Castle on a Hill by Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran wrote the song, “Castle on a Hill” in 2017 as a piece of his Divide album. In this song Sheeran takes a nostalgic look back at his childhood. Although there are many aspects of the song that are specific to his childhood, the song causes listeners to look back at their childhoods as well. In his song he covers a variety of his own memories uniting the good and bad aspects of each, which leaves listeners with the desire to make memories to look back upon similarly or to revisit memories of their own childhoods.
In the song Sheeran takes an almost chronological order to his song, beginning the first verse in his early childhood:
When I was six years old I broke my leg
I was running from my brother and his friends
And tasted the sweet perfume of the mountain grass I rolled down
I was younger then, take me back to when I
The first line shows that he is revisiting a memory from when he was just six years old. The first two lines seem to elicit a bad memory for Sheeran as he was chased which resulted in the breaking of his leg. Although, in the next two lines he seems to find the good in this bad situation as he describes rolling down the hill, after the fall that broke his leg, as “sweet perfume”. In this verse he seems to sing about the good and bad experiences he had in his childhood, marrying them to create an overall nostalgic effect.
Over the next four verses Sheeran reminiscences of his teenage years. He uses the lyrics, “running from the law through the backfields and getting drunk with my friends” which depicts his teenage years as teenagers commonly get into trouble. He then uses lyrics such as “made friends and lost them through the years” and “me and my friends have not thrown up in so long, oh how we’ve grown” to give the impression that he and his friends are in the growing up stage. As losing friends as you get older is a common aspect of growing up. His lyrics about not throwing up in a long time to show that he and his friends have grown up and no longer drink frequently, as most people stop drinking excessively for fun as they get past their younger years.
Sheeran then uses the seventh verse to tell of where his friends are at in the current stages of their lives:
One friend left to sell clothes
One works down by the coast
One had two kids but lives alone
One’s brother overdosed
One’s already on his second wife
One’s just barely getting by
But these people raised me and I can’t wait to go home
These lines show that as his friends aged they had many struggles in their lives. This verse illustrates that some of his friends have been successful, while others have not. Although he uses the last line of this verse to say that even though these people may not be thriving, they raised him and he is still attached to them.
The lyrics are accompanied with instrumentals that have an upbeat sound to them. This causes listeners to want to revisit their own memories or if the listener is younger it causes them to want to make memories of their own. The chorus of the song has both the loudest and most upbeat instrumentals in the song accompanied with the lyrics:
I’m on my way
Driving at ninety down those country lanes
Singing to “Tiny Dancer”
And I miss the way you make me feel, and it’s real
We watched the sunset over the castle on the hill
Over the castle on the hill
Over the castle on the hill
In these lyrics he makes a reference to the song Tiny Dancer which is a peaceful and slow tempo song. He accompanies this reference with lyrics about driving ninety miles an hour. In essence, he compares a fast-moving car with a slow song. The fast-moving car symbolizes the making of the memories and the slow song symbolizes how he is now looking back upon these memories. These together cause listeners to think of how it feels to be driving quickly, singing in the car with friends. It pushes them to either revisit these memories or to make them, so they have something to revisit later in life.
Throughout Sheeran’s entire song he makes references to his past in order to nostalgically look back at his childhood. He uses elements that can be appreciated by listeners of all age groups. These elements may cause listeners of different age groups to interpret the song differently. Although, it has one thing in common for all listeners; memories, whether it causes listeners to revisit them or to make them.
Creative Minds 