| Van Halen – Jump! Lyrics | 5 years ago |
| It seems to me that when he wrote the song he was talking to the fellow on the ledge and saying what he's saying in the song. "I get up, and nothing gets me down, you got to roll with the punches and get to what's real. I've got some good things going on. I can get girls to jump me just like this: 'I ain't the worst that you've seen, am I? Get it in and jump! JUMP!' Can't you see what I mean? If I can get good things going on, so can you. Ah, but if it's what you want, just go ahead and freakin' jump already. JUMP! Quit pandering around and Do it." | |
| MGMT – Kids Lyrics | 6 years ago |
|
It seems to me that the only really potentially ellucidating pieces of material evidence we have concerning the thoughts and intentions of the song's creators are in the official video. Maybe I'm wrong about this, have their been recorded interviews? Are there any quotes or comments from the authors that are relevant? I can imagine the song's creators feeling pressure to give credence to the idea that it's about the planetary ecological environment and humankind's treatment of it even if that general topic actually wasn't really in the forefront of their minds when they created the song and the video at all. I think the commenters who are exhorting us to "think outside the box" and apply this to topics which are of interest and concern to a lot of us but which aren't really obviously and directly present in the video or don't seem to be its "main thrust," as it were, are probably stretching/reaching a bit. A principle of interpretation which is held by many to produce the most accurate interpretations the most frequently is to intepret things in the simplest and most literal way that is reasonable given the material. It seems to me that the video is all about the emotions and impressionability and the fragile sense of security of a child, and the impact that the child's experience with the world of people is having on it. The lyrics seem to be directed at the audience and they seem to be talking about the child's experience and exhorting the audience concerning their treatment of children. The comment that talked about the song being essentially about "bad parenting" and the child maybe having a divorced mom struck me as being by far the most likely to be the closest to accurately describing the creator's thoughts and intentions than any of the other comments. When I watch that video, I hear it's creators saying "Look at this innocent, impressionable and fragile child! Be careful how you treat it! Be careful what you expose it too and what you send it into! And for God's sake, never forget that You are supposed to be this child's loving guide and protector!" and expressing that general sentiment by way of describing their own experience of growing up or that which they've observed - which definitely seems as though it certainly may have involved being the child of a single mom, and a whole lot of fears and complicated and ugly emotions around all that which are hard or impossible for a child to even identify, much less sort out, but which might certainly also include emotions inspired by the father having become a kind of monster, and therefore everyone in the world potentially being monsters. I can imagine this phenomenon actually having had an impact on the song's creator(s) and having been reflected in these works even if they weren't consciously aware of it - but we may be reading a little too much into it as far as discerning the conscious intent goes. As we grow up we encounter progressively more things that would tend to convince us that the world is not the nice, happy, safe place we would prefer that it be, and that people aren't the loving, charitable, happy creatures they at first seemed to be. Growing up, the older you get, the more horrifying and contemptable many of the ideas are which are communicated to or around you. And in any parent/child relationship, the tension and balance between love and discipline is always a challenge. What boundaries are reasonable and good and which aren't really isn't always perfectly obvious. One of the realities you eventually face as a child growing up is that your loving, charitable, happy "guide and protector" parent(s) who on the one hand seem(s) to practically live to make life as nice and good and pure and wholesome for you as possible, on some level or another, isn't/aren't really any of those things, and doesn't/don't really. And when that reality rears its ugly head, it can be difficult to sort the actions and policies and so on affected by them and by everyone, at that point, which are truly only done / put in place for good and benevolent reasons from those that are actually done to serve selfish ends and/or fulfill horrifying hungers. Imagine, for example, the small child who is molested by a parent or a relative. People around potentially being monsters and the exhortation to "Take only what you need from it" ('it' being your relationship/contact with the child) takes on a whole new meaning in that light. But again, that may be reading too much into it. It definitely seems to me that the most obvious and direct interpretation of the lyrics "take only what you need from it" and "a family of trees wanting to be haunted" is that those comments are being directed at the audience: Take only what you need from your contact with a child. Be aware of the potential impact that what you "decide" to do with, to or around them may have on their perception of the scariness of the world of people. It seems to me that the obvious "consequence" of "picking insects off of plants" (in front of a child) in this context is less likely to be about ecological concerns and more likely to be about the fear of you or them getting bitten, and/or the possibility that visibly killing insects may horrify the child and call into question your trustworthiness as a guide and protector. Doing that may turn you into a monster in their sight, because if the small, relatively powerless, relatively insubstantial life of an insect is worthless, what about their small, relatively powerless, relatively insubstantial life? A child does not necessarily know that a bug is not every bit as conscious and aware as they are. I can't imagine that the visdeo is about the environment, it seems far more obviously about the potential emotions and perceptions of the child. Anyway, as we grow up, eventually it becomes pretty clear to us that a whole lot that we thought was done and is being done for our good actually wasn't and isn't really, but instead merely serve to further selfish ends and/or to facilitate the satisfaction of dubious if not horrifying hungers, and then our trusted guide(s) and protector(s) and the world and life and the future all together become the giant maw of a terrifying, ugly monster and all we can do is scream as we are swallowed whole by it. Parents decide what to expose their children to, and what to send their children into, and sometimes those things are "bought" in the sense of daycare being bought or things like Cable TV and movies and various media channels on the Internet are bought. A whole lot of media these days "races by at a hundred deaths an hour." I see a child being sent into dubious, potentially horrifying environments in this video. And I see the Mom herself becoming perceived as being a monster, in the end, as a result, seemingly because of her insensitivity to the rancidity of what she exposes her child to and her apparent likes/needs/desires/hungers which compelled her to do that. It's like it's discovered that she was secretly a part of it all, herself, all along. So I think the comment may have been right when it said that the song and video are essentially about "bad parenting," because this is the potential experience of a child who isn't, in the end, really very well loved. It seems to me that the video is simply presenting the innocense and impressionability and the fragile sense of security of children, and is saying, in so many words - "LOVE YOUR KIDS!" |
|
| The Beatles – Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown) Lyrics | 7 years ago |
|
When I first heard the first line, "I once had a girl or should I say she once had me", I thought that meant he had the girl as a girlfriend, but then waxed kind of egotistical and said she had him as a boyfriend. But then I realized that the implication was that she no longer did, which meant he'd left her for some reason, and was about to explain why - so it wasn't just an egotistical remark. So then she leads him on and then leaves him high and dry, and then in the morning when he realizes what's happened, he burned her norwegian wood as an act of revenge. "So, I a lit a fire - isn't it good norwegian wood." It was clearly intended as a cheeky remark; it could have meant that he lit a fire in the fireplace and enjoyed the comfy feel of her place while waiting for her to return or something, but instead obviously meant that he burned her norwegian wood - but it wasn't initially clear to me whether he was burning some of her wood in the fireplace or if he burned her whole place. But the song doesn't mention a fireplace and the thing in the song which was made of norwegian wood was her room. "She showed me her room, wasn't it good, norwegian wood." So my guess was that he meant that he burned her room, which essentially meant burning the whole place down. That would turn the song into a sort of brief, simple, sing-songy snippet of prose that ends up packing quite a wallop which is a common sort of thing, and certainly seemed in character for the Beatles, so, that seemed like the mostly likely interpretation to me. By the end it seemed that they didn't have sex, which made me question whether or not they were actually boyfriend and girlfriend, which cast doubt on my understanding of the first line. So it was a mystery to me what it meant until I read the explanation provided by Docent, on this page. The idea that "had" in "I once had a girl" referred to deceiving or tricking someone is pretty anathematic to me and would be another in a fairly long list of similar horrors that would cause me to be rather put off by likes of the Beatles, even if I enjoy their music. I would be virtually burned at the stake by a crowd of millions for admitting to such, but I've never been a conformist. But docent's quotes don't actually explain what "had" meant. I think I'd prefer to think that it wasn't so much about deceiving or tricking as it was about simply being in a relationship. Maybe they hadn't had sex yet, but had been fairly clearly building up to it. The song seems like a kind of morbidly fascinating comment on philandering. The picture I get is of a sincere fellow who is wandering a bit from his main squeeze because he fairly desperately needs more, emotionally and physically, than he's getting, and thinks maybe he's found it in this new person, but it turns out she was just intent upon punishing him for philandering. So he unleashes his completely overwhelming bitter wrath upon her for appointing herself judge and jury over him and making him think she liked him and wanted him when she really didn't. |
|
| Phil Collins – In The Air Tonight Lyrics | 8 years ago |
| @[Maxtrong:22224] That is an interesting thought. Do we know that about Phill's history? | |
| Phil Collins – In The Air Tonight Lyrics | 8 years ago |
|
It's very easy to imagine it basically having been written to his estranged wife. And it's pretty easy to imagine him, after kind of coming down off the ledge a bit, not really wanting to say that it was. "I can feel it coming in the air tonight" could easily be about the moment when he knew the sort of final straw, the end of the end of the marriage, was eminent. "If you told me you were drowning, I would not lend a hand." That's a pretty good description of how a person might feel about someone they thought really loved them but turned out not to. "I've seen your face before my friend, but I don't know if you know who I am." That's another pretty good description of how a person might feel about someone they thought really loved them but turned out not to. "I was there and I saw what you did, I saw it with my own eyes." How many times, in relationships, have I been in that place where the girl was denying guilt? And I'm like "I was there! Do you think I'm blind!? Deaf!?" Women, and probably all people, have this amazing ability to rewrite history in their minds, and paint it entirely differently from how a video camera would show it. How many times have I wished for a plain and clear video of some time and place so I could Show someone What They Did. "I remember, I remember don't worry, the first time, the last time we ever met." Recalling when lovers first met is an emotional thing for them. It's a romantic thing. And when a lover is denying guilt, when they're trying to assuage hurt, that's a card they may try to play. But when the relationship has soured, it can start to feel like that moment was the only time you ever met that person and it was the only time they ever met you. I know why you've been silent. The pain doesn't show, but the hurt still grows. It's no stranger to us. Yep - That's a line straight out of just about anyone's break up. |
|
| Coldplay – Life in Technicolor II Lyrics | 8 years ago |
|
-- There's a wild wind blowing, Down the corner of my street Every night there the headlights are glowing -- Is this about a gathering of people driven toward a sort momentary ecstatic, artistic expression by a kind of a wild, reckless streak? Like the big outdoor rave party that the two kids in the official video for "Charlie Brown" go to in their stolen car? They break out the windows and spray paint all over it. Just like the helicopter that flies through the window at the end of the official video (the puppet show) for this song, their wild, ecstatic explosive expression carries with it a kind of reckless abandon that pays no head to the destruction it wreaks. Chris seems to like to fantasize aloud about reaching for and successfully grabbing and wielding that magical, ecstatic Star Power that drives people to move with wild, reckless abandon. Or are the wind and lights not solely produced by car batteries or by frenzied physical activity, but rather by some kind of paranormal force, like the magic in the official videos for "Talk" and "Magic" and the magical puppet show version of the official video for this song, "Life in Technicolor"? Chris's lyrical messages and official videos often put a person in mind of someone working on valiantly and cheerfully spreading a message of faith and hope in forces greater than ourselves and in the possibility of connecting with and joining with something spiritual that supersedes and super-extends our physical bodies or any particular physical thing. In "Every Teardrop is a Waterfall" he says "I saw, I swear you, this light, that came into, to tell me it's alright." And then he runs to the stage and flings with all his might what appears to be a symbolic reminder of that light, in the video for "Fix You." The light in "Teardrop" is reminiscent of the "Eagle" that "flew out of the night" and spoke to Peter Gabriel in "Solsbury Hill": "Son, he said, grab your things I've come to take you home." -- There's a cold war coming, On the radio I heard Baby it's a violent world -- So there are big, terrible things happening, that are completely beyond our control, that threaten to rip the world apart, and us with it. -- Oh love don't let me go Won't you take me where the streetlights glow I could hear it coming I could hear the sirens sound Now my feet won't touch the ground -- Is this a violent clash that kills a bunch of people? Like the bombing of London during the war.. The sirens warned of the incoming planes.. And then the bombs dropped, and now he has left his body. Or is the levitating more about his emotions about it all overcoming him? Someone he loved was killed, or.. Gosh, his wife's father died. Chris's wife's father died, and that inspired "Fix You." The sirens sounded, he was taken to a hospital, where he died. And it all felt like so much more than Chris could can manage or contain. I was at a car crash one day. Cars overturned, tens of feet from the street, hundreds of feet from each other. 40 feet of street covered with broken glass and small bits of metal and plastic. I held a dying man's head in my hands, as the far too distant sirens sounded. His brain was visible through a giant gash in the side of his head. He couldn't move anything. All he could do was groan and stare. As timeless moments passed, his arteries turned blue, his skin went pale, and he died. Life goes in slow motion, and your feet leave the ground. And no physical thing matters. All you can do is cling to your love. Is it that, or is it a wild, enticing "siren" Spirit that calls him and his love to join in it's magic and act with reckless abandon? Or is it both and all of those things at once? -- Time came a creepin' Oh and time's a loaded gun Every road is a ray of light It goes on Time only can lead you on Still it's such a beautiful night -- Is he talking to an x that he's trying to seduce? Their life's pursuits, with their various promises of hope.. all the music gigs, etc.,.. lead them in separate directions.. killing what they had.. I'll be gone in the morning, and you will be too, but let's grab what we can tonight? Maybe our whole life is one big stand. -- Oh love don't let me go Won't you take me where the streetlights glow I could hear it coming Like a serenade of sound Now my feet won't touch the ground Gravity released me, And won't ever hold me down Now my feet won't touch the ground. -- Ok, he was the guy in the "Charlie Brown" video, and kissed the pretty girl at the rave as the fireworks went off and the ecstatically beautiful, pulse pounding music played. Now that he's had that experience, he can die happy. A girlfriend and I sat with our legs dangled over the edge of a train bridge and we kissed as a freight train blasted its siren and roared by inches from our heads. The wind whipped our clothes and our hair around and at moments, threatened to blow us off. The deafening roar left our ears ringing and our heads spinning. (Please note: I do not recommend trying this! We got very lucky - we could easily have been killed.) I think I mentioned this experience in some post or another, and years later I saw a scene very much like it in a movie. Someone read my post about a moment of my life and put it into to movie! Well, ok, maybe we weren't the first or the last to do that. But it was so spontaneous and so.. daring for us.. it wasn't planned. It just happened. (Well, or I sure didn't plan it anyway!) There was a little girl, once. A daughter of a lady I dated for a while. Her.. ecstatic joy.. when I would arrive.. That unbelievably amazing light in her eyes.. Young children have such completely unbridled emotions! "Time is a loaded gun", and I will probably never see any of them again, but those memories will never fade. My feet will never touch the ground. I will die a happy man. What an incredible joy and relief it is to have a group of artists like Chris and friends, who reach for and call for us to share in the reaching for this incredible ecstatic beauty and love, rather than reaching for the kind of self absorbed, wantonly violent, hateful, pompous, in-your-face self-glorification that so many modern artists feel compelled to reach for. What a name for that song, "Charlie Brown." Charlie Brown does not have super star looks. He doesn't have super star moves. He's an average joe with glaring quirks and foibles and warts. Maybe worse than average, in some ways. Big round head. He just has very genuine and very relatable emotions. Is Chris saying that he feels like Charlie Brown kissing the "girl with the red hair" and having the experience of being a super star? Like the elephant video for "Paradise." We're just a bunch gangly misfit elephants, who happened to miraculously find each other, and wind up up here on this stage doing this amazing thing. Ha! How can we not love that guy. Hmm. Charlie Brown falls for the same terrible prank over and over. "Come and kick it with all your strength! I promise I won't move it. Oh! Whoopsie!" When my brother's third marriage ended, he said he felt like Charlie Brown. Did Chris kiss Gwyneth at a rave? Is Gwyneth Chris's Lucy.. Perish the thought. |
|
| James Blunt – Carry You Home Lyrics | 9 years ago |
|
Watching that video again, I keep getting struck by the way there may be so many meanings. So much meaning in so few words. "I'm watching you breathing for the last time" I wonder if that chorus line has a different meaning each time it is sung! At first it's about soldier's departure for the mission. He loves this girl and has always been affected deeply by the emotions she expresses in the way she breathes. He loves to just watch her breathe, sometimes, when they're alone. And, he can tell how she's feeling, at any given moment, by how she's breathing. So he watches her breathing, sometimes, to see how she's feeling. She's strong, and has born up under the difficulties of being married to a soldier. But they both know this departure may be his last, and as it turns it is. She's strong, but in that moment she's tender as she goes. So as the man lays there dying, he's remembering their last goodbye and how he was watching her breathing at the time. Later it's about the same thing, but the man is thinking of how her breathing will be when she hears that he has died. There is that.. joy and hope and anticipation of feeling that sense of being "home" with him present.. that he sees going on before she hears it, and he watches that breathing stop, and knows that on some level it will be the last time she ever breathes quite that way again. Then later again, it's the same thing, but on an even stronger level when she receives his personal effects. Then it's about the singer's discovery of the dying soldier. He's struck by the guy's obvious strength coupled with his tenderness toward his loved one, in his dying moment. He's struck by the fact that he's found this guy who is quickly dying, but is still breathing. It's a kind of horror-filled moment, watching him breathe his last breath. Then this picture of her that he begins carrying, with the intention of taking it to her, strikes his fancy a bit and in his mind's eye, and he watches her breathe. Her face makes it kind of obvious that she's that sort, that you can see how she's feeling from how she's breathing. So now the Singer is watching her breathe, in his mind's eye. He's imagining what it will be like to watch her breathe in person, knowing that he'll most likely never see her again, and that their meeting will pretty much end his thoughts of watching her breathing. Then when he faces her in person, he watches her breath while he's in arm's reach for the last time. Then he turns and looks at her from a distance, and watches her breathe for the last time from any distance. He knows he's watching a big part of her die. |
|
| James Blunt – Carry You Home Lyrics | 9 years ago |
|
I had many of the same exact thoughts, and a few others.. "Trouble is her only friend and he's back again Makes her body older than it really is And she says it's high time she went away No one's got much to say in this town Trouble is the only way is down, down, down" Man, this is like a study in how to say a whole lot with a very few words. She's isolated and in rough circumstances, caused primarily by her romantic involvement with this soldier, whom she has stayed true to, and has spent a lot of tears over, and now the incredibly powerful presence of this soldier in her life is coming home to really haunt her hard. Her grieving process is going on for a while, and it's a thing that creates isolation; people have a hard time being around her, and. They don't know how to help her. She eventually feels compelled to leave the place where she'd been living, with the other military families, but she doesn't really have the money or the marketable skills or the emotional fortitude to make much of a go of life on her own, so her already rough circumstances are made even much, much worse. "As strong as you were Tender you got" Your strong face, on your strong body, which has performed all these acts of incredible bravery and strength, had a tender expression on it as you died. "I'm watching you breathing For the last time A song for your heart" The breathing and the facial expression is like the singing of a song that expresses all the reasons for how you've lived and all you've done and how you've loved. And I'm inspired to write a song to describe it all, as you're lying here dying. "But when it is quiet I know what it means and I'll carry you home I'll carry you home" But once the dying is done, I know what this song you're singing and that I'm writing means and the fact that I'm witnessing your death means. It means I need to visit this wife of yours, and carry this essence of you, that is in me, now, and these effects I'm finding on you, to your cherished one, to your heart's home. "If she had wings she would fly away And another day God will give her some Trouble is the only way is down,down,down" If she could escape all these awful feelings and her rough circumstances, she certainly would, and some people around try to encourage her saying that in time God will help her climb out of all this misery and despair and all her very rough circumstances, but right now, things certainly appear very grim for her, and there sure doesn't appear to be any way up or out. "And they're all born pretty in New York City in light" The picture of the man's wife was kind of glamorous, and was taken in camera lighting in New York City; the address on the back of the picture was in New York City. I think the man was a U.S. special forces soldier. They fought along aside the British in Kosovo. I've heard that sometimes some of them even fought in the uniforms of other allied forces. I think sometimes Europeans get this impression from Hollywood that all American women are born pretty, lol. Or at least the pictures we carry of them tend to be glamorized. If a person's primary exposure to American culture consists of peripheral contact with young special forces guys.. heh, heh. It's not hard to imagine getting the impression that we're all about how pretty our wives and girlfriends are. Looking at the picture, perhaps some thought of potential eventual romantic involvement between himself and this dead man's wife crossed his mind. "And someone's little girl was taken from the world tonight.. The picture of the soldier's wife, was of a time when she was very young and pretty. The soldier seemed to love that "little girl". This incredible loving image of her, that adorable, happy little girl, was taken out of the world when he died. She sure isn't that way now! In more ways than one, he carried that little girl close to his bosom in life.. .. and carried her into death right along with him. "under the stars 'and Stripes' " This is the Most telling and poignant line of the song, to me. Again, an incredible study in how to speak volumes with a very few words. The picture shows her early life in New York City, with all the hope and glamour and light of the American Dream. And she married a Man in Uniform! Such glory and glamour. While he was alive, the hope of a bright future remained alive with him, despite the sort of meager and difficult circumstances of military life. ..but the man fought and died in the dark of night under the stars, and under the more bitter side of those sweet Stars and Stripes of America - How many men have fought and died for the Dream of America? Some Europeans to this day think we shouldn't have fought our fight for independence. I've heard some of them call our complaint about "taxation without representation" "complete rubbish." I don't know that Mr. Blount intends to make a political statement about the sort of tragic pointlessness of war in general and in particular of American war efforts, but. That phrase and the way he sings it could be construed that way. Our national anthem tells the story of a night during our fight for national independence when the big lit up flag on the coast line cliffs was bombarded by cannon fire from the British fleet. It was critically important to hold up those Stars and Stripes, because as long as we did, our men would stay the course and keep fighting. So in the morning "the flag was still there" - and there was a big pile of dead men at the base of it. As men were hit and killed, others came out from cover to take their place. They literally fought and died "Under the Stars and Stripes," like so many who came after them have, in a more figurative way. The bitter sweet and oh so pointless (from the point of view of some Europeans and many of the political left in America) bravery and passion of American fighters, fighting (from the fighter's point of view) to try to hold for ourselves and bring to the world the American Dream of freedom and liberty and self determination and so on, and prosperity through the free market and through freedom from despotism and usury and so forth. I think his wife was living in New York City at the time when he was killed, but was fairly destitute and isolated, and made more so by his death (by the military's treatment of their widows), so she moved to a temporary shelter on the north east coast. Some people in the very small town where he ended up finding her saw him coming, as did she. They had heard something about who he was and why he was coming. He took a bit of time kind of working up the final bit of gumption to actually go to her. While doing so, in isolation, he thought about that night, when the fellow had been killed. She had a pretty good idea of why he was there and even what he had for her, but when faced with the items, it still overcame her. He had a pretty good idea that it would. And his emotions about it all were all over him, and she saw them, and him and. Neither of them could even speak. She had to fight through a lot of emotions to even take the items from him. He hadn't known the man personally, nor had he known her, so he.. felt a bit like he was invading a personal and private space, being there, as she was breaking down, and.. well.. maybe the thought crossed his mind that she might be doing that, in part, consciously or unconsciously, on purpose, in hopes of garnering sympathy, which might lead to their romantic involvement, thus helping her out of her rough circumstances. And maybe the thought crossed his mind that in doing this she was kind of dishonoring her husband, whom he had developed a level of respect for. (Despite his own similar thoughts, before actually seeing her.) And whether or not she intended it, he was finding himself having emotions of the moment for her, that he wasn't prepared for, especially given the reality of what she was like in person at that point; and the thought of actual romance with her was also pretty well barred by her obvious strong and persisting love for her deceased husband. There was no way he was going to try to compete with that. Or get involved with someone with such an enormous burden of pain, for that matter. So, while of course he might not really put major stock in any of those thoughts or feelings, they and others like them made him kind of uncomfortable, and. He stole himself and marched away, as is kind of expected of a military man delivering personal effects. As he left, his leaving left her free to break down completely, and, any little part of her that might have fantasized that he would manifest some interest in her was kind of squashed by the manner of his departure and the way it brought home the well understood reality that he wasn't at all prepared to deal with all her grief. After marching away, he looked back - this was a horror of incredible proportions. More striking to him even than the death he'd witnessed. It was probably actually primarily she and her fate who inspired the song. Yeah, my family has a history of military involvement, too. In any case, it's an incredibly striking song and video. Very, very striking song and video. |
|
| James Blunt – Carry You Home Lyrics | 9 years ago |
| @[joshua1lx:15339] the director didn't know about Jame's background? How do you know that? That's seems a little bit hard to imagine that the director would do a pretty fair job of depicting an event that took place in Jame's life without knowing that it even happened? That's James Blunt in the video, right? So the director obviously had the opportunity to talk with him while creating the video. You're saying we know that he didn't try to make the video representative of Jame's thought / intention? | |
| Simon and Garfunkel – The Sound of Silence Lyrics | 16 years ago |
|
Paul Simon has admitted that he had no particular profound meaning in mind when he wrote the song, and that he was maybe expressing "teen angst". As teenagers begin to become aware of all sorts of things about the world that at first seem completely unjust, unfair and wrong, they are often very dissatisfied with the reaction of most people when they express themselves about those things. As people get older, most gradually come to realize that the conspiracy theories are wrong, that things aren't nearly as bad as they thought, they discover some of the reasons why the things that aren't great are the way they are (they represent compromises between competing concerns / the best of the available evils), and they realize why their early idealic notions about how things could be are impractical or unrealistic, and they grow to better appreciate the presence of things like government, money, law and law enforcement, business and so on so forth, and hopefully become somewhat less egregiously affected by the need to do things like earn an living and stay out of jail. |
|
* This information can be up to 15 minutes delayed.