| Chris Cornell – Mission Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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I think this is quite an angry song. To me the ones he is angry with is us, his fans. Or at least a certain majority of his fans. "Pulled through you and drowning in your swirl" "Circling infolding in your will" - He's being pulled by us feels like he being forced into something that we want from him. "I'm going to glide on the winds of your breathing and alight on your guarded heart." He is will never fully be inside your heart, because it is guarded by what you want from him. Notice how he says 'I will alite on your guarded heart' and not 'in your guarded heart'. "I'm gonna tear all our temples down. I'm on a mission now" - It could mean a number of things. Firstly he could be warning us that admiration of rockstars block us from what we should really care about, therefore people like him destroy our personal passions and individualism. Secondly it could mean that he is fed up with what he is doing so is going to smash our expectations of him and start doing what he wants instead. "Smoldering down inside your mood" - He could be saying he is being destroyed by our happiness and need for what he is currently doing. "Slithering and fanning in your eyes" - He warns us that his stage image is sly and is something good in disguise (slithering), creating a sensation in our eyes. "I'm going to dive through your crying and sleep in your hair." - He seems to be saying that he will thrive in our crying (chanting for him at concerts), yet sleep/ live in the dirt we leave after we go from the concerts. "Rise from your ashes and kneel in your prayers" - He could be saying that he thinks we are destroyed as people (ashes), with no individualism. Yet he feels like he has to rise up for this exploitation and live up to our prayers (wants). "Writhe in your calm and provide your release" - He thinks we are addicted to the rockstar lifestyle and feels he is in some way a drug, providing us with relief. He feels writhed for this and so feels guilty or unhappy with the situation. "Weave into your wanting and needing and reside in the heart of your strongest beliefs" - He feels he has to bend to suit us. He seems to wish he didn't have to, because he mentions that only we are the ones that want and need it. Not mentioning him. He is trapped by our beliefs of what he should be. "And I have nothing, but then the have is not as good as the want." - If he is on a mission to destroy our expectation and escape us, he will have nothing. But he's saying its better to have nothing than have to provide for our 'want' of something he is not. |
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| Chris Cornell – Disappearing One Lyrics | 16 years ago |
| I think he is speaking of people/ friends/ lovers who aspire to join the circles of people/ things they admire. The people they want to join he sees as fads. Fads are dangerous and end up hurting you, because they don't last forever. This song assumes he isn't phased by these fads and is only interested in who his friend/ lover/ person is as an individual. When they return off their little fad, the blindfold (curtain) it caused them to have (and blocked him out) will be lifted and they will once more enjoy each others company. | |
| Chris Cornell – Follow My Way Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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I think this song is about how we look at people like Chris, who seem kind of superhuman in comparison with ourselves. At every point in this song he is perhaps trying to persuade us that his way of life is actually less rewarding than lives led by ourselves, which we may think are rather dull in comparison. "Little one don't be a fool, I'm a wreck when I look mighty " The way he refers to us and him is ironic. He addresses us in the way we would expect of somebody much higher up than us "little one". He says do not to be fooled because when he looks his most mighty, he may be extremely stressed or depressed as a result of the pressure. "In euphoria I'm bruised" - Euphoria means bliss. We associate blissful things with pleasure alone. In what we see as his blissful way of life he tells us he is actually extremely hurt by it. "in confusion next I'm lightning" - To me this refers to his state of mind when we'd think he's at a 'high point'. He will jump from confusion in every day life to extreme productivity in his work very quickly. So perhaps he is torn apart by his obsession with performing and the time he spends working on it. Yet to us he seems to have it all made, because we only ever see the finely tuned performance. "In complacence I am small, through oblivion I charge " - In his own pleasure (his complacence) he has nothing. Through what we see as his brilliance he is soaring. Yet he sees this 'brilliance' as his oblivion. Suggesting that he believes he cannot escape it, so has to keep charging forward into it. "You're just looking for a boy bathed in infrared and sunlight" - He is telling us that all we really want is a rockstar and a stage full of artificial lights. "I'm all polish and reward, when I'm confident I'm hopeless. Just like everybody else right before they fall apart" - He is polished and has rewards to us, yet he feels very hopeless. So hopeless that the only way he can describe it to us is by saying "I feel like what you'd feel like when you finally fall apart." "When I'm the pain, fever and sweet relief in one" - When he seems to be in pain, because maybe an album didn't do well or his 'fans' have rejected him - he feels a bit hurt by it, but it's actually a relief to escape it. "So follow my way when I am falling from your heart" "So follow my way when I'm not leading anyone. Open and frayed, when you can see that I'm unsure" "Out on my way I'm only pure when I get lost and you're only needing, when you're finding that I'm not" - He is trying to tell you that you'd be better off following him when he seems 'lost'. We assume that what he means by 'lost' is to have no preconceived goals - and therefore to be free. He is telling us that only at this point would we see the real person, yet we carry on wanting 'Chris Cornell' 'that cool singer guy'. It seems that he wishes that we'd love him for what he wants to be (free) rather than what we want him to be (a rockstar). "Though I'm not worthy of your trust. Follow me down into a swan dive, all eyes closed tightly" - He feels guilty for living out this fake and materialistic rockstar image. Yet wants you to let him take you on a journey of what he really is. He may or may not know who he is and we certainly don't. Therefore it will be a leap of faith. "Lowly, slowly. Now I know I like where you go when you're gone" - In one way it could mean the people who didn't follow him into the swan dive. After going on the leap of faith, he likes these people now that their gone, out of his way, out of his life. "Warm your hands inside my veins. I might be contagious" - It seems like a bitter and sarcastic remark. He is telling us if we love his rockstar life so much then go and kill him with it and take it upon yourself. He thinks of it as a disease, so it is possibly a contagious thing. "When I derail. Calm in the patience of remorse" - He thinks that when he steps out of the rockstar life he lives, he feels calm but also has a strong sense of remorse for what he has done with his life. He could be telling us to enjoy the calm while he is dealing with this remorse. "When all you know, is that I don't know where we are. When all you know, is that I don't know. Follow my way" - He is saying perhaps that he is only worth following if he is living as a free man. To him, being a free man is perhaps not knowing what comes next. Just taking it as it comes. |
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| Chris Cornell – Moonchild Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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Its about the problem of chasing the giant carrot in front of you. Whatever that carrot may be (money, dreams, goals etc). I think its trying to explain that you should appreciate things more for what they are, not for what you want them to be. "Open your arms to the lonely shine" - Something that appears to be brilliant, but instead makes you lonely. "Lonesome as gold in a poor man's smile" - Two parts to this. The pursuit of gold makes you lonely - and you are belittled by it. Unlike a poor man, who we assume has more accessible and immediate pleasures. "Follow the ebb and flow in the breathing tide" - Suggesting you should follow something that we see as breathing. Which assumes that at the moment you are not breathing (living). "Cat on the road, down in the living night" - We think of night time as dead or immobile compared with the day time. He is perhaps saying that the emptiness of the night leads to greater exploration of your own mind and passions (like a cat). "See how the black dog grins in the diamond light" - 'Black dog' is a metaphor for depression. This line could suggest that depression thrives in the World of glamor and riches. "We're dreaming and we're real, we're broken and we're healed" - This perhaps describes delusion. You think your living in reality, but really your living and buying into dreams. You can think what your doing is for the better (healing you), but really it could be a bad choice (its breaking you). It also works vise versa in the way you could look at others. People who we see as broken, like the poor man - could have life the right way (so are healing). People who we think live in the clouds and don't get anything done, could be people who are actually more in touch with reality than you are. "Give in to what you feel over what you see" - He could be trying to tell you to live for whats around now rather than what is in the future. Also, it doubles as an emotional suggestion. Do what you feel like at the moment rather than what you think others want you to do. "And when if is only yes and no, and now becomes too soon" - He may be looking at how we think of abstract words. The word 'if' means that you are referring to something which hasn't happened. He is perhaps saying that by thinking 'it either will (yes) or won't (no)' is narrow minded. He is maybe suggesting we should not try to determine or assume what is ahead, but deal with it when it gets here. The second part focuses on the word 'now'. You can't get any sooner than now, so if now becomes to soon then it is impossible to achieve. "You could bloom forever in the hour" - We associate forever as in from the start of time to the end of time. Or with the start of our life and the end of it. Therefore we may think that it takes forever to 'bloom' - which could include a number of things such as happiness or sense of achievement. What he says is you could bloom forever in the space of just an hour. Which says to me that forever is an imaginary length of time, a concept that shouldn't really exist. It also says that you could technically achieve exactly the same level of happiness or achievement now as at the end of your life. "The door is falling open and we're flying wild" - It could mean a number of things depending on which side of the door you are standing on. Its the door between two ways of life. The free life he suggests and the average persons 'pursuit' and goal orientated life. If we can assume he has taken on this free way of life 'we' could mean that 'we are flying freely over this side - in any direction we want!' or if he is saying we as in on the other side it could mean 'we are going insane (wild)'. "Come on moonchild, you're so far away tonight" "I know you'll be alright if you only come away to the moon" - The moon is far away from Earth. You first assume that he is telling you to come back down to Earth because your 'on a different planet'. However his later line suggests that the Earth is linked with materialism and this pursuit of what shouldn't matter yet. It also suggests that the Earth holds places built by other people (not us personally). He could be saying that we should set our minds upon a blank canvas (like the moon) with which we can build our own World. The 'Moon and Earth' could be referring to the World of our minds. So to be an 'Earthchild' would mean your living under somebody elses preconceived idea of a World. To be a 'Moonchild' would be to design your own way of life. You may not agree with some things, but I hope that helps you understand the meaning of these lyrics. |
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