☝️ Key Points
- The song is about the emotional impact that music and lyrics have on the singer - she feels 'gently killed'.
- The lines 'Strumming my pain with his fingers, Singing my life with his words' express how she feels that the singer expresses her deepest feelings and her life with his music.
- The singer describes how she heard about the singer and his style, and how she wanted to hear him - the music and lyrics touch and understand her so much that it almost feels like he is reading her personal letters out loud.
- She feels that the singer knows her and her darkness, even if he doesn't really see her.
- The repetition of the chorus emphasizes the strong emotional impact that the music has on her.
- The song is a tribute to the power of music and its ability to evoke and express deep emotions.
Interpretation
The lyrics of the song 'Killing Me Softly' by
Roberta Flack are about an intense emotional experience that the singer has while listening to a song. She feels so understood by the song and the singer that she describes it as 'killing her softly', which is a metaphor for the profound emotional impact that the music has on her.
The line 'Strumming my pain with his fingers, Singing my life with his words' suggests that she feels that the singer is expressing her deepest feelings and her life with his music and lyrics.
In the lines 'I heard he sang a good song, I heard he had a style, And so I came to see him, And listen for a while' she describes how she has heard about the singer and his style, and decides to listen to him. She feels so moved and understood by the music and lyrics of the singer that it almost feels uncomfortable, as if he is reading her personal letters out loud ('I felt he found my letters and read each one out loud').
In the lines 'He sang as if he knew me, In all my dark despair, And then he looked right through me, As if I wasn't there' she describes how she feels that the singer knows her and her darkness, even though he doesn't really see her.
The repetition of the chorus 'Killing me softly with his song' emphasizes the strong emotional impact that the music has on her. She feels 'softly killed' by the music, which is a metaphor for the profound emotional impact that the music has on her.
The lyrics of the song are a tribute to the power of music and its ability to express and evoke deep emotions.