With an impressive and lengthy career, singer-songwriter Gary Dranow has released his single “Bodywise” available everywhere now. His music career has gone across decades, his album from 1997 Destiny Road was fully released last year and included songs he had written when he was 12 years old. Through his success, he has over 60,000 monthly listeners on Spotify alone.
“Bodywise” tackles the topic of the pressure women face to not age in society. There is this stigma that women need to look young and thin forever, while men can become more attractive with age.
As a woman, this song resonates with me right from the beginning. “every little girl sees herself growing old / and never fitting in the mold / and her mother’s words they cut just like a knife / clinging to what’s left of a life.” Dranow is known for his remarkable storytelling, and this song is no different. We meet this little girl who immediately picks up on how growing old is bad and starts holding herself to these impossible standards. The narrator is able to chime in and say that the girl is “something to behold.” The storytelling in this comes across as a more mature version of One Direction’s “You Don’t Know You’re Beautiful,” covering the darker topics like a mother’s negative words and men’s objectification of women.
The pop/rock track has a very coffeehouse 90s vibe to it, with Dranow’s rasp giving him a sound similar to John Mayer – this also comes across in the smooth electric guitar solo too.
Overall, the song cleverly crafts a way to tell this story that is respectful and capturing the full picture. Dranow is not speaking for women or acting like there is a simple solution, throughout the song we find the little girl in the song only becomes “Bodywise” with age and time.
Written by Katie Power
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