
But if you can find a reason to stay
I’ll do whatever it takes
To turn this around
I know what’s at stake
I know that I’ve let you down”
EXPERT SAYS:
* “In an apology you’d like to know what caused [the rift] and what it will take so that this will never happen again. At least this [apology] begins to make an effort at the fact that it will change.”
— Gary Fine, an NU sociology professor
Grade: B+
THE DECEMBERISTS, “The Apology Song”
“I’m really sorry Steven
But your bicycle’s been stolen
I was watching it for you
‘Til you came back in the fall
Guess I didn’t do a good job after all”
EXPERT SAYS:
* “Quite good. [The apology] admits what was done, why it was wrong and recognizes the harm caused.”
— Barry O’Neill, a folksinger and UCLA political science professor
Grade: A
EVANESCENCE, ‘Forgive Me’
“Can you forgive me again?
I don’t know what I said
But I didn’t mean to hurt you
I heard the words come out
I thought that I would die
It hurts so much to hurt you.”
EXPERTS SAY:
* “It’s kind of silly and it’s cheapening in what an apology is and what an apology can do. You should not offer an apology if you don’t even know what it is you’re apologizing for.”
— Max Clarke, an NU student who has written about apologies
Grade: D
Lesson learned?
Be careful how you apologize, or else you might hear someone singing this tune. [V.V.]
TIMBALAND featuring OneRepublic, ‘Apologize’
“You tell me that you’re sorry
Didn’t think I’d turn around and say …
That it’s too late to apologize, it’s too late
I said it’s too late to apologize, it’s too late.”
EXPERT SAYS:
* “This indicates the difficulties in giving a string of poor apologies. Words are easy [to say], but doing something about those words is much more difficult. At some point in a relationship, it becomes necessary to cut the strings.”
— Fine
