| Damien Rice – Grey Room Lyrics | 19 years ago |
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"Desole" isn't just a French way of saying sorry :) Aside from being a common girl's name in English speaking countries (which seems bloody odd to me), it comes from the Latin verb "desolare" - to leave alone. I don't care what Rice said on TV - this is a song about depression. The Grey Room is a state of mind rather than a place. For those of you who have ever gone through periods of serious depression (not just a couple tears because you got dumped - I'm talking the full blown you're-clinically-depressed-according-to-the-DSM-IV-criteria kind of depression), you probably know the feeling of being alone no matter how many people are present. Also, while seriously depressed, people often experience lowered activitiy in the left frontal lobe, which is one of the more rational bits of the brain - it's part of what keeps you from jumping on a table at a party, stripping your clothes off, and announcing that you're Jesus Christ (note that alcohol can temporarily short-circuit this inhibition), and people wind up spending a little more time with their right frontal lobes - a bit of the brain that doesn't understand time, order, or much of anything concrete. Creativity can result (provided you can still get out of bed) when the right frontal lobe is no longer being balanced out by a healthy left frontal lobe. In other words, I think his Grey Room is clinical depression, and the reason he writes songs when he's there is that he has the decrease in left frontal lobe activity, allowing his right frontal lobe to do as it will. 'Course, I'm just speculating, and I don't think he consciously realized the connection between depression and creativity - it just turned up, and he used his very nice Damien Rice brain to convert sadness into something beautiful. Yup. That's what I think... |
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| Damien Rice – Dogs Lyrics | 19 years ago |
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I'd say that just about every single Damien Rice song is about betrayal, jealousy, losing someone, wanting someone, or crises of faith. Those of you who see this as being a song about jealousy are almost certainly correct. Someone above asked about the lines: "She drives us around and she drives us wild" One of the major themes of 9 is infidelity as well as fighting for the same girl (often from the losing end). If "she" is driving "them" around and crazy, then she hasn't decided yet who she's going to keep. I don't know the names of all the songs on this album (just picked it up), but in one of the later ones (second to last, I believe - just before "Sleep - Don't Weep"), he asks this girl to choose him over the other guy. I personally find it a bit odd that such a talented songwriter with his following and such should have any problem winning over a girl, but, then, I've never spent an evening hanging out with the guy. Either way, *he* clearly has some insecurities about not being chosen by the woman he loves. And, if you listen to that other song (the one before "Sleep - Don't Weep"), it's clear that he believes she's in love with him, and making a mistake by going with the new guy. I've only been in this situation eight billion times, so it kind of resonates with me. But, like I said, it's a theme of the album. 9 Crimes, Elephant, etc. - they're all about the problem of two people fighting for one, and that one has control over the other two. Must be frustrating to be Mr. International Pop Star Guy and still not be able to get the lady he wants. Maybe that's why he wants her... |
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