Good Old Days- Macklemore ft. Kesha

Growing up can be hard, and Macklemore’s “Good Old Days” from his 2017 album GEMINI is a perfect example of this. In addition to a feature from pop artist Kesha, this song is easily one of the most meaningful and nostalgia inducing songs out there. In the song Macklemore and Kesha effectively transports listeners back to their youth in order to demonstrate the importance of growing up and living in the present.
The song has multi-dimensional layers, both because of the speaker and the occasion. When specifically honing in on Kesha’s chorus of the song,

I wish somebody would have told me, babe
Someday, these will be the good old days
All the love you won't forget
And all these reckless nights you won't regret
Someday soon, your whole life's gonna change
You'll miss the magic of these good old days (1-6),

it’s hard not to take note of the speaker. When singing about her own past experience, she also uses allusion to bring her listeners back to a time before she went on a five year hiatus from the music business. Kesha’s first two albums Animal (2010) and Warrior (2012) represent a period of time I associate with care-free childhood. Hers are some of the first songs I can remember belting to on the radio in my car, successfully bringing me back to the good old days of my youth. This is unique from other songs, where most artists write about a specific experience, and are sometimes hard to relate for audience. In this sense, “Good Old Days” manifests itself as a universal language, open for everyone with all different types of backgrounds.

In between Kesha’s chorus, Macklemore delivers insightful lines using vivid imagery to make the song more specific to his own experience. This is in contrast to Kesha’s lyrics which are much more broad. In verse two, when Macklemore sings,

Wish I didn't drink all of that flask first
Wish I made it to homecoming
Got up the courage to ask her
Wish I would've gotten out of my shell
Wish I put the bottle back on that shelf (27-31)

Giving us a picture of his struggle with addiction. He uses the repetition of “Wish I” to invoke regret of his addiction, which he has described before as nearly ending his career, and show how the care free attitude they sing about, isn’t always a good thing.

The song wraps up by using lyrics about how the singers are proud of the experiences they have been through, “And I ain't worried 'bout the wrinkles 'round my smile” (52). Using the overarching theme to live in the moment while still appreciating your past, Kesha and Macklemore use allusion, multi-dimensional language, nostalgia, imagery, and by speaking in a universal language to create a meaningful work of poetry.