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"
Thought I was different, it seems I'm just the same
As again I put my hand over the flame
I thought I was smarter as I flew into the sun
But it turned out the way it does with everyone
I don't fly around your fire anymore
I don't fly around your fire anymore
Burned and fallen down so many times before
I don't fly around your fire anymore
I love the heat, I love the things that I forgot
I love the strings that tied me down and cut me off
I was a king, I was a moth with painted wings made of cloth
When did the flame burn so high and get so hot?
[Repeat: x3]
I don't fly around your fire anymore
I don't fly around your fire anymore
Burned and fallen down so many times before
I don't fly around, fly around
Fly around
Fly around
As again I put my hand over the flame
I thought I was smarter as I flew into the sun
But it turned out the way it does with everyone
I don't fly around your fire anymore
I don't fly around your fire anymore
Burned and fallen down so many times before
I don't fly around your fire anymore
I love the heat, I love the things that I forgot
I love the strings that tied me down and cut me off
I was a king, I was a moth with painted wings made of cloth
When did the flame burn so high and get so hot?
[Repeat: x3]
I don't fly around your fire anymore
I don't fly around your fire anymore
Burned and fallen down so many times before
I don't fly around, fly around
Fly around
Fly around
Lyrics submitted by ColdenScence
Moth Lyrics as written by Chris Cornell Timothy Commerford
Lyrics © Wixen Music Publishing, Hipgnosis Songs Group
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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I take two meanings from this song. It's a very great song and so powerful- wish I could thank them for doing it.
1.) Overcoming Addiction - The moth is attracted to the flame, but the flame would obviously kill it. "When did the flame burn so high and get so hot" is a point in drug/alcohol/other addictions when it stops becoming fun to get high anymore, and you feel the addiction, whatever it is, starting to take hold of you and kill you. He sings "I love(d) the heat I love(d) the things that I forgot," meaning the addiction was used as an escape from whatever led him to that addiction. The power of this song, and what I find gratifying is that it speaks to that point where you know you've beaten the addiction. The chords have a power and a resolve after the deep grittiness that makes you feel like they were climbing a mountain in the song and finally reached the top.
2.) Overcoming Someone rather than Something - I think the song could have a dual meaning to. The lyric "I don't fly around YOUR fire anymore" seems to personalize it. He could be singing to some inanimate object, but these lyrics seem to personify it a bit and bring it to life. The addiction was a person, not a thing. Who is it that was getting the best of him? Now he is free. He doesn't feed their ego anymore, and really, that person was just an escape from his problems. He never truly loved the person that got the best of him. But now that he's stronger, he doesn't have to keep getting burned like "so many times before. I don't fly around your fire anymore."
What an amazing, empowering song for someone going through tough times!
....more to number 2... after listening to it again. The beginning says "thought I was different seems I'm just the same" means he thought whatever or whoever it is... would have a different effect on him, or maybe he would have a different effect on it (if it was a person). "It turned out the way it does with everyone" means he got burned, later singing "I don't fly around your fire anymore." This really seems to me like he's talking about a lost love. The person just uses people, and finally he sees that they are damaged in that way.
A couple corrections, if I may...
"I won't fly around your fire anymore I don't fly around your fire anymore Burned and fallen down so many times before I don't fly around your fire anymore"
and..
"As again I put my hand over the flame"
That said, this is an awesome song, probably one of my favorites along with Jewel Of The Summertime. Cool chorus.
"m" is completly clear in "game" and of course the meaning. it couldn't be "again". and the others i think correct too.
^^Agreed.
Could be about being stuck on an object/person that only hurts us and just moving on away from it.. Reminds me of What You Are.
The best song on the whole Album(which isn't nearly as good as their others). Thank god they put this track on the CD otherwise I would have completely thought that Audioslave was done making their usual great songs. Does anyone think that parts of this song sound more like soundgarden?
I hear a lot more Soundgarden in it than the other songs on this particular album.
I think the song is kinda SG-ish... its an awesome song.... The album was dissapointing, but there are some great songs on it... This is a song many people could relate to.. I mean, its a great metaphor.. You get hurt by someone/something.. and you don't want it to go near it.. however, the song makes it seem like this is the second time he's done this.. (as once again I put my ahnd over the flame) Thats my idea... awesome song, probably my favorite on the album..
While most Audioslave lyrics can have many meanings, this one is clearly about Cornell's drug problems in the past.
This is one of my favorites, great lyrics, great singing. A lot of energy in this song...
i semi-agree with anti emo (cuz i hate emo) Best song on revelations, but Light my Way is audioslaves best song in my opinion, not that its worth much
Audioslave is the shit. I think it's about getting tangled up in some sort of predicament with someone (like a boyfriend or a girlfriend) and getting away from it.
No, it's clearly about Cornell's drug problems.
He was tempted by the drugs (putting his hand over the flame), and thought he wouldn't get addicted, but learned the opposite. (Thought I was smarter... But it turned out the way it does with everyone). Hence the title Moth - a creature which is helplessly attracted to the flame against it's own good.
This is an aged and more wise Cornell, making a statement against the addictions which have haunted his past. ( I won't fly around your fire anymore)