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.
In my little town, I grew up believing
God keeps his eye on us all.
And he used to lean upon me as I pledged allegiance to the wall.
Lord, I recall, in my little town,
Comin' home after school, flyin' my bike past the gates of the factories,
My mom doin' the laundry, hangin' out shirts in the dirty breeze.
And after it rains there's a rainbow and all of the colors are black.
It's not that the colors aren't there, it's just imagination they lack.
Everything's the same back in my little town,
My little town, my little town.
Nothin' but the dead and dyin' back in my little town.
Nothin' but the dead and dyin' back in my little town.
In my little town, I never meant nothin',
I was just my father's son. mmm.
Savin' my money, dreamin' of glory,
Twitchin' like a finger on the trigger of a gun.
Leavin' nothin' but the dead and dying back in my little town.
Nothin' but the dead and dyin' back in my little town.
Nothin' but the dead and dyin' back in my little town.
Nothin' but the dead and dyin' back in my little town.
Nothin' but the dead and dyin' back in my little town.
God keeps his eye on us all.
And he used to lean upon me as I pledged allegiance to the wall.
Lord, I recall, in my little town,
Comin' home after school, flyin' my bike past the gates of the factories,
My mom doin' the laundry, hangin' out shirts in the dirty breeze.
And after it rains there's a rainbow and all of the colors are black.
It's not that the colors aren't there, it's just imagination they lack.
Everything's the same back in my little town,
My little town, my little town.
Nothin' but the dead and dyin' back in my little town.
Nothin' but the dead and dyin' back in my little town.
In my little town, I never meant nothin',
I was just my father's son. mmm.
Savin' my money, dreamin' of glory,
Twitchin' like a finger on the trigger of a gun.
Leavin' nothin' but the dead and dying back in my little town.
Nothin' but the dead and dyin' back in my little town.
Nothin' but the dead and dyin' back in my little town.
Nothin' but the dead and dyin' back in my little town.
Nothin' but the dead and dyin' back in my little town.
Lyrics submitted by tranquilasadove
My Little Town Lyrics as written by Paul Simon
Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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The way this song speaks to me🥺🥺when I sing it I feel like I relate
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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.
I don't know if it's still there, but in the 80s there used to be a huge grafitto on the wall of the concrete sluice that curves through Johnstown, Pa.: NOTHING BUT THE DEAD AND DYING HERE IN OUR LITTLE TOWN. This song is so powerful, in part because it's being re-enacted every day in small towns all over the place. The kids grow up, get out, and never come back, leaving, well, the dead and dying.
Aside from that, though, the song is incredibly evocative. The words are incisive, and Simon manages, just through the timbre of the music, to convey his feelings of nostalgia, fondness, cynicism, and disillusionment. Older and wiser, he can see the unpretty truth that his youthful innocence obscured. Yet he still cherishes his memories, and is sad that he can never really go back--he's outgrown the place. Many an ex-small town kid can relate, I'm sure.
For me personally, this is one of S&G's best songs. I think their song "America" is the perfect bookend to this song.
I'm a little younger that Paul Simon but I can relate to the song. I think it is about the transformation of the country. The Greatest Generation were our parents. Many grew up in small towns. Manufacturing was big. But our parents wanted better for us, sent us to college, we moved to the big cities and nobody wanted to work in a factory. A shift from a manufacturing economy to a service economy. The laundry and rainbow are references to air pollution on one hand and the lack of hope and imagination. Young people move out of the small towns, their parents stay until they die. That's all.
Hahahaha, it is ridiculous that this song has no comments. I expected hundreds.
This song is great.
Seriously, I'm with you on that one cowboy. I'm kind of puzzled by this song because he suddenly starts talking about "death and dying". This is one of my favorites by them.
it's about the love-hate feeling most people have for the town they grew up in.
law4 you nailed the meaning of this song. i have to say im only 21 years old but this song describes my youth in parts and also reminds me of my early youth because my parents used to play this song (and other S&G songs) all the time. its kind of funny that the song about leaving the "dead and dying" in "my little town" is the very song that describes my youth in my hometown.
When I heard this song I was stunned. It is so blatantly about ghettos and the line about the rainbow, "and all of the colors are black" really hit me. The fact that children who grew up in a marginalized community have this jaded of an outlook really makes me want to do more in owing up to my privilege. Great song overall, I bet it was very controversial when it came out,
I think there aren't as many comments as there might be because, I hate to say it, but as much as I like this song, there is a trollish aspect to it. S&G have some other songs that indicate things that could be taken as insulting, but this one is pretty seemingly overtly insulting, and it'd take a lot of modernist indirection to talk your way out of it. Trolls just hate being trolled.
@vieuxnez I think the song is sad but beautiful.It describes to me perfectly of not being able to go back.How beautiful our childhood memories seem from our youth It is very nostagic for me.