The lyrics of “Shallow” talk about two people’s feelings for each other and their perception of the world and their relationship. In the movie, “A Star is Born,” the power of the flawed relationship between the characters of Ally and Jackson, culminating in Jackson’s suicide, is stomach-ripping in both power and intensity. Gaga herself said in an interview in December of 2018 that the basis for the song was a simple conversation between a man and a woman who are partners in both business and love. In particular, the line, “Tell me something, boy. Are you tired of trying to fill that void?” hits home to anyone who has ever had a difficult succession of failures in love and finally finding someone to take that place even if the relationship is doomed. “Shallow,” by Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper, has been described as one of the greatest songs in any movie in all of history, possibly even the greatest movie song of all time.

Ronson’s View

Mark Ronson wrote “Shallow” with Gaga. His main point is that even though the song is from the perspective of Gaga’s character in the film, Ally, it’s impossible to write a good song expressing those kind of emotions if you haven’t experienced something similar yourself. He said that you have to inject a piece of yourself into the song. Ronson also made the point that he doesn’t compose by himself a lot of the time. He gets his inspiration from working with someone with whom he can toss around ideas, make helpful suggestions on the lyrics, and other meaningful contributions to the creative process.

And, of course, Ronson acknowledges Gaga as a genius. He said to Howard Stern in early 2019 that most of the material for the song was in her head and that he just helped to facilitate her genius. Both of them were surprised that Bradley Cooper, who Stern rightfully said was not known for his singing prowess, had the No. 1 song. Both put it down to Gaga’s star power and songwriting genius. They give Cooper his due, though, by remarking on how hard he worked and how many demos he made in trying to hone his chops for that song. Rather than have a studio guitarist play it with Cooper faking, Cooper actually plays the guitar on the song, which Ronson said lent an air of authenticity to the performance that wouldn’t otherwise be there.

Lyrics

Tell me somethin’, girl
Are you happy in this modern world?
Or do you need more?
Is there somethin’ else you’re searchin’ for?

I’m falling
In all the good times I find myself
Longin’ for change
And in the bad times I fear myself

Tell me something, boy
Aren’t you tired tryin’ to fill that void?
Or do you need more?
Ain’t it hard keeping it so hardcore?

I’m falling
In all the good times I find myself
Longing for a change
And in the bad times I fear myself

I’m off the deep end, watch as I dive in
I’ll never meet the ground
Crash through the surface, where they can’t hurt us
We’re far from the shallow now

In the sha-ha, sha-hallow
In the sha-ha, sha-la-la-la-low
In the sha-ha, sha-hallow
We’re far from the shallow now

Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh
Whoa

I’m off the deep end, watch as I dive in
I’ll never meet the ground
Crash through the surface, where they can’t hurt us
We’re far from the shallow now

In the sha-ha, shallow
In the sha-ha, sha-la-la-la-low
In the sha-ha, shallow
We’re far from the shallow now

Source: LyricFind

Songwriters: Andrew Wyatt / Anthony Rossomando / Mark Ronson / Stefani Germanotta

Shallow lyrics © Concord Music Publishing LLC, Downtown Music Publishing, Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Universal Music Publishing Group

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