My Jon Sims Playlist: Explained

Alright! Time for that explainer of my playlist! First. Here it is.

It’s 28 songs so imma put a read more immediately…

Spider by Bo Burnham

This is a haha jokey one but also not. Like. It’s a short thirty-ish seconds of a dude screaming about a spider. There’s not much to explain except we as a fandom need to remember Jon’s arachnophobia and his trauma.

9 to 5 by Dolly Parton

“Barely gettin’ by; it’s all takin’ and no givin’. They just use your mind and they never give you credit.” No? How about. “You’re just a step on the bossman’s ladder, but you’ve got dreams he’ll never take away.” I mean. Come the fuck on. I rest my case

Sorrow by The National

“Sorrow found me when I was young. Sorrow waited. Sorrow won.” This line stuck with me when I first saw it here something like a decade ago. It felt like I was waiting for him to use it in a playlist. Cause I mean. Isn’t that just him?

I Am A Man Of Constant Sorrow from O Brother, Where Art Thou

Don’t look at me like that. I am from Tennessee. It’s in my DNA to add a hokey folk ballad at some point, whether it fits or not.

Perfect by Alanis Morissette

This just makes me think of him and his grandmother tbh. “If you’re flawless, then you’ll win my love.” “Be a good boy. Try a little harder.” “How long before you screw it up?” “With everything I do for you, the least you can do is keep quiet.” Just the constant belittling I know he downplayed in his retelling of Mr. Spider.

Head Full Of Doubt/Road Full Of Promise by The Avett Brothers

“There’s a darkness upon me that’s flooded in light. In the fine print they tell me what’s wrong and what’s right. And it comes in black and it comes in white. And I’m frightened by those that don’t see it” Had to pull out the whole first verse here. In the fine print. In words that you don’t even know you’re reading. Couched in subterfuge. Everything about his employment, everything about what he is. Black and White. No matter how they try to spin it. It’s all they see.

Out Out Damn Spot by Anthony Rapp

“If you wanna know the truth about my life, it’s in disarray. I wish you’d met me earlier than today.” There’s a lot of repetition in this song. The same lines, repeating the same phrases triple time showing he sheer desperation of ‘Yeah, I’m being facetious about my life, the truth is I’m doing BAD, but I swear I was just doing okay! I was doing great, actually!’ when really he wasn’t at all.

Control by Halsey

I mean, would it BE Jon Sims Playlist if this wasn’t on it? Do I need to explain? “And all the kids cried out 'please stop, you’re scaring me.’ I can’t help this awful energy. Goddamn right you should be scared of me. Who is in control?” No. No, I don’t think I do.

Overdone by Ludo

Sometimes I just scream, “IF THERE’S A GOD THAT COULD SAVE ME, I ASK THAT HE OPEN THE SKY AND DO IT NOW.” It takes on a much sinister tone under this context. The whole song is about someone feeling like a danger to everyone around them and cursing their nature and wishing they were capable of being around people without hurting them. PAIN….that’s it.

Body by Mother Mother

Another prerequisite for any Jon Sims Playlist. Not gonna bother explaining. You get it. You understand.

Coming Undone by Korn

“Choke, choke again. I thought my demons were my friends. Pity me. In the end, they’re out to get me. Since I was young I tasted sorrow on my tongue and this sweet sugar gun does not protect me.” Hey, so, how about that suicidal ideation? Yeah. We’re getting into that.

Sticking It To Myself by Jonathan Coulton

You kinda just need to listen to this song. I can’t really pick out lyrics cause they all bleed into each other. But basically, it’s about a guy who has all this 'authority’ and hates it but also feels underappreciated and undermined and resentful towards them and will destroy himself to prove his worth. Sound familiar?

Artificial Heart by Jonathan Coulton

“They gave me a test to make me the best that I could be. They knew all along that there was something wrong with me.” This song just makes me think about how Jon was coerced into servitude to the Eye. That his facade and antipathy towards people because of his trauma was used to worm its way into him by promising him something like worth. If he would just give in and let it.

The Becoming by Nine Inch Nails

“The me that you know he had some second thoughts he’s covered with scabs he is broken and sore. The me that you know he doesn’t come around much. That part of me isn’t here anymore.” I mean isn’t this song just about Jon becoming the Archivist? Fully? The power and anguish of it? The futility of it? “It won’t give up, it wants me dead, and goddamn this noise inside my head.”

I Do Not Want This by Nine Inch Nails

“Don’t you tell me how I feel. You don’t know just how I feel.” Not to mention. “I have lived so many lives all in my head. And don’t tell me that you care. There really isn’t anything now, is there?” This song is lead into by the previous one and I feel they work in tandem to show what he was going through during season four. “And maybe I don’t have a choice. And maybe this is all I have. And maybe this is a cry for help. I do not want this.”

Whose Eye Is It Anyway??? by Jhariah

“I know you could never carry the burden you’ve left with me and I can’t give it back. So why even try?” This song is generally about wanting the people (or person) who wronged you to suffer but trying to convince yourself it’s pointless and would only bring you MORE suffering yourself instead. Jon’s thoughts on the suffering he went through, the suffering he wants to inflict, the suffering he’s willing to let others befall in the name of revenge. “When you seek vengeance you must dig two graves.”

Monster by dodie

“I’m guessing that I’ve grown horns. I guess I’m human no more. I can tell I’ve rotted in your brain.” I’m pretty sure this is also a requisite. But in any case. Yeah. More season four feels. Pointing out how they’re all the same as him, facing the same things and mishandling the same situations but hating him for it because of their own self-loathing. “I craft my words to fit your head. 'Cause no one listens to the dead”

Hurt People by The Garages

“I wonder if this lesion is ever gonna heal. But there’s stuff I gotta do. They yell at me for more. If he gave it up for nothing, then nothing’s what it’s for.” So. Okay. The context. Is blaseball. I will not apologize. The point is. It’s from the view of someone who 'came back wrong’ and… kind of cause people to be killed. And the fact that they still have to play the fucking game, despite the sacrifice that brought them back. Just… read my Jaylen Hotdogfingers and Jon Sims fanfic and come back. You’ll get it. They’re the same person. It’s fine. They’re fine. Ignore the death by explosion.

Home by Cavetown

You’ve seen the animatic to this song, right? Anyway. “Get a load of this monster. He doesn’t know how to communicate. His mind is in a different place. Will everybody please give him a little bit of space?” Yeah. Self explanatory. You understand.

Better by OneRepublic

Not gonna pick any specific lyric but like. This is just about anxiety and mental illness in general and wanting to be better but the difficulty of getting better when its not something pills or outside help can fix. It’s deeper than that. Jon knowing his issues but knowing there’s nothing he can do at all about it.

Black Rain by blink-182

Did I pick this song cause of the punniness of the band? Perchance. But I mean. “I went and searched for some answers, but all I found were monsters.” Also. “And all I have here is heartache. And bones, and mirrors for me to break. Only so much bad luck a person can take.” Y'know? It’s… it’s almost literally what he went though. Yeah.

Mr. Knowitall by Primus

“They call me Mr. Knowitall. I will not compromise. I will not be told what to do. I shall not step aside.” Look me dead ass in the eyes rn.

By Myself by Linkin Park

“Do I follow my instincts blindly? Do I hide my pride from these bad dreams and give in to sad thoughts that are maddening? […] Do I trust some and get fooled by phoniness? Or do I trust nobody and live in loneliness? […] I put on my daily facade but then I just end up getting hurt again by myself.” What is this if not Jon right before his death, faced with is mortality? I rest my fucking case your honor.

Broken Crown by Mumford & Sons

“So crawl on my belly 'til the sun goes down. I’ll never wear your broken crown. I took the road, and I fucked it all away. Now in this twilight, how dare you speak of grace?” Oh hey so this song is about Jon being forced to enact the grand ritual that ended the world. Mumford’s son himself told me. True story.

End of Me by Mother Mother

“Am I a fool to picture my own funeral as a real gala affair? Everybody’s there, everybody cares about me. Am I a wretch to fantasize about my death like it was some big event everybody laments? Where everybody says, 'What a life he led.’” More suicidal ideation time! I mean, truly, was Jon actually as egotistical and selfish as they say? Or did he just want ANYONE to care about him? Even a little? Is it truly wrong to wake up from a coma and wish at least one person was happy that you survived? Is it? It is? Oh. Okay.

Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood by The Animals

“I’m just a soul who’s intentions are good. Oh, lord, please don’t let me be misunderstood.” I think that about sums up Jon as a person. “But don’t you know that no one alive can always be an angel? When things go wrong, I seem to be bad.” Preach.

Relay by Fiona Apple

“And I see that you keep trying to bait me. And I’d love to get up in your face. But I know if I hate you for hating me I will have entered the endless race.” Is this not just Jon trying to be civil with the others during season four? “Evil is a relay sport when the one who’s burned turns to pass the torch.” Is this not just the reason why Jon decides extinguishing all life in this universe would be preferable to releasing the fears and 'passing them on’ to the next universe?

All Eye On Me by Bo Burnham

“You say the ocean’s rising like I give a shit. You say the whole world’s ending; honey, it already did. You’re not gonna slow it, heaven knows you tried.” I don’t know. I got into this series cause of Covid so the two are inexorably linked in my head and this? Feels like Jon during the eyepocalypse. When Martin is still in denial and bargaining. The whole 'all eyes on me’ being repeated doesn’t quell that impression.

Wow this was a long one. Anyway. There ya have it! If you want any, like, deeper discussion, go ahead and ask. But this is just my gut reasons for having them on here.