So this has been.my favorite song of OTEP's since it came out in 2004, and I always thought it was a song about a child's narrative of suffering in an abusive Christian home. But now that I am revisiting the lyrics, I am seeing something totally new.
This song could be gospel of John but from the perspective of Jesus.
Jesus was NOT having a good time up to and during the crucifixion. Everyone in the known world at the time looked to him with fear, admiration or disgust and he was constantly being asked questions. He spoke in "verses, prophesies and curses". He had made an enemy of the state, and believed the world was increasingly wicked and fallen from grace, or that he was in the "mouth of madness".
The spine of atlas is the structure that allows the titan to hold the world up. Jesus challenged the state and in doing so became a celebrated resistance figure. It also made him public enemy #1.
All of this happened simply because he was doing his thing, not because of any agenda he had or strategy.
And then he gets scourged (storm of thorns)
There are some plot holes here but I think it's an interesting interpretation.
Free free, set them free
Free free, set them free
Free free, set them free
Free free, set them free
If you need somebody, call my name
If you want someone, you can do the same
If you want to keep something precious
You got to lock it up and throw away the key
If you want to hold onto your possession
Don't even think about me
If you love somebody
If you love someone
If you love somebody
If you love someone set them free
(Free, free, set them free)
Set them free
(Free, free, set them free)
Set them free
(Free, free, set them free)
Set them free
(Free, free, set them free)
If it's a mirror you want, just look into my eyes
Or a whipping boy, someone to despise
Or a prisoner in the dark
Tied up in chains you just can't see
Or a beast in a gilded cage
That's all some people ever want to be
If you love somebody
If you love someone
If you love somebody
If you love someone set them free
(Free, free, set them free)
Set them free
(Free, free, set them free)
Set them free
(Free, free, set them free)
Set them free
(Free, free, set them free)
You can't control an independent heart
Can't tear the one you love apart
Forever conditioned to believe that we can't live
We can't live here and be happy with less
So many riches, so many souls
Everything we see that we want to possess
If you need somebody, call my name
If you want someone, you can, you can do, you can do the same
If you want to keep something precious
You got to lock it up and throw away the key
Wanna hold onto your possession
Don't even think about me
If you love somebody
If you love someone
If you love somebody
If you love someone set them free
(Free, free, set them free)
Set them free
(Free, free, set them free)
Set them free
(Free, free, set them free)
Set them free
(Free, free, set them free)
Set them free
(Free, free, set them free)
Set them free
(Free, free, set them free)
Set them free
(Free, free, set them free)
Set them free
(Free, free, set them free)
(Free, free, set them free)
(Free, free, set them free)
(Free, free, set them free)
(Free, free, set them free)
Set them free
Free free, set them free
Free free, set them free
Free free, set them free
If you need somebody, call my name
If you want someone, you can do the same
If you want to keep something precious
You got to lock it up and throw away the key
If you want to hold onto your possession
Don't even think about me
If you love somebody
If you love someone
If you love somebody
If you love someone set them free
(Free, free, set them free)
Set them free
(Free, free, set them free)
Set them free
(Free, free, set them free)
Set them free
(Free, free, set them free)
If it's a mirror you want, just look into my eyes
Or a whipping boy, someone to despise
Or a prisoner in the dark
Tied up in chains you just can't see
Or a beast in a gilded cage
That's all some people ever want to be
If you love somebody
If you love someone
If you love somebody
If you love someone set them free
(Free, free, set them free)
Set them free
(Free, free, set them free)
Set them free
(Free, free, set them free)
Set them free
(Free, free, set them free)
You can't control an independent heart
Can't tear the one you love apart
Forever conditioned to believe that we can't live
We can't live here and be happy with less
So many riches, so many souls
Everything we see that we want to possess
If you need somebody, call my name
If you want someone, you can, you can do, you can do the same
If you want to keep something precious
You got to lock it up and throw away the key
Wanna hold onto your possession
Don't even think about me
If you love somebody
If you love someone
If you love somebody
If you love someone set them free
(Free, free, set them free)
Set them free
(Free, free, set them free)
Set them free
(Free, free, set them free)
Set them free
(Free, free, set them free)
Set them free
(Free, free, set them free)
Set them free
(Free, free, set them free)
Set them free
(Free, free, set them free)
Set them free
(Free, free, set them free)
(Free, free, set them free)
(Free, free, set them free)
(Free, free, set them free)
(Free, free, set them free)
Set them free
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This song trually captures what love means in a very catchy way. If you love someone you do what ever it takes to make them happy even if it isn't what you want. " If you love someone set them free" isn't about letting someone leave your life, but allowing them to make the choices in life they want, to trually allow them to achieve a personal best
Certainly, this is a song about allowing the people you love to make choices, even if those decisions don't always benefit you.
Personally, though, it always reminds me of the liberation I felt upon breaking up with a guy who was irrationally jealous of me--of my having other friends, talking to any other guy, or making career decisions that might cause me to move away.
[Sting]: (1985) If You Love Somebody Set Them Free was the first single I did on my own away from the Police. I'm not sure if the phrase is mine. I probably read it somewhere. But it's the first time it's been used in a song, I think. And it's true, you can't imprison someone in a relationship. It's an antidote song to 'Every Breath You Take'. One song is about constricting, possessive love, and one is about being free. I suppose the truth is somewhere in the middle. This has a Motown sort of vibe, and my attempt at soulful singing. I had a great band at the time: Kenny Kirkland (keyboards), Branford Marsalis (saxophone), Darryl Jones (bass). Yes, Darryl's in the Rolling Stones now. He's one of my alumni I'm most proud of.
I used to think that it was about a person who loved someone who didn't love them back.
After listening to the song in full, I reckon it's about loving someone but giving them the freedom to make their own choices. Love a person and let them love you but don't be obsessive or possessive.
This an awesome, catchy ass song!!! Wooo, Gordon!!!
In 1985 he released his debut solo album, the jazz-influenced Dream of the Blue Turtles. The title came from an actual dream of Sting’s, worthy of the Beatles’ “Yellow Submarine” or “Octopus’s Garden.” In it, he saw an immaculate and sheltered English garden being destroyed by a marauding group of large blue turtles. In a Jungian analysis of the dream the dramatic, shocking turtles were taken as symbolic of Sting’s new (solo) band and its chaotic but needed effect on his staid and comfortable life in the Police. This confirmed for Sting the value of striking out on his own.
[From Rock & Holy Rollers: The Spiritual Beliefs of Chart-Topping Rock Stars in Their Lives and Lyrics by Geoffrey D. Falk.]
Too many people in love try to control their loved ones. This song is about letting go of trying to control a loved one and "setting them free." <br /> <br /> In the lyrics, Sting has the strength to let his loved one have some of their needs met at his expense (e.g., if you need somebody, call my name), while at the same time, he sets boundaries in other areas. That is, if his loved one pushes him too much in terms of turning him into a possession, then he is not going to stand for it.<br /> <br /> The beauty of this song is counterintuitive. Ordinarily, if you have something valuable, you protect it, hide it, control it. However, when it comes to a loved one, sometimes you need to do the opposite and set them free.
My sisters loved the Police. I was never into them, but when I was introduced to Sting's jazz music, I nearly fell off my chair. He's a brilliant artist!
Ridiculous logic in these lyrics....too sad
I think this song speaks to more than others have touched on. The first verse makes the message plain: love should not be possessive. But the next verses take it deeper. "If it's a mirror you want..." This verse is evocative of the many different roles we can both play and project in relationships. Eg. You can see your reflection or you can see your shadow...we can both captivate and be captivated, imprison others and/or imprison ourselves. But there is also another sub-theme of material affluence vs poverty. "prisoner in the dark" vs "gilded cage" As Sting was in analysis at the time he wrote this it was probably kickng up a lot of material. "Forever conditioned to believe that we can't live/We can't live here and be happy with less /So many riches, so many souls/Everything we see that we want to possess" This stanza speaks to the confusion between love and materiality. And I don't think Sting is the only one who is confused. This is a very western, late capitalist ("conditioned to believe" = a lifetime of consuming marketing) problem. "Free" is a word we use to refer to personal liberty, but it also is a way we describe the condition of something we don't have to pay (money) for. I think sometimes we don't know if love is something we have to pay for on some level, or if we have to earn it, or If we're worth it, or if we can afford it. We might think we will only get it if we earn more first. Or we don't have it because we're too poor (shameful). But in an ideal world love is free, everyone gets it, everyone deserves it, love is given freely, effortlessly, and without end. A gift economy. Now we confuse poverty with personal worth, and lovelessness. We disparage the poor. We equate poverty with uselessness/worthlessness. Whereas in a perfect world, all are equal.