And though time goes by, I will always be
In a club with you in 1973
Singing, "Here we go again"
Here we can see the usual themes of nostalgia and memory, BUT, with a wrinkle. "Here we go again." What song is this from? Perhaps ABBA's "Mama Mia"! Nope, chronology's wrong, that's 1975. Demi Lovato's "Here We Go Again"? No. Marshmello's "Here We Go Again"? No. Paramore? No. The Vitals? No. Danger Mouse? No. The Game? No.
At this point, the realization dawns on us—dialectically—that we have been searching in the wrong direction. This is not a statement about a particular song. It is about the repetition of a chorus line across songs, over and over. It is a lyric about itself. He is singing the lyric, and its bracketing in quotation does not undermine its power. We feel our heart soar as he hits his high note. We have collapsed a recursive history, the layers of past cultural detritus becoming sedimentary rock, building a foundation for what comes next.