'South and Pine' by Zach Bryan – Lyrics & Meaning

For Zach Bryan, life often seems to happen on city streets, the artist having a penchant for romanticizing mundanity and making poetry out of the everyday. With the arrival of his sixth studio album, With Heaven On Top, which dropped on Friday (Jan. 9), comes 'South and Pine'.

The sweeping serenade captures a moment in time, turning a summer city night into three minutes of true clarity as the artist reckons with a relationship's heart-shattering end.

'South and Pine' is one of With Heaven On Top's more delicate offerings, the song a gentle lullaby of precise strums and exacting percussion. Deep brass, tinny strings and ambient keys eventually join the mix, but the song is mostly subdued and simple, the composition allowing Bryan's words to shine.

"The weather's hot, the sun is shinin'
Used to call the love of mine
That's why it is raining in my mind
And love and loss and lightning strikes
They all seem the same at night
Short and quick and never the same twice"

'South and Pine' is a memory. The artist takes listeners back to city streets and summer outings when a love felt new and hopeful. That quickly fades though, this memory tainted by the heartache to come.

Soon, this reminiscing becomes both pleasurable and painful, what would become of this relationship starting a war in his mind. The good times get warped and the bad moments are made even more so.

"But if you could see her now in her New York City gown
Dancin' with her heels on South and Pine
Then you'd know the way it goes, my honey
A fucking show for more blood money
Another day you're dancin' in my mind
Another day you're better off not mine"

Throughout the song, Bryan attempts to reckon with the end of this relationship in question, tracing where it began and how it all ended. He uses these memories that took place on the corner South and Pine as guidelines, realizing that, in the end, no matter how painful, it's better that these two lovers are no longer together.

"The weather's hot, the sun is shinin'
Used to call the love of mine
That's why it is raining in my mind"

The weather's hot, the sun is shinin'
Used to call the love of mine
That's why it is raining in my mind
And love and loss and lightning strikes
They all seem the same at night
Short and quick and never the same twice

But if you could see her now in her New York City gown
Dancin' with her heels on South and Pine
Then you'd know the way it goes, my honey
A fucking show for more blood money
Another day you're dancin' in my mind
Another day you're better off not mine

The weather's hot, the sun is shinin'
Used to call the love of mine
That's why it is raining in my mind

But if you could see her now in her New York City gown
Dancin' with her heels on South and Pine
Then you'd know the way it goes, my honey
A fucking show for more blood money
Another day you're dancin' in my mind
Another day you're better off not mine

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For more on Zach Bryan, see below:

Zach Bryan

Artist