'Cannonball' by Zach Bryan – Lyrics & Meaning

The official release of Zach Bryan's 'Cannonball' has been a long time coming, the 'Something in the Orange' hitmaker having teased the song last Fall. Now that it has finally arrived, alongside the other 24 tracks on his new With Heaven On Top collection, listeners can fully dive in to the reminiscent new tune.

The song is a series of memories, a simple number peppered with little vignettes that give deeper insight into the last year of Bryan's life, one filled with ups and downs, heartaches and triumphs, and most of all, music.

As far composition goes, there isn't much to 'Cannonball'. The ballad is mostly carried on casual guitar strums and the gentle pull of violin. While these sounds blossom and grow outward as the song progresses, there isn't much more that is born from the arrangement. It's a slow burn, one that perfectly mirrors the story that progresses against the song's rise and fall.

"We've come a long way since those drunk days on backroads
You and your high hopes always stayed down
You always saw the best in me
High in Yosemite, we hide"

There is a lot of lore that resides within a Zach Bryan tune, and surely, 'Cannonball' is rife with his personal mythology – Easter eggs are likely tucked into every corner of these vague lyrics.

Whatever the hidden messages, though, the artist obviously spends much of the song reminiscing. He brings forth memories with a friend or a lover, recalling their drunken days together and weeks spent voyaging across the country.

"And you were smiling like a thief with your cheek tearing teeth
You was praying to Jesus, we was running from the police
They're using my muses to make fun of me
And your face up while your blood sucks from an IV"

There are flashes of neon-shrouded Reno, Nevada, the enchanting Pacific Coast Highway of California, and the wondrous Yosemite National Park, centering this narratives out West.

As Bryan sings, these recollections are both fun and wicked, charming and ominous. They are presented more as a means of showcasing how much two people can change and drift apart, how much hindsight plays into and shapes the memories we hold onto.

These stories seem tinged in resentment and warped by time and personal change. Because of this, 'Cannonball' plays more like a eulogy than anything else.

"We spent it all on gasoline, PCH to Canon Beach
Laid in the sand and, man, I have never seen
Something more beautiful
Than you and your cannonball"

We've come a long way since those drunk days on backroads
You and your high hopes always stayed down
You always saw the best in me
High in Yosemite, we hide

Now I'm driving through Reno, those goddamn casinos
You always kept God close
Except that time you bet it all on black
Came back to the room with twenty grand

And you were smiling like a thief with your cheek tearing teeth
You was praying to Jesus, we was running from the police
They're using my muses to make fun of me
And your face up while your blood sucks from an IV

We spent it all on gasoline, PCH to Canon Beach
Laid in the sand and, man, I have never seen
Something more beautiful
Than you and your cannonball

And we've come a long way since then
She land at Blue West
You said anything other than
Another fucking cover of "Only The Good Die Young"

You were smiling like a thief with your cheek tearing teeth
You was praying to Jesus, we was running from the police
They covered all the songs that are best kept alone
'Cause your cannonball sits on Canon Beach alone
And they're using my muses to make fun of me
And your face up as your blood sucks from an IV

And I never thought it'd be you
I always thought I'd beat you to the Golden Gates
Won't you wait a few hours there by the door?
We've all been here before
But you stood up on your own
Your mom called my telephone
Said you've been standing and rambling about gambling
And howling out in the night high in Yosemite

And you were smiling like a thief with your cheek tearing teeth
You was praying to Jesus, we was running from the police
They sold off the town we used to call home
And your cannonball sits on Canon Beach alone

So call up your brothers, won't you take you a ride?
There are cannonballs falling in the heat of July
So call up your brothers, won't you take you a ride?
There's cannonballs falling in the heat of July
So call up your brothers, won't you take you a ride?
There's cannonballs falling in the heat of July
So call up your brothers, won't you take you a ride?
There's cannonballs falling in the heat of July
Call up your brothers, won't you take you a ride?
There's cannonballs falling in the heat of July
Call up your brothers, won't you take you a ride?
There's cannonballs falling in the heat of July

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For more on Zach Bryan, see below:

Zach Bryan

Artist