Little Big Town’s “A Better Man”

Foremost, I realize that this post will be of less significance since it’s pretty late in comparison to the release of this song. Secondly, I’m cool with that, because, since the song’s release, I felt a connection to the lyrics. A previous relationship fused me to the words of this song. To be completely honest, I had this song on repeat (via Amazon Music) while I tried my best to fight back tears and fall asleep every night. There are two types of relationships to which I can relate this song. The second type — my current relationship — has provided the song with enough validated importance that I write about it, as opposed to just playing it on repeat while I try to fall asleep and forget reality.

The lyrics are somewhat easy with which to establish a personal identity. They scream, “This is what it feels like for a true empath to love a narcissist.”

However, since the lyrics are oviously about a narcissistic relationship, I won’t dwell on them. However, the video is much deeper than the lyrics, and I think everyone should understand the video in order to fully appreciate it.(Note: The brunette lead singer plays no factor in the story line of this video. The blonde is the character on which to focus.)

1. The dripping faucet signifies a lack of male focus and oddly placed priorties (or lack thereof).
2. Watch the blonde as she sips her coffee with an apparent breakthrough of wisdom. She is wearing her wedding band, which signifies a dedication that we will soon understand her hsuband unforuntaley lacks. She is looking out the window at something for which she longs — the affection of her husband. Nonetheless, the camera quickly focuses on the husband’s watch, wedding band, and a lighter. The watch indicates the passage of time wased. The wedding band indicates the husband’s lack of devotion to his marriage (in comparsion to the wife’s devotion, since, as I stated, she is wearing her ring). The lighter signifies the bad habits of the husband.
3. The blonde heads towards the yard. We then see her running in an open field. The video doesn’t show her destination, but it is clear that she isn’t physically running from anything. Instead, she is dreaming and hypotheizing on the “what if’s” that could encompass her life if she left her husband (and/or life) at that very moment and never looked back. Reality strikes, however, and she’s back to tending to the laundry. Her son runs through the clothes hanging on the line, but she still looks into the distance in search of her husband. This indicates that her life does not revolved around her child/children, despite how common such an existence is nowadays. Her family isn’t whole without her husband, so she looks into the distance hoping that he will show up.
4. It’s easy to miss this, but the child running through the clothes continues to run through them as an adult. Even after the child has grown into a man, the mother is still looking into the distance in search of her husband.
5. Apparently, the husband doesn’t show up any time in the near future. The wife is seen sitting on the bed, still staring out the window. This indicates her unmet need of intimacy. Her thoughts are disrupted by her son, back in his child form, walking in the room, and his presence provides her with happiness as she accepts her himinto her arms. As mother and son embrace one another, it seems to me that they both miss the husband/father, and they are silenting mourning his absence. Importantly, the son is taking on the role of being the man of the house, since he feels as though he has no choice.
6. The child is then seen (in his adult form) driving the truck.Note that his immediate attention is not on the road ahead (he’s not focused on the future), but instead, is on the person beside him. This person is his father — the man who was absent during his childhood and emotionally and physically unavailable to his mother. Things have changed, however, and the driver of the truck is now.a father himself, as his son sits in between him and his own absent father. Sadly but not surprisingly, the driver of the truck still looks towards his own father with a look of apprecation and satisfaction, and he seems glad to actually get a chance to spend a moment with the father he’s longed to know for so long.
7. Notice the solemn look on the old man’s face, and the fact that he abruptly turns his head to look out the window — opposite of where his son and grandson are seated.
8. The camera focuses on the old man’s cigarette, which emphasizes the poor decisions he has made throughout his lifetime. This also lets us know that the old man is the owner of the ring, watch, and lighter that was on the counter at the beginning of the video.
9. The watch comes into focus on the old man’s wrist as the grandson grabs hold of his arm. The old man’s face remains solemn and unemotional. Regardless, the child looks at his grandfather with an undeniable expression of admiration. The child’s face is seen in the mirror to emphasize that this scene is a flashback that the child recalls during his adulthood.
10. The child, all grown up, is then seen sitting on the edge of the bed with a half-filled box of belongings. He is looking out the window for his wife, just like his grandmother did in search of his absent grandfather.
11. The child (still all grown up) is then seen running through the same field his grandmother ran through at the beginning of the video, because he’s similarly running towards his spouse to proclaim his desire to salvage his marriage, just as his grandmother had done. He’s then seen in the kitchen, and I assume the manilla folders on the counter contain divorce papers. The dirty dishes indicate the absence of his wife.
12. The brunette lead singer in the video is this man’s absent wife. She is singing the song to him to emphasize a pattern of behavior, which has apparently been passed down for (at least) three generations. Though we don’t see the actions that caused his wife to leave, we must assume that he acted the same as his father and grandfather.
13. A little girl then runs through the house to find her father, because she needs someone to help fix her hair (in absence of the mother). The man takes responsibility for his daughter despite the absense of his wife. This indicates that the man is attempting to break the cycle of abandonment/emotional unavailability, despite the fact that he had already (apparently) failed as a husband. No matter, he refused to fail as a father.
14. We then see a flashback. The orignial woman — the grandmother — stands against the wall of the porch as she watches her son play ball with her grandson. Her husband, however, is seen with the same solemn, expressionless look as his eyes intenitonally overlook the bond between his son and grandson. He touches his watch to indicate his life wasting away.
15. The camera briefly shows us that the grandson is now wearing the old man’s watch. His father is then seen running in that same field in the direction of wanting to salvage his marriage and family. However, it was too late. His wife was apparently gone.
16. The brunette herself is then seen running, and it flashes back to all the characters running through time — both women running away from their marriage, as well as little boys running to find their absent parents.
17. We are back to the boy, all grown up as he closes his lighter, indicating his breaking a bad cycle. His focus remains on his daughter, and though his father and grandfather were absent where they were needed, the boy has grown into a man who refuses to be the same type of man as the generations before him.