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.
Standing with my enemy
Hung on my horns
With haste and reverie
Killing with charm
Only happy when you hurt
Only deadly in a swarm
Only healthy in the dirt
Only empty in your arms
I play, I'm sick and tame
Drawing the hordes
I'll wait, and show the lame
The meaning of harm
The skull beneath my feet
Like feathers in sand
I graze among the graves
A feeling of peace
Only bending when you break
Only feeding when you're cold
Only healing when you ache
Only feeling when you don't
Only bending when you break
Only feeding when you're cold
Only healing when you ache
Only feeling when you don't
Hung on my horns
With haste and reverie
Killing with charm
Only happy when you hurt
Only deadly in a swarm
Only healthy in the dirt
Only empty in your arms
I play, I'm sick and tame
Drawing the hordes
I'll wait, and show the lame
The meaning of harm
The skull beneath my feet
Like feathers in sand
I graze among the graves
A feeling of peace
Only bending when you break
Only feeding when you're cold
Only healing when you ache
Only feeling when you don't
Only bending when you break
Only feeding when you're cold
Only healing when you ache
Only feeling when you don't
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Love in a Vacuum
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its amazing how far music can come.. 24 years after it released and its one of the most heartfelt songs ive heard
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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.
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Fast Car
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"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.
its about people who are never happy unless they're unhappy
Totally agree: to be in love with your depression.
This song isn't about soldiers to me, because well..uh I was a soldier.
Anyway, when I hear this song I hear two different points. The chorus is about all of the people in this world who are greedy, manipulative, vile, wretched evil deeds. Basically people who cause and amplify the suffering of other life and the planet. The really jammin verse parts, you know the part that people think is about satan or some mythical beast? It is us. It is the ones who are angry by such people. We are the ones who want to end these people. That's the beautiful thing about us, and you know exactly what I'm talking about. The thing is we don't actually go out and start a war use violence against these people. But as Cornell and so many others of our generation have appropriately expressed in song, we sure can be expressive of this anger in its rawest, purest form: music.
We will persevere by our examples of peace, love, serenity, and tranquility. The Rhinosaur is the imagined manifestation of our anger.
i think its a neologism coined by combining rhinozeros and dinosaur, implying a massive, heavy, and reckless beast of primeval origin...
one of soundgardens best songs
Gosh I love this song, it goes straight for the gut and bites you on the arse. I read that Matt Cameron wrote the music for this and it's awesome. What about Kim's solo in the middle? One of the best on DOTU. My favourite line is "Only empty in your arms" and the rest of the lyrics speak for themselves. I think the interpretations of Superunknown and Lepra Massias are both pretty accurate but I totally disagree about the whole Satan idea. But that's just me.
Its about, just as the line says, Killing With Charm. You hate someone more than anything else in the world but you don't let them know it. You just do subtle things to destroy them
yeah, right, 'subtle' things like "my enemies hung on my horns"... to me it's a song about a treacherous opportunist, turnaround, and backstabber without any morals at all, someone who perceives others only as potential rivals, someone who doesn't let on but will take them out as soon as the opportunity arises, someone who works his way slowly up the pecking order, someone who would make a perfect nazi.
What the fuck is a rhinosaur?
What the fuck is a rhinosaur?
I took more of a religious interpretation from it, IE: Satan.