Is "Hey, Soul Sister" Problematic?
Written by Daphne Bryant
Image courtesy of SNL
I know what you might be thinking. What is this woke bitch on about now? What could possibly be problematic about such a fun little love song?
Well, let’s break it down, shall we?“ Hey, Soul Sister” by Train is one of those songs that was on the radio all the time growing up. I know all the lyrics by heart, but I didn’t realize just how nuanced they were until I was much older. Starting with the title itself: in African American usage, often as a form of address, a soul sister is a synonym for a Black woman. There’s another, more general definition for soul sister which means a“ kindred spirit”, but considering the song is called Hey, Soul Sister, which is an address, we’ll go with the African American definition. The title itself implies the song is about a black woman, which isn’t necessarily problematic, that’s just a fact. This being said, I want to preface the rest of this article by making it clear that I did my research: Patrick Monahan, the lead (and white) singer of Train, has dispelled rumors that the song is about a black woman. Monahan claims that the track was actually written about his white wife, but even if this was true, there’s still so much to unpack in the actual lyrics itself.
Image courtesy of @kevonstage
I’m going to go out of order here, beginning with lyrics that are the most overt and ending with ones that are more subtle. The verse starts off strong with the references:“ The way you can cut a rug / Watching you is the only drug I need.” If you don’t know what“ cutting a rug” is, it’s a slang term for dancing in an energetic way. The phrase itself comes from a 1930s and 1940s dance called the jitterbug which, as you may have guessed, originated in African American communities in Harlem. Now we have two usages of African American vernacular; could it just be a coincidence?
I fear not. The very next lyrics are:“ So gangsta, I’m so thug / You’re the only one I’m dreaming of.” I don’t want to stereotype here, but American media has long since and wrongly perpetrated the idea that Black men and women are thugs; it’s not racist to find a parallel, but it is does feel icky that in a song with so many references to African American culture, Train would include a lyric like this. And, let’s go back to the claim that this song is about a white woman: that almost makes it worse, because so much about this song is black.
The last lyric I want to analyze?“ You’re the one I had decided who’s one of my kind”, which appears at the beginning of the track. This might be a stretch, but the phrase“ stick to your own kind” has often been used to ridicule interracial or multiethnic pairings. Take West Side Story, for example. If the narrator has decided that this woman he’s talking about is one of his kind, perhaps he means that they are meant to be, despite their differences in skin color. At this point, even knowing what we know about Train’s original intent, it’s hard not to put this song in a racial context.
I’m not the only one who’s speculated about the real meaning of“ Hey, Soul Sister.” There are plenty of Reddit threads and articles about it. You may have also seen“ Forbidden Romance”, a Saturday Night Live skit that aired in October of last year. The sketch sets the scene of a 1950s love story, where a white man in an interracial relationship woos his disapproving parents by performing“ Hey, Soul Sister”, dedicating the song to his black girlfriend. His white parents are won over, oblivious to the not-so-woke lyrics, but the girlfriend’s family are not impressed or happy about it. I was overjoyed to see that someone finally addressed the controversy in a mainstream way; it helps me feel less delusional about the whole thing.
Image courtesy of SNL
You see, even though they did it in a funny way, SNL drew attention to the sheer oddity that is“ Hey, Soul Sister.” Not a single lyric was changed in the sketch, but put in the context of an interracial romance, it’s uncomfortable, and annoying, and definitely racist. So, even if the song isn’t about a black woman, there’s still something off about it.
Is“ Hey, Soul Sister” problematic? Ridiculous and a little out of touch, definitely, yes. Problematic? Maybe. I suppose we’ll never really know what Train was thinking when they penned or released this, but we can certainly come up with our own theories about it all.
