| Vampire Weekend – Ya Hey Lyrics | 11 years ago |
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Here is the Meaning of the song as Ezra Koenig Intended: (The person being addressed throughout the whole song is God)... [Oh, sweet thing]: reference to George Harrison’s ‘My Sweet Lord’. [Zion doesn't love you]: Zion: a place name used as a synonym for Jerusalem, refers to their unfaithfulness. [Babylon don't love you]: if even God’s own people don’t love him, his enemies, represented by “Babylon,” definitely don’t. [But you love everything]: talking about God's ability to love all people. [America don't love you, So I could never love you, In spite of everything]: a callback to a similar line in “Unbelievers” ‘if I’m born again, I know that the world will disagree’. using America as an example as it is a heavily Christian nation. [In the dark of this place, There's the glow of your face]: a reference that God offers comfort in hard times. As “dark” as things get, He offers light. [There's the dust on the screen]: metaphor for the human body as a vessel that gathers dust and breaks. [Of this broken machine]: reference to the biblical story of Isaiah, who when standing in the light of God and His angels realized just how unclean he was. He thought himself unworthy to be in God’s presence. [And I can't help but feel, That I've made some mistake, But I let it go]: as everyone knows that deep down they are "sinners" but they don't really care. [Ya hey]: reference to "Yahweh" (meaning God) but as the Lord's personal name can't be used in vain they decided not to say it all together, hence 'Ya hey' ((The 3rd section is a reference to Exodus 3. Where God has seen the suffering of his children in Egypt and has come to rescue them through sending Moses to bring them out of Egypt and into the promise land)) [Through the fire and through the flames]: reference to Exodus 3:2 where God calls to Moses from within a bush on fire. [ut Deo]: meaning 'as God' in Latin [You won't even say your name]: In Exodus 3:13,14 Moses said to God “Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ Then what shall I tell them?” [Only "I am that I am"]: God said to Moses, “I am who I am. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: ‘I am has sent me to you." [But who could ever live that way?]: ‘as when non-believers were confronted with such global indifference and outright aggression, they would ask 'why you would not announce your existence with absolute certainty?'’ (Anyone who’s lost faith in religion will have posed this question ) [Oh, the motherland don't love you, The fatherland don't love you]: a reference to how Jerusalem, the birthplace of all 3 major world religions is an area of constant conflict even though it is the mother of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Therefore this violence would suggest that they don’t love God because of the constant conflict in the birthplace He created. [The faithless they don't love you, The zealous hearts don't love you]: faithless (meaning atheists), zealous hearts (people having eagerness and ardent interest in pursuit of something "may be a reference to scientists"). [All the cameras and files]: a man of faith said hidden eyes could see what I was thinking'. [All the paranoid styles]: Like The Paranoid Style in American Politics, Richard Hofstadter’s seminal work in historical theory from 1964. [All the tension and fear, Of a secret career]: reference to Moses trying to get out of his God given vocation, or to G-d refusing to reveal himself as divine when He is present in the world. [And I can't help but feel, That you see the mistakes, But you let it go]: as God knows all our sins but chose to forgive us despite all odds. [Outside the tents]: it's meant to allude to the fact that Moses and his followers lived in tents. [on the festival grounds]: the festival of Sukkot (read about it here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sukkot) re-stages the event every year. [spinning "Israelites"]: spinning (meaning a chain of mental associations (from the suffering of the oppressed to the suffering of the upper middle class). Israelites (meaning son of Israel) [19th Nervous Breakdown]: reference to a Rolling Stones song of the same name, which is about male exasperation with unhappy, spoiled women. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I felt like Da Vinci trying to decipher this song :), the Lyrics where written by a number of people including "Ezra Koenig" please rate & I hope this helps |
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