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.
Two men, started walking
Started talking about better days
One says to the other
We do it all again
Seems I knew I would
And now I found it
Found I adored it
I didn't want this
Can somebody help me see?
And now I feel it
Feel that I've been there
I didn't need this
Will somebody help me breathe?
Here we are again
Just face to facing each other another day
Who wins? Well, who cares
It always ends up the same
Seems I knew I would
And now I found it
Found I adored it
I didn't want this
Can somebody help me see?
And now I feel it
Feel that I've been there
I didn't need this
Can somebody help me stand?
And now I've told them
Already warned them
I didn't want this
Can somebody help me breathe?
If I was them then I wanna be what I see
If I could plant my life in a moment
Wanna know, do you want me to go?
Gonna keep it all from ending
Never stop myself from pretending
That you always knew that I never could
All I ever really wanted was to be the same
Equal treatment never ever comes
And there they go again
All I ever really wanted was to be like you
So perfect, so worthless
If I could take it all back, think again, I would
And now I found it
Found I adored it
I didn't want this
Can somebody help me see?
And now I feel it
Feel that I've been there
I didn't need this
Can somebody help me stand?
And now I've told them
I want this, I need this
Can somebody help me breathe?
Can somebody help me breathe? Yeah
Will somebody help me
Started talking about better days
One says to the other
We do it all again
Seems I knew I would
And now I found it
Found I adored it
I didn't want this
Can somebody help me see?
And now I feel it
Feel that I've been there
I didn't need this
Will somebody help me breathe?
Here we are again
Just face to facing each other another day
Who wins? Well, who cares
It always ends up the same
Seems I knew I would
And now I found it
Found I adored it
I didn't want this
Can somebody help me see?
And now I feel it
Feel that I've been there
I didn't need this
Can somebody help me stand?
And now I've told them
Already warned them
I didn't want this
Can somebody help me breathe?
If I was them then I wanna be what I see
If I could plant my life in a moment
Wanna know, do you want me to go?
Gonna keep it all from ending
Never stop myself from pretending
That you always knew that I never could
All I ever really wanted was to be the same
Equal treatment never ever comes
And there they go again
All I ever really wanted was to be like you
So perfect, so worthless
If I could take it all back, think again, I would
And now I found it
Found I adored it
I didn't want this
Can somebody help me see?
And now I feel it
Feel that I've been there
I didn't need this
Can somebody help me stand?
And now I've told them
I want this, I need this
Can somebody help me breathe?
Can somebody help me breathe? Yeah
Will somebody help me
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More Featured Meanings
Ave Grave
Thee More Shallows
Thee More Shallows
Love in a Vacuum
'Til Tuesday
'Til Tuesday
Well, in my opinion this song is about being a young & maybe a little naive &/or introverted girl and finding yourself loving a man who is at first very charming, carefree & outgoing, and seems at first to be without limits, as in
"There was a time
you opened up every doorway
you didn't mind if everything
wasn't your way"
then that man starts to gradually become more introverted & shows their more possessive/obsessive side to you as the relationship progresses, even while they keep up the appearance of being carefree & outgoing to everyone else,
"Don't pull away
that goes against what you told me
I look in your eyes
I realize what you've sold me
is love in a vacuum"
so you confront them about the way they're acting and of course they deny it,
"I think you've changed
but you insist that
that's not true"
quite possibly they are an addict of some sort, my guess would be cocaine, &/or showing very obsessive behavior towards you (early on in the video for this song we see the man hanging a picture up, it is a very large portrait of Aimee & it is prominently displayed in his/their apartment for the duration of the song), thus their "love in a vacuum",
"You look so strange, so distant
that you're hardly you
Now I can see
how you have been acting different
You say it's me
but I know
that it isn't
it's love in a vacuum"
but still you are in love with them and don't want to leave them and you know that they are truly in love with you and they don't want you to leave them either, maybe they are convinced you can save them from themself, maybe they are so broken that the possibility of an overdose &/or suicide attempt is very real and you want to get through to them that their behavior not only dangerous but it is also just pissing you off and if they don't wise up they run the risk of loosing you, as in the lines
"You will be lonely
if you leave me alone", so you want to save them but can't get through to them due to the addiction &/or emotional problems they have,
"Love in a vacuum
and that's not enough
love in a vacuum
You will be lonely
you'll be the only one who feels this way
You will be lonely
if you leave me alone
You will be lonely
you'll be the only one who feels this way
it's just not enough"
you want them to understand that the love they are giving you is not enough when it is filtered through the vacuum of their drug addiction &/or emotional impairment,
"You will be lonely
you'll be the only one who feels this way
it's just not enough
and just wait
you will be lonely
Love in a vacuum
Love in a vacuum
and that's not enough
Love in a vacuum".
'Love In A Vacuum' for me is a hauntingly truthful acute argument on the loneliness of obsession and almost inevitable loss of love that follows people who are broken in some way or another; the obsessives, the coke heads, the drunks, addicts or the just-plain-old emotionally broken; a razor sharp, lyrically driven, deceptively poppy, yet ultimately-depressing-in-the-best-way song.
Quintessential Aimee Mann.
Corpse I Fell In Love With
Gadjits, The
Gadjits, The
He reuses the verse melody from the previous album's "Dirty Little Religion", the topics of the verses are all over the place, and he packs too many words into one line (goes to show...) and too few in another (it's pretty hard to find), and rhymes "Henley Regatta" with "Persona non grata", but gets away with it all as only he could.
Battle Royale
Word Alive, The
Word Alive, The
This song is def a twin to "Unfair" (a song she has been quoted as saying is about falling in love with someone who is already in a relationship) so it is presumably about the same person. Given the references to buying an apartment and not being able to see her love interest "after tonight," it's most likely that she's moving away and she'll "wait a day to break the bad news" (i.e. notifying him that she's leaving once she's already gone).
And, of course, the fact that she sees in him a fellow "idealist" and "dreamer" (terms commonly given to people with the INFP personality on the Myers–Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)) portends that she'll always be left wondering if they would've been perfect together.
Fast Car
Tracy Chapman
Tracy Chapman
"Fast car" is kind of a continuation of Bruce Springsteen's "Born to Run." It has all the clawing your way to a better life, but in this case the protagonist never makes it with her love; in fact she is dragged back down by him.
There is still an amazing amount of hope and will in the lyrics; and the lyrics themselve rank and easy five. If only music was stronger it would be one of those great radio songs that you hear once a week 20 years after it was released. The imagery is almost tear-jerking ("City lights lay out before us", "Speeds so fast felt like I was drunk"), and the idea of starting from nothing and just driving and working and denigrating yourself for a chance at being just above poverty, then losing in the end is just painful and inspiring at the same time.
but this all seems a little vague what does this song mean?
i don't really understand the meaning of this songs, but i still really like it.
I heard, back when this first came out, that the song was about Churchill and Stalin (think it was a radio dj that mentioned it offhand). It's difficult to actually make that fit with anything beyond the first verse, though, so shrug.
O.K. here is my explenation of this song.. but i don't know if it's correct english cause i'm from holland=P.. it's a very long text sorry for that=P I hope It'll help you guys understanding this song;)
I think the song is about.. How chad wanted to be like the people who are popular.. but he didn't see that was going to be a nightmare, he saw that when he finally got there..(And now I feel it Feel that I've been there) like the people who are popular.. they are 'perfect', but actually not.. they can't be the people who they are from the inside.. and that's why the are 'worthless' they must pretend to be perfect and I think that is a very hard life to have and a very stupid thing to want.. chad realized that too and that's why he wrote this song
meaning of some lines: ' he'd(=we'd) do it all again..' means that everybody wants to be perfect everybody wants to be loved by everybody..
'seems I knew I would' He knew from the beginning he was going to make a mistake but he didn't realize it at that point
'Here we are again Just face to facing Each other another day Who wins But who cares' He was talking tothat man from the beginning of this song and he knew that man was right .. but it doesn't matter because no one will believe until they've seen it themselves and that means like 'it always ends up the same..'
'Wanna know do you want me to go Gonna keep it all never ending Never stop myself from pretending That you always knew that I never could' He thinks the man which warned him at the beginning wanted him to leave the top of popularity, but the man knew that going away from being popular is like falling down a hundred miles and that is a hard crash.. so the man knew chad couldn't leave the top and that he never will.. but chad will not admit that because then he will fall down..
Chad feels like he has no freedom like he can't breathe..
sorry for this long message but i couldn't say it shorter because i just wanna proove I'm right:P
(and maybe the popular thing you can swich that to fame.. maybe that's more how he experienced it but I think that's almost the same..)
This is what I got out of it:
It is about a rivalry in the younger days of two men. One man seemed to overshadow everything that the other did, he seemed to do everything better. The other man wanted so much to be like him, but no matter what he did, he still came up short. Years later, when they met up again, with bad memories faded into the past, they began to make amends. The "inferior" man began to say everything that has troubled him about himself, only to realize that that it is what made him who he is today, and he is proud of that. He needed to realize that he is who he is and everybody has their share of problems, no matter how "perfect" they are.
I totally agree! I'm not a native english speaker, so I would have had some difficulties explaining what I thought the lyrics meant. But you did well!
i agree with both the people that say that its about love and about a person wanting to be popular, some lines seem to have mixed meanings but this is what i get out of the song:
Two men They started walking Started talking 'bout better days One says to the other He'd do it all again Seems I knew I would (this describes a sence probably a few years after high school, where two friends meet again and talk about high school and good times they had, and the popular kid says that he'd do everything over, if he could, even though some of it probably isn't healthy or nice)
And now I found it Found I adored it I didn't want this Somebody help me see (the unpopular kid found popularity and found he liked it, but at the same time he never really wanted to be popular and he sees that being popular isn't all good) Now I feel it Feel that I've been there I didn't need this Somebody help me breathe (he has done some mean things when he was popular and now that he's seen both sides he can't decide what to do and feels that he needs to take time to think things out)
Here we are again Just face to facing Each other another day (still in the highschool flashback stage, or maybe thay got a job together that reminds them of their time in high school where the popular one and the unpopular one see each other everyday) Who wins Well who cares It always ends up the same Seems I knew I would (the popular kid always has to do something mean to the unpopular kid because of peer pressure)
If I was them Then I wanna be What I see (the unpopular kid sees the popular people and wants to be like them) If I could pack my life in a moment Wanna know do you want me to go Gonna keep it all never ending Never stop myself from pretending That you always knew that I never could (the unpopular kid wants to know if the popular kid wants him to leave him alone to end the cycle that happens where even though the popular kid is mean to the unpopular kid, they still are friends and the unpopular kid still wants to be popular)
All I ever really wanted was to be the same Equal treatment never ever comes And here we go again (conversation between the two kids, the unpopular kid tells the popular kid that all he wanted was to be like him, but they never get to be treated the same) All I ever really wanted was to be like you So perfect So worthless If I could take it all back think again I would (the unpopular kid sees that being popular seems perfect but at the same time is worthless, so when he became popular he saw both sides and decided that he didn't like being popular)
i can also see it being about love however because i've been in kind of the same situation:
And now I found it Found I adored it I didn't want this Somebody help me see Now I feel it Feel that I've been there I didn't need this Somebody help me breathe (i'll tell this from the first person, i fell in love and i liked the feeling of being in love, but at the same time i didn't want to be in love so i need help to "breathe" because i have too much going through my mind) Here we are again Just face to facing Each other another day (the girl that i loved sat behind me in a class so we inevitabley had to see each other pretty much everyday) Who wins Well who cares It always ends up the same (i tried to get her to like me, but it always ended up the same that she never went out with me)
If I was them Then I wanna be What I see (if I could be one of her friends i could be closer to her) If I could pack my life in a moment Wanna know do you want me to go Gonna keep it all never ending Never stop myself from pretending That you always knew that I never could (If i could become one of her friends i would do it in an instant, but everyday i tried to get her to like me, but she never did so it was neverending, i was pretending that i could get her to go out with me, and all of my friends knew that i never could get her to go out with me and i found out later that it always was that way)
All I ever really wanted was to be the same Equal treatment never ever comes And here we go again (i wanted to be like her friends so she would like me, but "Equal treatment never ever comes", so i try to get her to like me again)
All I ever really wanted was to be like you So perfect So worthless (she seemed so perfect, but wanting her to like me and go out with me seems so worthless now that i think about it because it probably wouldn't have worked between us)
i can see this song from both sides of view from both the popular people and falling in love view
Good song. I really lke songs that have a meaning and feeling behind them
This SONG ROCKS! It has an AWESOME Beat to it, You have to ear this song, Download it or Buy "The State" CD.
This song is seriously a kick ass song.....everybody needs to hear it!!!!!!!!
this song kicks butt!!