This song seemingly tackles the methods of deception those who manipulate others use to get victims to follow their demands, as well as diverting attention away from important issues. They'll also use it as a means to convince people to hate or kill others by pretending acts of terrorism were committed by the enemy when the acts themselves were done by the masters of control to promote discrimination and hate. It also reinforces the idea that these manipulative forces operate in various locations, infiltrating everyday life without detection, and propagate any and everywhere.
In general, it highlights the danger of hidden agendas, manipulation, and distraction, serving as a critique of those who exploit chaos and confusion to control and gain power, depicting a cautionary tale against falling into their traps. It encourages us to question the narratives presented to us and remain vigilant against manipulation in various parts of society.
Into the distance a ribbon of black
Stretched to the point of no turning back
A flight of fancy on a windswept field
Standing alone my senses reeled
A fatal attraction is holding me fast how
How can I escape this irresistible grasp?
Can't keep my eyes from the circling skies
Tongue tied and twisted just an earth bound misfit, I
Ice is forming on the tips of my wings
Unheeded warnings I thought I thought of everything
No navigator to find my way home
Unladened, empty and turned to stone
A soul in tension that's learning to fly
Condition grounded but determined to try
Can't keep my eyes from the circling skies
Tongue-tied and twisted just an earth-bound misfit, I
Friction lock, set
Mixtures, rich
Propellers, fully forward
Flaps, set, ten degrees
Engine gauges and suction, check
Mixture set to maximum percent, recheck
Flight instruments
Altimeters, check both
Navigation lights, on
Strobes, on
Confirm three-eight-echo ready for departure
Hello again, this is now 129.4
129.4, it's to go
You may commence your takeoff, winds over ten knots
Three-eight-echo
Easy on the brakes, take it easy, its gonna roll this time
Just hand the power gradually, and it
Above the planet on a wing and a prayer,
My grubby halo, a vapor trail in the empty air
Across the clouds I see my shadow fly
Out of the corner of my watering eye
A dream unthreatened by the morning light
Could blow this soul right through the roof of the night
There's no sensation to compare with this
Suspended animation, a state of bliss
Can't keep my mind from the circling skies
Tongue-tied and twisted just an earth-bound misfit, I
Stretched to the point of no turning back
A flight of fancy on a windswept field
Standing alone my senses reeled
A fatal attraction is holding me fast how
How can I escape this irresistible grasp?
Can't keep my eyes from the circling skies
Tongue tied and twisted just an earth bound misfit, I
Ice is forming on the tips of my wings
Unheeded warnings I thought I thought of everything
No navigator to find my way home
Unladened, empty and turned to stone
A soul in tension that's learning to fly
Condition grounded but determined to try
Can't keep my eyes from the circling skies
Tongue-tied and twisted just an earth-bound misfit, I
Friction lock, set
Mixtures, rich
Propellers, fully forward
Flaps, set, ten degrees
Engine gauges and suction, check
Mixture set to maximum percent, recheck
Flight instruments
Altimeters, check both
Navigation lights, on
Strobes, on
Confirm three-eight-echo ready for departure
Hello again, this is now 129.4
129.4, it's to go
You may commence your takeoff, winds over ten knots
Three-eight-echo
Easy on the brakes, take it easy, its gonna roll this time
Just hand the power gradually, and it
Above the planet on a wing and a prayer,
My grubby halo, a vapor trail in the empty air
Across the clouds I see my shadow fly
Out of the corner of my watering eye
A dream unthreatened by the morning light
Could blow this soul right through the roof of the night
There's no sensation to compare with this
Suspended animation, a state of bliss
Can't keep my mind from the circling skies
Tongue-tied and twisted just an earth-bound misfit, I
Lyrics submitted by Demau Senae, edited by Mellow_Harsher, digitalmanMKII
Learning To Fly Lyrics as written by Bob Ezrin Jon Carin
Lyrics © CONCORD MUSIC PUBLISHING LLC
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
Add your thoughts
Log in now to tell us what you think this song means.
Don’t have an account? Create an account with SongMeanings to post comments, submit lyrics, and more. It’s super easy, we promise!
More Featured Meanings
Son Şansın - Şarkı Sözleri
Hayalperest
Hayalperest
Mountain Song
Jane's Addiction
Jane's Addiction
Jane's Addiction vocalist Perry Farrell gives Adam Reader some heartfelt insight into Jane’s Addiction's hard rock manifesto "Mountain Song", which was the second single from their revolutionary album Nothing's Shocking. Mountain song was first recorded in 1986 and appeared on the soundtrack to the film Dudes starring Jon Cryer. The version on Nothing's Shocking was re-recorded in 1988.
"'Mountain Song' was actually about... I hate to say it but... drugs. Climbing this mountain and getting as high as you can, and then coming down that mountain," reveals Farrell. "What it feels to descend from the mountain top... not easy at all. The ascension is tough but exhilarating. Getting down is... it's a real bummer. Drugs is not for everybody obviously. For me, I wanted to experience the heights, and the lows come along with it."
"There's a part - 'Cash in now honey, cash in Miss Smith.' Miss Smith is my Mother; our last name was Smith. Cashing in when she cashed in her life. So... she decided that, to her... at that time, she was desperate. Life wasn't worth it for her, that was her opinion. Some people think, never take your life, and some people find that their life isn't worth living. She was in love with my Dad, and my Dad was not faithful to her, and it broke her heart. She was very desperate and she did something that I know she regrets."
Gentle Hour
Yo La Tengo
Yo La Tengo
This song was originally written by a guy called Peter Gutteridge. He was one of the founders of the "Dunedin Sound" a musical scene in the south of New Zealand in the early 80s. From there it was covered by "The Clean" one of the early bands of that scene (he had originally been a member of in it's early days, writing a couple of their best early songs). The Dunedin sound, and the Clean became popular on american college radio in the mid to late 80s. I guess Yo La Tengo heard that version.
Great version of a great song,
When We Were Young
Blink-182
Blink-182
This is a sequel to 2001's "Reckless Abandon", and features the band looking back on their clumsy youth fondly.
No Surprises
Radiohead
Radiohead
Same ideas expressed in Fitter, Happier are expressed in this song. We're told to strive for some sort of ideal life, which includes getting a good job, being kind to everyone, finding a partner, getting married, having a couple kids, living in a quiet neighborhood in a nice big house, etc. But in Fitter, Happier the narrator(?) realizes that it's incredibly robotic to live this life. People are being used by those in power "like a pig in a cage on antibiotics"--being pacified with things like new phones and cool gadgets and houses while being sucked dry. On No Surprises, the narrator is realizing how this life is killing him slowly. In the video, his helmet is slowly filling up with water, drowning him. But he's so complacent with it. This is a good summary of the song. This boring, "perfect" life foisted upon us by some higher powers (not spiritual, but political, economic, etc. politicians and businessmen, perhaps) is not the way to live. But there is seemingly no way out but death. He'd rather die peacefully right now than live in this cage. While our lives are often shielded, we're in our own protective bubbles, or protective helmets like the one Thom wears, if we look a little harder we can see all the corruption, lies, manipulation, etc. that is going on in the world, often run by huge yet nearly invisible organizations, corporations, and 'leaders'. It's a very hopeless song because it reflects real life.
"A soul in tension that's learning to fly" We are 'souls' (born of 'space'), that have awoken/arrived here on Earth, and have spent eternity trying to learn how to get out into 'space', back where we came from. We are already flying; 'reality' is the wind-swept field.
"Condition grounded but determined to try" We are stuck 'here' because of our misconceptions about where 'here' actually is.
"Can't keep my eyes from the circling skies" Always needing to get 'out there', not realizing we've already been and got the t-shirt.
"Tongue-tied and twisted just an earth-bound misfit, I" The things we've learned, chosen to believe, and then consider 'known' have trapped us more completely on this planet. We, as a race, are confused and miseducated; repeating what we're told to believe to each successive generation, each generation having slightly less ability to think for themselves and discover REAL truths.
Hello, did you ever read "The Present?" You sound like you have :)
I agree with this. I've always found this song to be about the soul's journey. "Earth-bound misfit" refers to this person who feels trapped here in this world in which he doesn't belong, longing to once again go back out into where he feels he's from, and finally, at the end of the song being able to do so as his life here is finished. The line "out of the corner of my watering eye" is a powerful one. It's as if he were flying above the planet seeing it from space knowing it will be the last time he will ever see it, and the tear shed is because of how splendid the planet looks from that far above, the way it would look to someone passing it by completely unaware what this world is like, all the ignorance here, and all the terrible things that have happened. He leaves it all the same way he arrived, and as he takes one last look he is moved by seeing the actual planet, the same way he would be moved by seeing anything in space (it's that feeling of how splendid the universe is, and the feel of that higher force).
@jgronholz When you said "We, as a race, are confused and miseducated; repeating what we're told to believe to each successive generation, each generation having slightly less ability to think for themselves and discover REAL truths". I like to think why each generation is losing the ability to think for themselves because of the growth of media consumption. As humans we learn from our experiences, mistakes we have made. But now you can sit in your room and learn through a screen from other people's experiences from media or even television or Netflix, which is over simplified. With each generation, the ability to think for yourself gets more blurry, because the current generation is learning from last generation who makes the media now, and the past generation learned from the generation before them, and so on. <br />
@jgronholz
spot on bro...spot on.....we all need to enlighten to the fact that all humans are the endless blue sky and we need to silently come to know it.