Maisie Peters’ Musical Bookends in “The Good Witch”

 My favorite musician of all time is British singer-songwriter Maisie Peters. Not only does she put on an incredible concert (seeing her live for my 21st birthday a few years back is still one of the highlights of my life), she is an incredible lyricist. Whether that’s the heartbreaking bridge of “You You You,” the comedically angry lyrics of “Volcano,” or the highly motivational bridge of “There It Goes,” Maisie has some of the best lyrics I have ever heard in my life. 

Maisie Peters performing at the Glastonbury Festival 

An example of both her wonderful lyricism and the music itself that stand out are the opening and closing songs of her 2023 album The Good Witch, “The Good Witch” and “History of Man.” Though lyrically different, the chorus of “History of Man” has the same melody as the verses of “The Good Witch”, serving as auditory bookends to the album. What especially stands out to me is the fact that even though the two songs have incredibly different messages, these melodic similarities fit the tone of both songs, helping them send a similar rhetorical message.

The songs both use largely tragic lyrics, but “The Good Witch” leans a bit more comic at times, with lines like “still miss you, but I know now it’ll pass” and “I will try forgiveness, but I will not forget,” showing "a self determination to move on and improve. “History of Man” is wholly tragic, and overall representative of the tragedy of the female experience. There are countless lyrics that represent this, but two that stand out the most are “women’s hearts are lethal weapons, did you hold mine and feel threatened?” and “I hold on, I try to hold your hand, I save you a seat and then you say you wanna stand.” The last lyric mentioned follows the same melodic pattern as “still argue like my mother and suppress stuff like my dad,” from “The Good Witch, which, despite seeming tragic, actually has quite a few comic elements when looked at in context with the rest of the song.

“History of Man” by itself stands out to me as my favorite song of all time, and one that I believe everybody should listen to at least once in their life. Maisie uses references and imagery beautifully, with mentions of biblical stories, Greek mythology, historical events, and more. There are other songs on The Good Witch that do this as well, namely “Wendy,” titled after the famous Peter Pan character and “Yoko,” named after Yoko Ono, but none do it quite as poignantly as “History of Man.” The song stands on its own as meaningful, both in general and rhetorical communication, but the connection of it back to the title track makes it even more significant. Both songs are about femininity and identity, with “History of Man” capping it off with a suitable amount of rage. 

Does “History of Man” fully stand on its own or is it majorly aided by the elements of “The Good Witch” found within it?