Reading Between the Lines of Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down)

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Lesson title: Reading between the lines of Bang Bang (My baby shot me down)

Skill focus: Inference/Comprehension | Interpreting a text Length: 20 mins Year levels: Years 7-9

Instructions:

Bang Bang (My baby shot me down), written by Sonny Bono, was a hit single for Cher in 1966. The same year Nancy Sinatra recorded a cover version of the song but this remained reasonably obscure until it was used in the film Kill Bill in 2003 when it shot to prominence.

The lyrics of the song tell a story about the relationship between the female protagonist and a boy who was a childhood friend, later her husband, and then in the end a cause of suffering for her.

The song starts this way (see complete lyrics attached):

I was five and he was six We rode on horses made of sticks He wore black and I wore white He would always win the fight

Bang bang, he shot me down Bang bang, I hit the ground Bang bang, that awful sound Bang bang, my baby shot me down

While the protagonist never explicitly states her judgement of the boy that grew into the man that hurt her, it’s implicit in phrases such as “he would always win the fight” and “bang, bang, that awful sound”. It’s for this © Tomorrow’s Class 2014 implicitness that this song makes an effective resource for students to practise their inference skills.

The attached resource ‘Analysing Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down)’ provides students with a series of steps and a scaffolded template to support them to closely read the song and infer meaning.