Tuesday’s Gone in Dazed and Confused

For Dazed and Confused I couldn’t help but notice the song playing in the background as the party under the Moon Towers started to wind down was “Tuesday’s Gone” by Lynyrd Skynyrd. I feel this song was perfect for this scene to end. The instruments playing before Skynyrd starts singing is slow and laid back. There is a summer feel to the tone of the song. Stating that Tuesday’s gone gives great meaning to the characters, even though they don’t realize it yet. It’s the end of the school year, some are going off to college, others are about to start high school, and everyone by the end of the day is different.
During the day, Mitch was just a junior high kid who could only look forward to getting paddled by the upper classmen. By the end of the night, he has been accepted and has lost his childhood behind. Randy couldn’t choose between playing football or smoking weed. He found his voice and decided to stick it to the man by continuing to smoke. By just looking at these two characters, their pasts are gone. A verse in the song that stuck out was “Tuesday, you see, she had to be free”. Though the song has to do with leaving a man’s love, I view it as the character’s leaving their pasts behind and starting a new. This can be seen especially through Mitch and Randy. Both needed that freedom from their past to move forward and onto their future paths. This was an excellent song to show that character development.