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.
Sometimes I feel so happy
Sometimes I feel so sad
Sometimes I feel so happy
But mostly you just make me mad
Baby, you just make me mad
Linger on your pale blue eyes
Linger on your pale blue eyes
Thought of you as my mountaintop
Thought of you as my peak
Thought of you as everything
I've had, but couldn't keep
I've had, but couldn't keep
Linger on your pale blue eyes
Linger on your pale blue eyes
If I could make the world as pure
And strange as what I see
I'd put you in the mirror
I put in front of me
I put in front of me
Linger on your pale blue eyes
Linger on your pale blue eyes
Skip a life completely
Stuff it in a cup
She said, "Money is like us in time
It lies, but can't stand up"
Down for you is up
Linger on your pale blue eyes
Linger on your pale blue eyes
It was good what we did yesterday
And I'd do it once again
The fact that you are married
Only proves you're my best friend
But it's truly, truly a sin
Linger on your pale blue eyes
Linger on your pale blue eyes
Sometimes I feel so sad
Sometimes I feel so happy
But mostly you just make me mad
Baby, you just make me mad
Linger on your pale blue eyes
Linger on your pale blue eyes
Thought of you as my mountaintop
Thought of you as my peak
Thought of you as everything
I've had, but couldn't keep
I've had, but couldn't keep
Linger on your pale blue eyes
Linger on your pale blue eyes
If I could make the world as pure
And strange as what I see
I'd put you in the mirror
I put in front of me
I put in front of me
Linger on your pale blue eyes
Linger on your pale blue eyes
Skip a life completely
Stuff it in a cup
She said, "Money is like us in time
It lies, but can't stand up"
Down for you is up
Linger on your pale blue eyes
Linger on your pale blue eyes
It was good what we did yesterday
And I'd do it once again
The fact that you are married
Only proves you're my best friend
But it's truly, truly a sin
Linger on your pale blue eyes
Linger on your pale blue eyes
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
when rules change
Life in Your Way
Life in Your Way
High life
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.
Mental Istid
Ebba Grön
Ebba Grön
This is one of my favorite songs. https://fnfgo.io
Bron-Y-Aur Stomp
Led Zeppelin
Led Zeppelin
This is about bronies. They communicate by stomping.
i think its about a love that runs so deep that it doesnt really matter whether they're together or not - if you don't get this song go cry in a corner. it could not be clearer.
If you get this song, you will cry.
this comment is older than me-
I was spending the night with a girl I'm unfortunately destined to be friends with, even though i'd prefer more and i'm pretty sure she would too, and this song came on. she just looked at me and smiled. its that one person you love more than anything life can offer, but it just won't ever happen. someday she moves on and gets married, "but it's truly, truly a sin"
@swallowedthefly man, it was in fucking 2004, times were a lot diffrent back then, how are things going now? What happened to you and the girl? Truly interested in this history!! Thnax<br />
@swallowedthefly I agree!!!! how are things??
"It was good what we did yesterday, and I'd do it once again. The fact that you are married only proves you're my best friend. But it's truly, truly a sin." ..Scandalous!
This song is so hauntingly beautiful.
I agree with venus in furs. This song seems to be that he loves someone so much that it doesnt matter if he's with her or not. Especially in the beginning of the song, no matter how mad she makes him or how sad he is, he's okay as long as he can still linger on her pale blue eyes. This song makes me feel like I'm following a lifetime in a way. "Skip a life completely" I can't really explain it, but it feels the listener of the song is being taken through years of love and heartbreak, sort of. Like the love is so deep and so is the heartache that it lasts a whole life time. Anyone else feel this way? Anyway, I think the love and the lives gets to a point where they both give into the temptation and have an affair. Even though it's "truly, truly a sin."
And, ya know, it could very well be about a boy or a girl.
to me this song is about a love you had once but she's moved on... & she wants you to think you never had it. i think this happend to lou for sure also because the SJ line "women never really feign" its the same kind of theme.
basically the song has a feeling of wanting to reject what happend... wanting to move past it because it hurts. but on the other hand the hurt feels kind of good.. lets you know your alive. lets you know you tried & didn't just let it pass. so he's admiting she lingers inside him, this hurts him, but he lets it happen. it's like a confession.
(this is just what the song means to me... i get that kinda of feeling just from the sound; lyrics second)
This is not a song about unrequited love, rather it's about impossible love. This isn't about a guy who wants a girl or wants her back and now she's married. The man and woman in this song had a love affair. The last verse makes that obvious. "It was good what we did yesterday and I'd do it once again". They had sex and he at least would do it again (even though "It's truly, truly a sin"). "The fact that you are married, only proves that you're my best friend" - I think this means she wanted be with him so much, they have such a connection, she was willing to step over the fact that she's married.
When you have an affair, you get very infatuated. "Thought of you as my mountain top" "my peak". But since it's an affair it's something he "had but couldn't keep", because she'll never truly be his.
He imagines a world "pure and strange" where they could be together, where only love matters and not inconvenient facts like that she's married to someone else. But that is not to be: "skip a life completely, stuff it in a cup". What they are doing is backwards "lies but can't stand up, down for you is up". It can't last.
A very sad and beautiful song. She is an ideal and ultimately unkeepable love for him on pedestal and he's doomed to be haunted by her Pale blue eyes.
This song is perfect.
As I see it, it's about that friend who is more than that, and you both know you want to be more than that, but life doesn't help to make it happen, and yet you stay around because even though the romance is impossible there is so much more than that.
Setting aside the fact that this song is about the sweet balm of heroin it is also about love and life.
Being about the same age as Lou (would be). I have a different reaction now to this song to when I was 18. For me it is the sad musings of an older man about meeting someone he hopelessly loved in his youth. An experience I recently had.
He knows her so well. Well enough to be pleased saddened and maddened by her. She was everything to him but could never be his. He remembers her eyes.
She was everything to him but the problem wasn't her but the world, If he could make the world like the strange enchanting vision he has in his mind they would be together.
He meets her years later after they have both lived a life. It's gone – stuff it in a cup. She says to him that their relationship is like money- it's worth something but it's inert and can't stand up. You've always had the wrong idea – down for you is up. She's saying he had value (she loved him) but he never did anything.
What they did yesterday is not an affair. It was the genuine love they had years ago. She married to find happiness which is what he wanted for her. She did what he wanted for her. That's why she's his best friend. The sin is they never consummated their love.
Read the book Transformer, it's about Lou Reed. It talks about the meaning of this song. This song was about an ex of his which got married after her and Lou broke up. He continued going out with her but she broke off the affair.