1
Before she met me she took herself to wait five years
After I met her, her teacher said "Best wait five years."
I ask my neighbors, they said it's wise to wait five years.
I say "Fever."
I told a friend how I'm feeling and this made her sad
'Cause she fears that no man will ever desire her so bad.
How dare I feel this and do naught but sit on my hands.
I say "Fever."
Hold my heart like a hot potato,
Push the clock for an hour later.
This is just code to decipher
Found my ploughman, chased the piper.
That ended up.
That's all now.
These are the ones who talk.
Never a lick, needs her to kiss him.
The first five years go by and we are no longer here.
I blame myself for not taking steps to draw her near.
I try to decide what to do now based on love not fear.
I say "Fever."
(Four years)
Hold my heart like a hot potato,
Push the clock for an hour later.
This is just code to decipher
Found my ploughman, chased the piper.
After I met her, her teacher said "Best wait five years."
I ask my neighbors, they said it's wise to wait five years.
I say "Fever."
I told a friend how I'm feeling and this made her sad
'Cause she fears that no man will ever desire her so bad.
How dare I feel this and do naught but sit on my hands.
I say "Fever."
Hold my heart like a hot potato,
Push the clock for an hour later.
This is just code to decipher
Found my ploughman, chased the piper.
That ended up.
That's all now.
These are the ones who talk.
Never a lick, needs her to kiss him.
The first five years go by and we are no longer here.
I blame myself for not taking steps to draw her near.
I try to decide what to do now based on love not fear.
I say "Fever."
(Four years)
Hold my heart like a hot potato,
Push the clock for an hour later.
This is just code to decipher
Found my ploughman, chased the piper.
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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.
For those of you speculating the relevance of the video to the song lyrics, they are in fact very tightly knit. The video simply offers a 3rd person and objective perspective to the events conspiring, whereas the lyrics only provide the perspective of our protagonist.
The lyrics of the song would have you believe the man is pursuing a naive and innocent damsel whom society deems necessary to keep naive and innocent. Our protagonist has fallen madly in love with her and his desperation to have her is crippling.
The video however, reveals the other side of the coin. Our damsel is far from naive or innocent. She has in fact used her sexuality as a means to manipulate the willpower of our protagonist in aiding her in her true motives. The Perfume sprayed when she first meets the man, does nothing but further indulge this theory. It's as if she places him under her "spell". You can infer that the idea of a 5 year wait is still relevant in the video by seeing that he has fallen ill. This is most likely a metaphor for his pain of not having the one he adores, more so then a direct statement of illness.
The Removal of human heads, and the revelation of the animal heads is very simply the revelation of that individual's true primal nature. You'll notice that our protagonist, when revealed, is an innocent hare, with no inkling of the terrible danger he is in, or that he has been used. Whereas our damsel, is in fact the vicious and cunning wolf, who will take him as prey after he has fulfilled his role in her plan.
The stage is set for some form of exchange. Late, and in the forest, the man we are lead to believe is the villain (our gun-toting hawk) has met with another man. It appears he is exchanging the heads for a some of money or some other treasure. The heads most likely being direct metaphors for the most valued and prized personal possessions of the townsfolk.
We then see that our protagonist is stalking the man and waiting to seize his gains from the encounter. We can quickly infer by events that transpire afterward, that the damsel has set him up to this. He is motivated by the idea of proving his love to her, and that he may have her if he does what she has requested. He intercepts the hawk and attempts to claim the funds.
After his success, our damsel then reveals to have been watching all along. She comes to claim her winnings after having the grunt work done for her. Our protagonist, startled, flustered, and genuinely surprised to see her, then has his world shattered upon the revelation of her true motives.
When realizing, that he has in fact, been used; he attempts to end her. He fails. Her true nature is revealed and she takes his life. Collecting the items from both sides of the exchange. This we can tell because her carriage is filled with the heads, and we can assume she also leaves with the bag. She then puts her "human head" back on as her facade to move on to whatever it is she has planned next.
The part that will really get you however, is when you wonder if she was also manipulating the hawk through the same means.
The video is brilliantly presented. It is an elaborate and artistic way of telling a story with one of the most common and simplistic of themes.
Brilliant interpretation and well said. Thanks for sharing =)
Fantastic analysis and excellent writing. Thank you so much.
I thought the same way about the video... although I couldn't connect the lyrics to the video. But I would go even further with the animal heads representing kind of the character of the former holder... like i think darwin who plays the guitar has a lion head. The stolen heads could be a metaphor for the souls, which are taken by the hawk offering him a grand prize, so the Woman then would be the devil tricking all sides and leaving them for dead.
R U writing a f-ing book? And there is not a stalker behind every tree. Geesh. And each one of you novelists ('each one' being facetious) provided a big pile of poo. The frggin' song's about inaction due to fear. That's it...inaction and fear. Not stalkers or livestock or Leonado Divinci or cresendos or dwarfs or pipers or protagonists or little green men who live on Mars!!!! For gawd's sake, novels????? Cripes.
I think you are very close, definitely helped me in understanding this. Something to support your idea here:<br /> <br /> The man who presents the bag is the same guy who is driving the carriage at the end, he also seems to be the frog who is seen chasing a lady who is of unknown significance (as someone else pointed out, the boar is probably the elderly lady).<br /> <br /> So it seems that the whole thing was just a plot to steal all the heads by paying the hawk off, but then get out of it with their money in the end by playing the rabbit against him. Very clever, this to me is what art should be.
Would you please do the world a favor and stop using the word protagonist. And why so many paragraphs for such a simple song. You remind me of my very bright Advanced History teacher who would talk forever and say what the average person could say in a minute. We all wanted to slap him. The song is really self-explanatory. It doesn't take a brain surgeon to figure it out. (Heck, I figured it out:)
@Emprah The Video, was done by Bent Image Lab. They happen to be located in the same city, that Ramona Falls hails from. that would add to your theory, that the video, and the song may be closer than average. Also, I'm going to think, that the faces(heads)(masks), are meant to our civilized personas. By being stripped of those masks, we're reverted back, to animal instincts. that's the impression the video gave me.
@Emprah - I'm digging your analysis of the video. i got the overall concept but missed out on some of these key details and how they may further tie the video to the song. I'm not sure this is a different, outsider's take on the situation, but perhaps it is more reflective of the speaker's internal turmoil about everything going on. It plays well into the idea that the members of "civil" society clothe their own primal natures with innocent trappings, while clandestinely fulfilling their own animalistic nature (on their terms). The video to me is kind of the speaker's desire and feeling of rejection playing out on his own terms..like a chaotic thought process as he dismantles the excuses and disguises.
@Thisaintozkido - Jeeze. This isn't ratemyprofessor.com. Nobody is here to receive your "critique" of our forum-style analytical exposition.
Definitely interesting to get email notifications that bring me back to a post I had forgotten about, just to see people upset that interpretations of a Song/Music Video were discussed at length on a site dedicated specifically to doing so.<br /> <br /> Can't please all of the people all of the time, I suppose. Thankfully, that's never been a concern of mine.<br /> <br /> Those commenting more recently, thank you for bringing my attention back to this discussion. I really enjoyed the video, and watched it again after having not seen it in quite some time.