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.
This is the age of machinery
A mechanical nightmare
The wonderful world of technology
Napalm hydrogen bombs biological warfare
This is the twentieth century
But too much aggravation
It's the age of insanity
What has become of the green pleasant fields of Jerusalem
Ain't got no ambition
I'm just disillusioned
I'm a twentieth century man but I don't want, I don't want to be here
My mama said she can't understand me
She can't see my motivation
Just give me some security
I'm a paranoid schizoid product of the twentieth century
You keep all your smart modern writers
Give me William Shakespeare
You keep all your smart modern painters
I'll take Rembrandt, Titian, Da Vinci and Gainsborough
Girl we gotta get out of here
We gotta find a solution
I'm a twentieth century man but I don't want, I don't want to die here
Girl, we gotta get out of here
We gotta find a solution
I'm a twentieth century man but I don't want, I don't want to be here
I was born in a welfare state
Ruled by bureaucracy
Controlled by civil servants
And people dressed in grey
Got no privacy, got no liberty
'Cause the twentieth century people
Took it all away from me
Don't want to get myself shot down
By some trigger happy policeman
Gotta keep a hold on my sanity
I'm a twentieth century man but I don't want to die here
My mama says she can't understand me
She can't see my motivation
Ain't got no security
I'm a twentieth century man but I don't want to die here
I don't want twentieth century, man
I don't want twentieth century, man
I don't want twentieth century, man
I don't want twentieth century, man
This is the twentieth century
But too much aggravation
This is the edge of insanity
I'm a twentieth century man but I don't want to be here
A mechanical nightmare
The wonderful world of technology
Napalm hydrogen bombs biological warfare
This is the twentieth century
But too much aggravation
It's the age of insanity
What has become of the green pleasant fields of Jerusalem
Ain't got no ambition
I'm just disillusioned
I'm a twentieth century man but I don't want, I don't want to be here
My mama said she can't understand me
She can't see my motivation
Just give me some security
I'm a paranoid schizoid product of the twentieth century
You keep all your smart modern writers
Give me William Shakespeare
You keep all your smart modern painters
I'll take Rembrandt, Titian, Da Vinci and Gainsborough
Girl we gotta get out of here
We gotta find a solution
I'm a twentieth century man but I don't want, I don't want to die here
Girl, we gotta get out of here
We gotta find a solution
I'm a twentieth century man but I don't want, I don't want to be here
I was born in a welfare state
Ruled by bureaucracy
Controlled by civil servants
And people dressed in grey
Got no privacy, got no liberty
'Cause the twentieth century people
Took it all away from me
Don't want to get myself shot down
By some trigger happy policeman
Gotta keep a hold on my sanity
I'm a twentieth century man but I don't want to die here
My mama says she can't understand me
She can't see my motivation
Ain't got no security
I'm a twentieth century man but I don't want to die here
I don't want twentieth century, man
I don't want twentieth century, man
I don't want twentieth century, man
I don't want twentieth century, man
This is the twentieth century
But too much aggravation
This is the edge of insanity
I'm a twentieth century man but I don't want to be here
Lyrics submitted by planetearth
20th Century Man Lyrics as written by Ray Davies
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
Add your thoughts
Log in now to tell us what you think this song means.
Don’t have an account? Create an account with SongMeanings to post comments, submit lyrics, and more. It’s super easy, we promise!
More Featured Meanings
Love in a Vacuum
'Til Tuesday
'Til Tuesday
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.
Light Up The Sky
Van Halen
Van Halen
The song lyrics were written by the band Van Halen, as they were asked to write a song for the 1979 movie "Over the Edge" starring Matt Dillon. The movie (and the lyrics, although more obliquely) are about bored, rebellious youth with nothing better to do than get into trouble. If you see the movie, these lyrics will make more sense. It's a great movie if you grew up in the 70s/80s you'll definitely remember some of these characters from your own life. Fun fact, after writing the song, Van Halen decided not to let the movie use it.
The Night We Met
Lord Huron
Lord Huron
This is a hauntingly beautiful song about introspection, specifically about looking back at a relationship that started bad and ended so poorly, that the narrator wants to go back to the very beginning and tell himself to not even travel down that road. I believe that the relationship started poorly because of the lines:
"Take me back to the night we met:When the night was full of terrors: And your eyes were filled with tears: When you had not touched me yet"
So, the first night was not a great start, but the narrator pursued the relationship and eventually both overcame the rough start to fall in love with each other:
"I had all and then most of you"
Like many relationships that turn sour, it was not a quick decline, but a gradual one where the narrator and their partner fall out of love and gradually grow apart
"Some and now none of you"
Losing someone who was once everything in your world, who you could confide in, tell your secrets to, share all the most intimate parts of your life, to being strangers with that person is probably one of the most painful experiences a person can go through. So Painful, the narrator wants to go back in time and tell himself to not even pursue the relationship.
This was the perfect song for "13 Reasons Why"
Dreamwalker
Silent Planet
Silent Planet
I think much like another song “Anti-Matter” (that's also on the same album as this song), this one is also is inspired by a horrifying van crash the band experienced on Nov 3, 2022. This, much like the other track, sounds like it's an extension what they shared while huddled in the wreckage, as they helped frontman Garrett Russell stem the bleeding from his head wound while he was under the temporary effects of a concussion. The track speaks of where the mind goes at the most desperate & desolate of times, when it just about slips away to all but disconnect itself, and the aftermath.
Makes me wonder what Ray thinks of the world now that the digital age is here. The internet, social networking, iPods, cell phones. And he thought the 70s were bad. Ray's generation were the first ones to have to deal with life as we know it now, in fact people's every day lives and culture were radically different before and after WW2 (to a degree I can not even fathom). Advertising, television, radio, popular music, interstate highways, affordable automobiles, the rise of the cities and fall of the country, even suburbs and housing developments. Wasn't happening before the Boomers came to be. How many times a day do you hear music? (all day long, right? how weird is that? imagine if you had to rely on [expensive] records and stereo systems. or before the '50s when hardly anyone listened to recorded music and had to hear it live) How many times a day do you see an advertisement? Travel more than 3 miles from your home? Purchase a product made by a corporation worth billions of dollars and is available everywhere? It must have driven some people crazy having to deal with all of these changes at once, the modernization of the western world. People used to have quiet, simple lives, until the last 50 years. Anyway that's what Ray is on about. If you like when he covers this theme in Kinks songs then definitely check out Grandaddy, especially the album Sophtware Slump, it picks up where this song leaves off and is completely awesome.
This song deserves to have a whole bunch of comments. Muswell Hillbillies is a pretty good album, but this first song is incredible. This is one of the best portrayals of modern day fatigue and weariness, the absurdity of war, the onslaught of technology and the loss of humanity and everyday emotion that I've heard. It's about how the hustle and bustle of this day and age swallows the individual. You lose your ambition, your privacy, your liberty. People are aggravated and disturbed by the loss of empathy and the rise of war and technology. The quainter times are lost and desperation sets in.
That's what I get from these lyrics. A sense that time is swallowing up your soul and you're losing in the insanity of modern times. I'd very much like to cover this song. It's a powerful social comment on the flaws of modern living and the fragility of the human condition. It's about the abuse of power and resources to crush the individual.
'I was born in a welfare state Ruled by bureaucracy Controlled by civil servants And people dressed in gray'
This song is amazing.
mrpieeater pretty much spoke my mind. I also can't beleive more ppl don't comment on this song, it's addictive as hell.
I also love the guitar in this song. It's unique sounding and is a good exmaple of how versatile their sound is.
I saw this live in Brighton a couple of years ago at a Ray solo show, so glad he played it, I was massively into this album at the time, and he also played Oklahoma, USA :o)
I just love the Englishness of The Kinks, they've got this great blues riff going on, played with so much rock and roll passion, yet he's singing about going back to previous times, "I'll take Rembrandt, Da Vinci, Titian and Gainsborrrrooooooouuuuuugh!"
Such a great riff, and great fun to play on guitar too (always the sign of a good song), and the bridge section is just beautiful, neither major or minor to start, just kind of dissolves into a feeling of numbness at how modern life has dragged him down continually, then slips into a minor key with "Got no privacy, got no liberty..." before rocking back into the riff for the final push.
One of the all-time great opening tracks on any album, you have to give it a listen.
he accomplishes more lyrically in this ONE SONG than thom yorke has done in HIS ENTIRE CAREER
@spmuzik I agree somewhat, but they're two very different lyricists. Yorke relies more on innovative symbolism and metaphors and Ray is much more literal and personal.
@spmuzik Well Ray Davies is the “father of Britpop”, but also the Kinks practically invented punk rock and lyrics that were about fighting back against the system. So every punk, post-punk, and alternative band (like Radiohead) are basically indebted to the Kinks
If this song strikes a chord, then Other Peoples' Lives will also. The themes return again and again with Ray and Dave, and they always seem fresh, with a new twist and even a tip of the hat to others whose voices have been added to those critical of the dehumanizing and depersonalizing trend of 21st Century society.