I have seen the world's most beautiful women undress in ordinary solitude
I have fallen asleep in the shift of distant satin
I have watched the rich risk it all for 15 minutes in a Heathrow bathroom
I have shuddered as an unseen mouth slid down my spine every night

I have seized with the ice cold rage of a lover betrayed, half a million miles away
I have cried so hard for hours and not known why, I never do
I've been knocked down flat by joy that makes my face pulse like a sugar high
I've been cornered by the screams of a body as it freed itself of its mind

I guess you could call it superpowers
but no one is going to save the world with what I've got
an indigo light from silvery towers
surrounded by rocks and stones as far as the eye can see

I've been lost in a cold white space as an arrogant dream storms in from another life
I have felt the snaps of lines that bind us all to this world
I have felt such unreal pain and not known what to do, it isn't mine
I have stayed awake for weeks and slept for days... not one dream

under low grey skies
and a razored wind that tears at the walls


Lyrics submitted by patgas

Superpowers song meanings
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11 Comments

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  • +1
    General Comment

    its not just about being able to empathize with others, i think its literally feeling what everyone else in the world is feeling...and i get the feeling he is considering what it would feel like to be God. except its not a good feeling to him, and he doesnt think anyone can actually get to God, as evidenced by the "silvery towers" surrounded by endless rocks, and all the awful feelings that others feel.

    crazy song.

    Yossarian82on March 01, 2010   Link
  • 0
    General Comment

    "i guess you could call it superpowers but no one is going to save the world with what I've got..." i love that line!

    lovemotionstoryon June 22, 2004   Link
  • 0
    General Comment

    So, so sad, the remix makes it even more bitter-sweet

    boomerstyleon December 19, 2004   Link
  • 0
    General Comment

    "I have seized with the ice cold rage of a lover betrayed, half a million miles away I have cried so hard for hours and not known why, I never do" its extra creepy how close these lines are, and the who le song for that matter, to my life.

    pokemostaron April 09, 2005   Link
  • 0
    General Comment

    wow thats really sad.

    you know my superpower is to be radiantly awesome at all times while i am awake.

    nottuffenuffon April 24, 2006   Link
  • 0
    General Comment

    So I guess that means you're asleep whenever you post here?

    pumkinhedon May 12, 2007   Link
  • 0
    General Comment

    Song's obviously about being bipolar. Hahaha.

    BrownCoreon December 20, 2007   Link
  • 0
    General Comment

    He has the power to empathise with others, however it's not enough to save anyone.

    "I guess you could call it superpowers but no one is going to save the world with what I've got an indigo light from silvery towers surrounded by rocks and stones as far as the eye can see"

    All he can do is be there, and the silvery towers is a lighthouse that he is comparing himself with. He'll be there to show people a safe route but it's no guarantee to save them because they are subject to the water's will, which he has no control over.

    Passer-byeon June 26, 2008   Link
  • 0
    General Comment

    I agree mostly with the two posters above about it concerning an ability to empathize, but a feeling of not being able to do much else.

    To me, the "indigo light from silver towers" makes me think of TV, as TV light is a blue glow and is broadcast from transmission towers, and I think the narrator is able to lose himself totally in a story from a TV show (or movie) to reach that level of identifying completely with the characters and feeling the emotions that they feel. This may feel like some sort of superpower (maybe no one around the speaker can get quite so absorbed in the story), but isn't very useful, and can leave the narrator feeling isolated or otherworldly afterwards, as indicated by the isolation that "surrounded by rocks and stones as far as the eye can see" connotes.

    The phrase "indigo light from silver towers" also makes me think a bit of Superman's Fortress of Solitude or something similar, and "surrounded by rocks and stones..." fits in with this, as well as the theme of superpowers in general. So, perhaps it is referring to some sort of superhero hideout, but with a mostly useless superhero.

    In general, I think the song is fairly open to interpretation, like most good poetry. It does have a general theme of feeling sort of useless and isolated, but whatever else we read into it is what we bring to it individually.

    noteyeon July 09, 2010   Link
  • 0
    General Comment

    I agree with the top comment here: this song is about the strange ability to aptly empathize, and how it could be seen as useful, but not really that great. But, when I first listened to it, I drew strong parallels from what was being described here to my own episodes of depressions, which eventually led me to believe it was kind of an ironic song about the strange things depression and heartbreak do, though, now that I think about it, the first idea about it being a song about empathy makes more sense with lines like "a lover, half a million miles a way." In general, absolutely beautiful song lyrics anyway.

    cooperfergusonon May 07, 2014   Link

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