| Ed Sheeran – Lego House Lyrics | 11 years ago |
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I thought I might also go through stanza b stanza or thought by thought, and try and show in more detail why I look at the song the way I do. I'm going to proceed under the assumption that it is about a guy girl relationship, even though you could potentially apply it to other relationships (such as in the video). Also, I think the video is helpful in understanding the lyrics, but that doesn't mean that the song is therefore about obsessive fandom, although it could include that interpretation. I think the song can apply to romantic relationships. --------I'm gonna pick up the pieces And build a Lego house When things go wrong we can knock it down-------- The treating of the relationship like a Lego House makes me think a few different things - the persona has a childlike approach to relationship, as something you can 'assemble' out of the the broken pieces of the previous iteration. The line "When things go wrong we can knock it down" reinforces this - like playing with lego as a child, you just smash the whole thing and start over if it doesn't satisfy. Relationships don't work like that. ---My three words have two meanings There's one thing on my mind, it's all for you--- One of the more opaque lines, but I think it might have something to do with the two faces the persona wears in the relationship. 'I love you' or similar is said in a way that is supposed to appeal to the partner, make them believe he cares and puts her first, but it can also mean that he obsesses over her, and it is about him controlling or directing the relationship in a way that it is most about his personal satisfaction. ---And it's dark in a cold December, but I've got ya to keep me warm And if you're broken I'll mend ya And keep you sheltered from the storm that's raging on now--- A strange line, given much of the song is about her not being with him. Perhaps he is still pretending she is with him, imaging her with him, keeping him warm (again, about his personal satisfaction). His idea of the relationship is about 'fixing' the other person, and about sheltering from the storm. What is the storm? Is it an allusion to his own problems, perhaps? ----I'm out of touch, I'm out of love I'll pick you up when you're getting down And out of all these things I've done I think I love you better now--- Possibly the most lucid part of the song, but again, he seems to be in two places - one where he knows the relationship is over, but is still pretending it is on, that he can 'pick you up when you're getting down'. Also interesting that he knows it is the things he has done that have been bad, and he declares he now loves her better now. The lines in the verses, however, betray that he hasn't really learned anything. -------I'm out of sight, I'm out of mind I'll do it all for you in time And out of all these things I've done I think I love you better now---- Again, the relationship is over, he's out of sight and mind (she doesn't even know about him anymore, he is no longer in his thoughts), but still believes eventually they will be together "in time" ---I'm gonna paint you by numbers and color you in If things go right we can frame it, and put you on a wall---- Is she a trophy, now, that he wants her on his metaphorical wall? Someone that you can paint by numbers to get "just right"? His view of the relationship here becomes even more disturbed. ----And it's so hard to say it but I've been here before And I'll surrender up my heart and swap it for yours--- This is not the first time this has happened - the cyclical relationship of the song is reinforced, and the rest of the song makes clear the person has not learned from his prior mistakes. The surrending of the heart superficially sounds nice, but it has a dissonant ring to it - does he just want to possess her heart? To have some piece or aspect of her for his own? What does surrendering up his heart here even mean? ----Don't hold me down, I think my braces are breaking and it's more than I can take---- The first image I had of these lines was of a mental asylum, where more extreme patients can, or historically could, be held down and restrained with braces, usually so they could be sedated without harming themselves or other people. The persona here is losing self control, threatening to become overpowering. And then a few more choruses. A very nice song, and deceptively pretty sounding, but I think deeply subversive. |
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| Ed Sheeran – Lego House Lyrics | 11 years ago |
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To me, the lego house and painting by numbers motifs are the persona struggling with the idea of what a 'perfect' relationship is supposed to be. He's trying to rebuild this relationship that has previously been broken, but the vision he has is as a lego house or a step-by-step picture you put on a wall - a manufactured ideal that is itself flawed. A relationship you put on a wall sounds very much like a 'prize', or perhaps something that you used to have and keep around simply as decoration or a memory - not a real relationship. I don't know, people look at this song as a song about simply restoring a relationship after a breakup, taking it as just a nice kind of love song, but I think it sounds much more subversive than that, and the video clip seems to confirm that to me. It's in the same kind of vein as 'Every Breath You Take' or 'Pumped Up Kicks', popular songs that people sing along to and play at parties, but are actually deeply subversive and deal with tricky subject matter. For instance, in the video, you have Ron trying to be like Ed, and thinking that his efforts at fandom are good and honouring - the reality by the end of the video is that it's actually a little sick, and his love is unhealthy obsession. It is an analogy for the relationship described in the song, where one of the parties is someone who is saying all the right things, trying to convince his ex that he's learned from his mistakes, but he fundamentally misunderstands the point of a relationship and hasn't changed at all. |
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| Peter Gabriel – Sky Blue Lyrics | 11 years ago |
| Of course, the album for RPF was instrumental, no vocals, so it's possible there are no lyrics for that reason only. | |
| Peter Gabriel – Sky Blue Lyrics | 11 years ago |
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Most of this song is fairly straightforward, but the line that still has me fairly stumped is "those two blue eyes light your face in sky blue." I'm not entirely sure who this is supposed to be talking about. If we imagine the song is some sort of metaphor for Aboriginal Australians and the Stolen Generation (I think while you could make some sort of parallel to American Indians and all indigenous peoples, the use in Rabbit Proof Fence and the image of the train evokes the specific Stolen Generation), then it makes the most sense that the narrator is an Aboriginal person of some sort. That being the case, two options: 1. The person being spoken to in the first verse is European. 2. The person being spoken to in the first verse is Aboriginal. I can't really see the first option making sense because the reference seems too positive - If you're an Aboriginal person in the context of the Stolen Generation, why would you associate the eyes of a European almost wistfully with the wide, expansive sky? The second option, while not clear, is more interesting thematically, and seems to resonante with RPF. The whole reason for the SG was basically to try and 'breed out' aboriginality, teaching Indigenous people white ways, and intermarrying with white people. This could result in children with fairly pronounced aboriginal features, but with paler skin, blonder hair, and blue eyes. At around the time RPF came out (and incidentally, when UP was released), there was an ongoing discussion in Australia about whether people with blue eyes and fair skin could be considered 'Aboriginal', particularly in Tasmania, where the indigenous population had either died out or intermarried, mostly for reasons of government compensation and land ownership. I wonder whether this lyric is somehow an accepting of that, of an acknowledgement of that 'white indigenous' person still having a connection to that ancestry, and the land? Of course the whole interpretation is thrown a little out of whack by the fact that this song was basically written as far back as Us in '92 - I'm not sure how much of the above was a live issue back then. It actually seems more likely to me that it is a line that is either throwaway, (the imagery just works well), or otherwise has some other personal meaning not related to RPF. The fact that Peter put the tune without the lyrics on the film (even though he had the lyrics) would seem to support that. Anyway, I thought my interpretation had some merit, even if it wasn't PG's intent. The line still puzzles me, though. |
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