Elevator Love Letter

General CommentFirst off great song, beautifully performed with some great double entendres.

"I'm so hard for a rich girl
My heels are high
My eyes cast low
And I don't know how to love"

You can mentally put a comma between hard and for. She's not a lesbian. What she's saying is that for a rich a girl she's emotionally hard. Work and stress have built up an outter shell in which is extremely difficult for her to let anyone or anything in. She goes on to support this by saying "and I don't know how to love" insinuating that because of this hardness she's began to dehumanize, becoming purely professional without a love life.



"I get too tired after midday, lately
I take it out on my good friends
But the worst stays in
Or where would I begin?"

She takes out her anger and frustration on her close friends, implying that only to the people she feels comfortable with. Luckily it also means they probably know that she's like this."but the worst stays in, or where would I begin?" means that her worst emotions are kept to herself, elsewise she would have any friends at all.



"My office glows all night long
It's a nuclear show and the stars are gone"

She works all night, pretty straight forward. but here's where it gets poetic. Her job has become a "nuclear show" in which she feels. So much so that the "stars" (hopes, dreams, aspirations - whatever it is people think about when they look at stars) are gone, much like nuclear pollution would cause literally.



"Elevator, elevator
Take me home"

Here's why the song is called Elevator Love Letter. She's actually talking to the elevator the whole time, which means there's no one else in it, which also means in essence she's talking to herself. Being alone in an elevator gives her time to reflect and vent out the problems she has in her life. Then she asks it to take her home, a place away from all of this stress.



"I'm so hard for the rich girl
Her heels so high
And my hopes so low
'cause I don't know how to love

To those who are debating it, it is "hard for the rich girl" it's a play on words from the first time, which is pretty clever. Simply put, the guy wants her. Unfortunately his hopes are low, not because he doesn't think he can get her, but because he knows that there won't be an relationship. He goes on to explain that he doesn't know how to love, which is much different from when she said it. He doesn't know how to commit a relationship, which explains his low hopes for creating something beyond just a one night stand. It should also be noted that he too is talking in (or to) the elevator, which again explains the title. Two people are in essence telling their problems through the elevator, both in need of love. Nice.


"I'll take her home after midnight
And if she likes, I'll tell her lies
Of how we'll fall in love by the morning
I don't think she'll know
That I'm saying goodbye..."

So this guys is willing to lie through his teeth to get her in bed, simply because he knows that there isn't going to be any commitment, so he's ok with lying to get what he wants. Then of course, he's going to leave her in the morning, ending whatever relationship that could have been.



"Don't go, say you'll stay
Spend a lazy sunday in my arms
I won't take anything away"

Back from her perspective, this is the morning after the one night stand. He's getting up to leave and she's begging him to stay, which is completely understandable given her situation in life. She's having troubles socializing, always exhausted, and overwhelmed at work. She's just looking for someone to understand, an intimate partner. You can conclude that they met at some social scene because she asks him to spend a lazy Sunday, implying the night before was Saturday. She then mentions that she won't be any burden, again just trying to get him to stay.



The beauty of this song is the tone contrasting with mood. To anyone simply listening the mood is very lively with overall major tonic. However, once thoroughly analyzed it becomes apparent that the tone of the song itself is merely sarcastic and hard in comparison to the lyrics, and much like her life. The song puts up a hard lively shell for everyone to see, but underneath it's filled with hurt and the desire of two people in need of love. Amazing.

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Song MeaningThis is a great song. It's about two people who are both jaded. She's got a good job and makes a lot of money ("a rich girl"), and she works long hours in a high rise office building. She probably lives in a high rise condo as well. She goes up and down 30, 40 or 50 floors to and from work and home, and probably drives from underground lot to underground lot or takes a subway train between the buildings. Imagine the commute between these two places, both small, orderly, clean and cold, with windows looking out on the city lights.

In North America, the downtown office buildings are all lit up at night, and people sometimes work very late. The lit up high rises and the views out the windows of the city are the "nuclear show." "My office glows all night long, it's a nuclear show and the stars are gone." I love that line. You can't see the stars from downtown because of all the lights in the buildings. Of course, the electric lights run off of a mostly nuclear-powered grid.

In a big city, you're always surrounded by people, but it can be hard to connect. You want to hang on to someone, but it just makes things messy. You have your work, which you're deeply involved in, and your apartment, which is a place to eat and sleep. And it's all kind of tidy and beautiful and in control, even if you feel very lonely. So, you crave love, but you also can't deal with the drama and the attachments. I think that both of the people in the song are more or less in that place.

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My InterpretationThe song tells you exactly what's up -- neither of them know how to love. Perhaps because she's too busy working, hanging around the office to let down her barriers. The guy doesn't know how to love, he's not willing to commit, maybe he doesn't know how. It's very common for people to get physical but never intimate.

Everyone pretty much gets all that, it's the last lyrics that I don't think people are getting. It's not that only she's said and wants love and he won't give it to her. It's about getting out of the day-to-day that keeps you from slowing down, the office, the heals, the elevators, the bright lights and instead to spend a whole day snuggling in each others' arms -- in other words, to know love. This is what both of the desperately want, but they're too wrapped up with their issues to experience it.

Great lyrics.

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General Commentthis song is really sad, i think. They're both so lonely. But the music sounds happy, which I think makes you even sadder when you realize.

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General CommentThese lyrics are straight from the album CD's insert.

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General Commentweird, i thought the last time i checked these lyrics it said 'im so HOT...' which i thought was clearly wrong. i must be taking too many drugs.

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General Commentwhether he's 'hard' for her, or 'hot' for her, these two people need each other.

She doesn't know anything about this guy as she's been so wrapped up in her work, staying at the office all night long, and somewhere along the line, she's built up these protective barriers for herself that have turned her 'hard' and made her not know 'how to love'.

The man... perhaps he will just take her home, sleep with her and leave in the morning, as the last fewlines of his stanza suggest. But that is his own self-protective behaviour. He doesn't want to do it, as he likes this woman ("her heels so high, my hopes so low"), but has become somewhat resigned to th fact, because he himself doesn't 'know how to love'

I think the whole point of this song is looking at these two people's lives, and how even though they barely know each other (if at all), if they could just let the other one in, then maybe they could learn to love. If he would just 'Spend a lazy sunday in my arms', then perhaps they would be perfect for each other.

But they probably won't because that's the way life is, and that is the nature of many Stars songs.

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My InterpretationThe woman is the song is an upper middle class working girl in a big city. Think the "Sex in the City" girls. She's "hard" for a rich girl, or street smart and tough. Or at least she likes to think she is. That's the persona she projects. But inside she's vulnerable. It's harder and harder to make it through her unfulfilling days. She gets so tired after midday. Lately.

The man in the song is the sort guy who preys on such vulnerable women. He sees her more clearly than she sees himself. He knows exactly the sorts of sweet little lies he needs to tell to bed her, which is all he really cares about. The man is not a villain, he's just doing what he does. He admits up front that he's incapable of love. He also knows that the woman will hear what she wants to hear anyway, and he doesn't need to try all that hard to lie to her. She needs the fantasy of love even if none exists. When he tells her that he's really saying goodbye, she sings over his words and drowns him out. She's singing about the office, throwing herself back into her work.

So that's the cycle. She's unhappy at work, so she sleeps with men out of desperation, then to hide from the shame of that she throws herself back into work. It's about the late nights she leaves the office and takes that lonely ride down the elevator. Perhaps the only moment in her life where she allows herself a moment of honest reflection.

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General Commentone of the best songs on the album. bar none.

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General Commenthahaha

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