Jona Ruser

Professor Daniel Healy

English 1007

Due: 04/13/22

Essay Project 2
The mind has the ability to store and remember information. In doing so our mind

becomes a personal time machine that uses the power of memory. Memories are influenced by

many senses such as sight, touch, smell, taste, and hearing to enhance the effect of our memories.

All senses are equally important in creating a feeling in a memory, but sound can often be

overlooked. When we speak, play sports, listen to music, etc, there is a sound we link to all of

these activities that amplifies our past experiences. The song, Optimistic, created by a band

called Radiohead, is a song used in a documentary for the great F1 racing driver named Ayrton

Senna. Although the song, Optimistic, and Aryton Senna seem to have nothing to do with each

other, the director of sound for the documentary made a great decision to use the song for Ayrton

Senna’s documentary.

The band Radiohead started their music career in England. Their genre of music was

rock and alternative. The album Kid A, which featured Optimistic, was created in the year 2000.

The early 2000s was a time for new music including the ability to create new digital music with

audio streaming services such as Napstar, but bands like Radiohead had already been working on

creating their own new sounds. It was said, “they became in love with almost recognizable

sounds. What was born out of a desire to erase, … became an opportunity to transfigure. The

standard rock instruments became the ghosts”. They pushed the technology they had to the limit

and created a never before heard musical album. In a new era, Radiohead created Kid A, and

with it, Optimistic.

 The song Optimistic is unorthodox in the sense that there does not seem to be much

meaning behind the lyrics. The lines that are used most often in the song are, “You can try the

best you can, The best you can is good enough”. Although without listening to the song it might

seem like a positive reinforcement, while listening to the song it almost sounds sarcastic. This is

because throughout the entire song they give examples of extremely depressing and meaningless

images such as, “Flies are buzzing around my head, Vultures circling the dead, Picking up every

last crumb”. This almost makes it seem like there's no point trying in life, that life is too

dangerous and barberic to have a chance of survival. In the middle and towards the end of these

lines, there are truly magnificent guitar and vocal solos that only a person who is listening to the

song will be able to comprehend. Although this song was created in the early 2000, long after

Ayrton Senna had already passed away, the famed Brazilian racing driver has more similarities

with the song than meets the eye.

Ayrton Senna was a race car driver from Brazil. In 1984, he started his exciting journey

in Formula 1, and in 1994 he tragically passed away in a racing incident. While he was in the

sport, he won 3 championships, 41 races, and raced for teams like Mclaren, Williams, and Lotus.

At the time, he was at the top of his class and was described as one of the best racers of all time.

He was especially well known for his ability to find grip on a race track where no one else could.

Other racers believed that, “there wasn’t any qualifying session or race that he went into, that he

wasn’t prepared to put it on the line”. Senna was the definition of ride or die in the 80’s and 90’s.

His aggressiveness and competitiveness made him one of the toughest racing drivers of all time.

One of his strategies would be to put his car in a place that if the other driver did not get out of

the way, they would both crash. After the crash, the other driver would always remember to stay

clear of Senna. If he did not win, he would not be satisfied. No matter how hard anyone tried,
they could not beat him. That all changed when a young driver named Michael Schumacher

joined Formula 1. It was the fight between Senna and Schumacher that caused Senna to crash his

car into a wall at 190 mph. Later on that year Schumacher won the championship. Rather than

seeing himself loose to a rookie, Senna pushed the limits of the car, and it ultimately cost him his

life. In the 10 years Senna raced in Formula 1, he tried the best he could, and for some time, the

best he could do was good enough.

When the documentary came out, and they used the song “Optimistic”, the producers

only used the guitar and drum solo out of the whole song. Now do not get me wrong, I believe

the mixture of the voice, guitar, and the drum creates a beautiful melody, but I was surprised that

they did not use any of the lyrics. It seems as though the producers did not believe the lyrics had

anything to do with Ayrton Senna‘s life. For them however, they believed the instruments

themselves were enough to depict how influential Ayrton Senna’s driving was. These

instrumentals were used at two different parts in the documentary. The first time it was used was

when they were showing Ayrton Senna‘s skills on the race track. The second time they used the

instrumentals, it was to show a new rising champion by the name of Lewis Hamilton. On paper

Lewis Hamilton is the best racing driver of all time. He has the most wins, the most podiums,

and the most pole positions out of any other racer in history. While interpreting the song,

“optimistic”, I pointed out the fact that by the end of the song it really shows that whoever the

song is talking about, might not be good enough to compete in life anymore. It is interesting that

they played the song again while introducing a new rising star, maybe pointing out that Lewis

Hamilton is now taking over for Ayrton Senna. The same could’ve been said for Michael

Schumacher but I believe Lewis Hamilton is a better example because Lewis Hamilton is Ayrton

Senna‘s number one fan.

 After writing this paper, doing research, and watching the documentary multiple times, I

fully understand why they only used the instrumentals. Ayrton Senna‘s driving was so beautiful

that you simply can not put it into words. The only way to understand his power on and off the

race track is through music, sound, and emotion. This is why I fell in love with a driver and the

song at the exact same time.

 Works Cited

Formula 1. “Vital Statistics - Ayrton Senna Edition.” Formula 1® - The Official F1® Website, 2

May 2014, https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/features/2014/5/Vital-Statistics---Ayrton-

Senna-edition.html.

Gear, Top. “Ayrton Senna | Top Gear Tribute.” YouTube, YouTube, 30 Dec. 2017,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9U_K76vPGYo.

Greene, Jayson. “Radiohead: Kid A Mnesia.” Pitchfork, CN Entertainment, 2021,

https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/radiohead-kid-a-mnesia/.