We’ve seen John Mayer do a lot of things during his time in the music spotlight. From literally running through the halls of his high school, to dating some of the most famous women in the world, dressing like the world’s least trustworthy hitchhiker for an album cover, and spending the better part of the last decade apologizing for quotes he made interviews with Playboy and Rolling Stone, Mayer has said and done more than most. Through it all he’s maintained his message of rising above the so-called real world, but that lesson has now taken on new meaning thanks to the singer’s video for “Still Feel Like Your Man.”
Did you know most things in life and art are pointless? Some would dare say everything is pointless. We know so little of the universe, yet we walk around as if we have it all figured out. We push aside the knowledge we’re essentially helpless if ever faced with a meteor or natural disaster that could wipe everything and everyone off the face of existence. We worry about things like money, possessions, and appearances when deep down we instinctively know none of it amounts to anything in the end. We live as if everything going with the flow is the only way, but something inside us knows that is a lie.
John Mayer recognized the lie early on. His first smash hit, “No Such Thing,” was all about this important coming of age moment. The same theme has run throughout his body of work and now comes full circle with “Still Feel Like Your Man,” a song for those who still can’t move on. The video finds Mayer moving through a surreal world filled with people dancing panda suits and mysterious women who wear eye patches without needing them. There is a bit of a narrative about longing and unrequited love, but really the clip celebrates the randomness of existence. The person Mayer is singing to may have moved on, but his feelings remain unchanged dispute him knowing this to be true. Likewise, she no doubt knows of his longing and continues to go on living because she simply does not care. His feelings don’t matter to her, just like hers don’t change his, and in the purgatory that is emotional turmoil Mayer finds peace in the joke that is meaninglessness.
If there is anything to be learned from “Still Feel Like Your Man,” aside from the fact Mayer has quickly established him as the king of soft rock once more (you read that right, Ed Sheeran), it’s the life is short and crazy and maybe a little dumb. It’s also the only one we get, so we might as make the most of it and feel all the things we can feel. You live and you die, these things are certain, but the rest is a playground limited only by your imagination. Live it up. Dance if you want to. Hell, dance because you can.
Mayer’s new album, The Search for Everything, arrives April 14.
