carl's version is more proactive desperate trying. his delivery speeds up and gets frantic like he's trying to outrun the inevitable doom. peter's version kind of sounds like a lullaby....soft, weaving, gentle inevitable doom. he's not giving up but he's making peace with loving someone even when you know it'll destroy you both, tenderness in the face of catastrophe. neither of them are giving up but taking different paths to the same "i choose you even though we'll crash and burn." also the whole why dont you just get up and go (resigned) vs peter's why cant YOU (frustrated). kind to say (genuine/earnest) vs nice to say (superficial). if you'll stay (plea) vs if you stay (condition). carl is trying to fix it, trying to outrun the crash, almost taking full responsibility for "failing" peter and this love in his version.
we all know who looks like baby jane here which means carl is grimaldi. carl's the one who is falling, carl's the clown. BUT WAIT. in his studio version he sings "you laugh and fall just like grimaldi" while peter's version says that he laughs and falls, claiming it for himself. theyre both saying im the clown while also saying no youre the clown. even the assignment of the roles is contested. theyre both grimaldi. theyre both baby jane. grimaldi is the melancholic clown. baby jane is the washed up performer. two people in theatrical makeup where the real pain shows through the performance and theyre singing this to each other, calling each other out. you're grimaldi, no you are, you're baby jane, no you are. we're both performers playing roles and destroying the thing we love most. this could be something. could be nothing.
back to st jude...they could have picked any saint but went with the one for impossible situations, lost causes, and its not even a confident prayer. its MAYBE if we pray, she MIGHT hear my pleas. just one night, just tonight. dont fix us just help us not destroy each other for like six hours please. but even divine intervention is a long shot. prayer as a last resort when you literally cannot fix it yourself, begging for one night without fighting because thats the best you can hope for. theyre not praying to be better or love better, theyre praying for temporary ceasefire. that's the difference between their versions too, one is aspiration (i want to be better for you, let me love you properly) and one is mitigation (i want to stop being worse, let me not destroy this). carl is actively trying to do better, reaching for something. peter is just trying to do less damage, holding back from something. one is trying to build, one is trying not to destroy. and even carl saying "your love just crumbles in my hand" (not love in general, YOUR love specifically), he doesn't know what to do with peter's love, how to keep it safe when they can't stop fighting and he just wants to do better. and even that won't help!!!
also st jude is male. they use she for a male saint. and then the pronouns switch in the second verse, suddenly it's SHE took HIM to stepney and made him a wife. the pronouns do not matter because theyre both everything to each other. who's he, who's she, does it even matter when you're this entangled? (also, "carlos and i are husband and wife")
the difference in the opening lines, peter's "hollow romance" vs carl's "plasticine romance". hollow is empty, no potential but plasticine is malleable and soft. it can be moulded into anything, yes it's synthetic/not "real" but it's full of possibility. it can become whatever they need it to be. it tells you everything about their different fears. peter sees a void, feel's like theres nothing solid to hold onto even though he knows exactly what he wants. and yeah plasticine is malleable and full of potential but its also unstable. the way their love keeps morphing and refusing to fit into any defined form. peter's terror is that that there's nothing there, carl's terror is that there is something there but it won't stay still long enough to grasp. same formless love, two completely different anxieties about it. carl sees endless possibility and that makes him frantic and peter sees an empty space and that makes him resigned. it's two different versions of the same doomed story. one trying to fix it, the other accepting the inevitable
the result of @skintnminted and i's insane analysis session. thank u, ur brain is beautiful
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