Thought You Should Know by Morgan Wallen
An analysis of a song written as a tribute to the "Mamma" in one's life and their impact on the good, no matter how much time has passed
By: Jenna Manderioli
image via @morganwallen on Instagram.
Happy Monday! I know, it's another country song review AND another Morgan Wallen song. I'm catching up a little bit with the songs I couldn't wait to write about but just got super busy while I was at school. "Thought You Should Know" is another one! It’s now about a week before Father’s Day, so in a way, this can be a sentiment to both Holidays. And I PROMISE, next week I’ll review a different song genre other than country!!
Wallen's "Holiday Release" Pattern
It’s no question that Morgan Wallen’s theme of the year is releasing music around important holidays. “Thought You Should Know”’s release right around Mother’s Day was meaningful and added to the sentiment of the song’s release. It had everyone in their feels around the holiday–myself included. It definitely had me missing my mom as I missed my family’s Mother’s Day celebration while in college 8 hours from home.
And the song itself touches on some relatable messages about growing up and growing apart from parents, as Wallen is getting older, living on his own, and from what the lyrics tell us, he seems to have disconnected from his mom a little. This song addresses the silence between them and reminds his mother that he is still thinking of her from afar and trying to make her proud in his music career.
Wallen is the type to get sentimental in his song releases on social media. For “Thought You Should Know,” he shares:
Wallen's caption upon releasing the song, via. @morganwallen on Instagram
Even the way he writes to his mom in this caption SCREAMS “Mamma’s Boy,” Another common touched-upon theme in country music. Songs constantly reflect on hometowns, the past, growing up, and family.
I vividly remember driving to the Starbucks 10 minutes from Elon’s campus with one of my roommates, and the song came on her playlist. She asked me, “so do you think Morgan Wallen has issues with his mom orrrr…” Obviously, I looked into this, and Wallen was open in interviews about how his mom has been worried and expressed concern about his life decisions in the past, but he’s on a path where he’s working on fixing them and trying to make her proud.
This song is another build-up of Wallen indirectly addressing his messy past behaviors of 2021, and how he's reflecting on his actions to be a better person, and from this perspective, he hopes his mom sees his hard work paying off and is proud of him.
Breaking Down the Conversation
The single twang in the guitar at the top of the song introduces such a beautiful simplicity to the actual melody. The whole song isn’t rich with background instruments, it's mainly a single guitar and some soft drums that keep a steady beat in the background.
The first lyric kind of slapped me across the face as a college student far away from home.
“What’s going on Mama, Something’s just dawned on me, I ain’t been home in some months, Been chasing songs and women, Making some bad decisions, God knows I’m drinking too much.”
When I first heard this song, the last time I was home had been for Easter Weekend (when “Don’t Think Jesus” was released !!) so I saw my family about a month before, but before that, I was on a 3 month stretch from the beginning of January. So YEAH, Morgan, I ain't been home in some months, either.
I try to do a pretty good job of keeping in touch with my mom, but I’ve been known to be a very present person–I’m better at being in touch with people when I’m with them in the present. I of course texted my mom at school every single day but there were definitely weeks this year that I wish I called more than I did.
Wallen’s mom is just like any mom:
“Yeah I know you’ve been worrying ‘bout me, you’ve been losing sleep since ‘93.”
Wallen has the privilege of being able to show his mother his success through his growing celebrity music career. This song is sort of a shoutout/public conversation where he’s telling her “Look mama, I’m doing good! Everything you’ve taught me is paying off. I couldn’t have done it without you." And the way he delivers this is in a special, set-the-scene kind of way:
“I thought you should know, That all those prayers you thought you wasted on me, Must've finally made their way on through”
This touches on the time when Wallen’s mom was worried about his future, maybe he wasn’t turning out to be the man he should be. This once again references the path Morgan went on early in his music career success, where alcohol and nightlife were a major pull on his celebrity reputation. Of course, any mother would be worried sick about that and would want the world to know deep down, that her son is a good person.
“Yeah, I'm still proud of where I came from, Still your only damn son, Can you believe I'm on the radio? Just thought you should know, thought you should know, thought you should know”
You can’t help but love the reference to the line “Still your only damn son” in his Instagram caption for the song.
There’s always the notion of the importance of a Mother-Son relationship. According to a recent article from Mom Junction, a son learns essential social skills from his mom, and the relationship has an impact on behavioral tendencies. A study published in the National Library of Medicine reveals that a mother has an influence on the son’s likelihood of partaking in risky behavior: including influence towards alcohol.
So it makes perfect sense that when Wallen realizes he’s going down a bad path, he thinks of his mom and how she feels. The article also discusses how at an adulthood stage, a son seeks approval from his mother in his career aspirations, love aspirations, and life choices. Wallen is telling his mom about this “girl in Jefferson City” who he says reminds him of her. The psychology behind being with someone similar to your opposite–that’s a WHOLE other topic for another day.
The next verse is sweet, too. After filling in his mom on his whole life, he then asks about hers, saying “didn’t mean to ramble on ya..” whenever I do fill my parents in on college life, every phone call ends up being over an hour because of the millions of things I’ve got going on. So this also resonates to really any relationship–when you think of that one person you haven’t spoken to in a while, and all you want to do is tell them everything.
The writing throughout the song, which Wallen wrote alongside country singers Miranda Lambert and Nicolle Galyon, feels very personal. He gets into the specifics of his home life:
Yeah, how's that garden comin'? Is dad still doing dumb sh*t? And how'd he keep you this long?
I love this part because it’s in a very joking yet loving manner. My family is very much like this. We are all constantly making fun of each other or ganging up on each other (mostly my brother, dad, and I on my mom–sorry mom, you know we love you!) but it is always out of love. By writing it so casually, it genuinely feels like I’m listening in on a phone call to Lesli Wallen herself. Even mentioning that he’s sorry he’s calling so late, just sets the scene so simply and realistically.
Then we have the repetition of the chorus, sang just as sweetly as the first. It’s important to note how the song stays consistent with its chord progression throughout, and it is written in G major. The G major chord symbolizes life force, hope, self-consciousness, a desire for action, and success.
Meaning to his Mom
It’s safe to say Wallen is striving for all of these in this sort of letter he writes to his mom in the song. Wallen’s mother certainly had an incredible force on his life–enough for him to want to write this song!!
The last thing I of course wanted to know was his mom’s reaction. During an interview with Entertainment Tonight at the 2022 Billboard Music Awards, Leslie admitted she cried when she first wrote the song and was so humbled that Wallen took the time to write it as a tribute to her parenting.
I would say she did a great job raising him after all.
Morgan Wallen is a single dad. In the Entertainment Tonight interview, he also talks about how he wants to raise his kid the way his parents raised him, and being a dad is one of the things that has helped him rebuild his reputation and shift to healthier priorities. It just goes to show the importance of family, and how much influence family can have on one another. no matter how far away I move, or how much I grow up, I've got family on my side, and I know they want to see me succeed just as much as I want to make them proud, and Wallen gives any listener to this song the idea that he has this mentality, too.
As I’m writing this, I remembered I actually wrote my dad a song a few years back for one of his birthdays, and now I’m wondering if I should try to dig it up. I can say with full confidence, though, that it does not compare to this beautiful ode to a country star’s mother, thanking her for keeping his head on his shoulders, like Morgan Wallen’s “Thought You Should Know.”
