Well, in my opinion this song is about being a young & maybe a little naive &/or introverted girl and finding yourself loving a man who is at first very charming, carefree & outgoing, and seems at first to be without limits, as in
"There was a time
you opened up every doorway
you didn't mind if everything
wasn't your way"
then that man starts to gradually become more introverted & shows their more possessive/obsessive side to you as the relationship progresses, even while they keep up the appearance of being carefree & outgoing to everyone else,
"Don't pull away
that goes against what you told me
I look in your eyes
I realize what you've sold me
is love in a vacuum"
so you confront them about the way they're acting and of course they deny it,
"I think you've changed
but you insist that
that's not true"
quite possibly they are an addict of some sort, my guess would be cocaine, &/or showing very obsessive behavior towards you (early on in the video for this song we see the man hanging a picture up, it is a very large portrait of Aimee & it is prominently displayed in his/their apartment for the duration of the song), thus their "love in a vacuum",
"You look so strange, so distant
that you're hardly you
Now I can see
how you have been acting different
You say it's me
but I know
that it isn't
it's love in a vacuum"
but still you are in love with them and don't want to leave them and you know that they are truly in love with you and they don't want you to leave them either, maybe they are convinced you can save them from themself, maybe they are so broken that the possibility of an overdose &/or suicide attempt is very real and you want to get through to them that their behavior not only dangerous but it is also just pissing you off and if they don't wise up they run the risk of loosing you, as in the lines
"You will be lonely
if you leave me alone", so you want to save them but can't get through to them due to the addiction &/or emotional problems they have,
"Love in a vacuum
and that's not enough
love in a vacuum
You will be lonely
you'll be the only one who feels this way
You will be lonely
if you leave me alone
You will be lonely
you'll be the only one who feels this way
it's just not enough"
you want them to understand that the love they are giving you is not enough when it is filtered through the vacuum of their drug addiction &/or emotional impairment,
"You will be lonely
you'll be the only one who feels this way
it's just not enough
and just wait
you will be lonely
Love in a vacuum
Love in a vacuum
and that's not enough
Love in a vacuum".
'Love In A Vacuum' for me is a hauntingly truthful acute argument on the loneliness of obsession and almost inevitable loss of love that follows people who are broken in some way or another; the obsessives, the coke heads, the drunks, addicts or the just-plain-old emotionally broken; a razor sharp, lyrically driven, deceptively poppy, yet ultimately-depressing-in-the-best-way song.
Quintessential Aimee Mann.
My Daddy played poker on a stump in the woods back in his younger days
Prohibition was the talk, but the rich folks walked to the woods where my Daddy stayed
Jugs and jars from shiners, these old boys here, they ain't miners
They came from the twenty-niners
It didn't take a hole in the ground to put the bottom in their face
Back in the thirties when the dust bowl dried
And the woods in Alabama didn't see no light
My Daddy played poker by a hard wood fire
Squeezing all his luck from a hot copper wire
Scrap like a wildcat fights till the end
Trap a wildcat and take his skin
Deal from the bottom, put the ace in the hole
One hand on the jug but you never do know
Son come running
You better come quick
This rotgut moonshine is making me sick
Your Mama called the law and they're gonna take me away
Down so far even the Devil won't stay
Where I call to the Lord with all my soul
I can hear him rattling the chains on the door
He couldn't get in I could see he tried
Through the shadows of the cage around the forty watt light
Daddy tell me another story
Tell me about the lows and the highs
Tell me how to tell the difference between what they tell me is the truth or a lie
Tell me why the ones who have so much make the ones who don't go mad
With the same skin stretched over their white bones and the same jug in their hand
My Daddy played poker on a stump in the woods back when the world was gray
Before black and white went and chose up sides and gave a little bit of both their way
The only blood that's any cleaner is the blood that's blue or greener
Without either you just get meaner and the blood you gave gives you away
Prohibition was the talk, but the rich folks walked to the woods where my Daddy stayed
Jugs and jars from shiners, these old boys here, they ain't miners
They came from the twenty-niners
It didn't take a hole in the ground to put the bottom in their face
Back in the thirties when the dust bowl dried
And the woods in Alabama didn't see no light
My Daddy played poker by a hard wood fire
Squeezing all his luck from a hot copper wire
Scrap like a wildcat fights till the end
Trap a wildcat and take his skin
Deal from the bottom, put the ace in the hole
One hand on the jug but you never do know
Son come running
You better come quick
This rotgut moonshine is making me sick
Your Mama called the law and they're gonna take me away
Down so far even the Devil won't stay
Where I call to the Lord with all my soul
I can hear him rattling the chains on the door
He couldn't get in I could see he tried
Through the shadows of the cage around the forty watt light
Daddy tell me another story
Tell me about the lows and the highs
Tell me how to tell the difference between what they tell me is the truth or a lie
Tell me why the ones who have so much make the ones who don't go mad
With the same skin stretched over their white bones and the same jug in their hand
My Daddy played poker on a stump in the woods back when the world was gray
Before black and white went and chose up sides and gave a little bit of both their way
The only blood that's any cleaner is the blood that's blue or greener
Without either you just get meaner and the blood you gave gives you away
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He certainly did earn that reputation.
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This song is def a twin to "Unfair" (a song she has been quoted as saying is about falling in love with someone who is already in a relationship) so it is presumably about the same person. Given the references to buying an apartment and not being able to see her love interest "after tonight," it's most likely that she's moving away and she'll "wait a day to break the bad news" (i.e. notifying him that she's leaving once she's already gone).
And, of course, the fact that she sees in him a fellow "idealist" and "dreamer" (terms commonly given to people with the INFP personality on the Myers–Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)) portends that she'll always be left wondering if they would've been perfect together.
Fast Car
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Tracy Chapman
"Fast car" is kind of a continuation of Bruce Springsteen's "Born to Run." It has all the clawing your way to a better life, but in this case the protagonist never makes it with her love; in fact she is dragged back down by him.
There is still an amazing amount of hope and will in the lyrics; and the lyrics themselve rank and easy five. If only music was stronger it would be one of those great radio songs that you hear once a week 20 years after it was released. The imagery is almost tear-jerking ("City lights lay out before us", "Speeds so fast felt like I was drunk"), and the idea of starting from nothing and just driving and working and denigrating yourself for a chance at being just above poverty, then losing in the end is just painful and inspiring at the same time.
Dreamwalker
Silent Planet
Silent Planet
I think much like another song “Anti-Matter” (that's also on the same album as this song), this one is also is inspired by a horrifying van crash the band experienced on Nov 3, 2022. This, much like the other track, sounds like it's an extension what they shared while huddled in the wreckage, as they helped frontman Garrett Russell stem the bleeding from his head wound while he was under the temporary effects of a concussion. The track speaks of where the mind goes at the most desperate & desolate of times, when it just about slips away to all but disconnect itself, and the aftermath.
There is an element of class warfare in this song. The son doesn't understand why "the ones that have so much make the ones who don't go mad" The disntinctions between class dont make any sense to the son but seem to make all the difference as his father is hauled off to jail. Also the line about blacks and whites choosing up sides is also quite powerful. The interests of the poor blacks and whites were aligned in the South, but divisions were exploited by the upper class in order to maintain control. (See, "The Southern Thing" - "to the fucking rich man all poor poeple look the same") The son sees the absurdity in things around him that turn out to be a matter of life and death...
I think the line about "The only blood that's any cleaner is the blood that's blue or greener//Without either you just get meaner and the blood you gave gives you away" is referring to the fact that only way someone betters themselves is by being born to a higher social class ("blue blood") or by getting money ("green blood"). The "meaner" part has a double meaning in that it's meaner as being mean and meaner as is being "common" (as in "regression to the mean"). Blood always give you away, it proves who you are in several ways: how you act (in the social meaning), who you are (both social and physically (DNA or blood type)), and just how much blood (and sweat) you're willing to put into something (which may be making that "green" by criminal enterprises).
Just my two cents on a song I love.
how badass is that guitar riff?
amazing riff.... amazing lyrics.. love this song.. surprised at the lack of comments!
it's quite badass.
Love this song. This line still baffles me:
"The only blood that's any cleaner is the blood that's blue or greener Without either you just get meaner and the blood you gave gives you away "
@Tedvi - members of the owner class are sometimes referred to as "blue bloods". "Greener" refers to accumulated wealth. So to be "clean" (i.e. not engaged in illegal activities) you either have to be born rich or have gotten wealthy some other way.<br /> <br /> I think the "blood you gave gives you away" is a reference to leaving blood evidence during the commission of a crime (i.e. robbery or murder); evidence that is used to discover and convict you.
@Tedvi - members of the owner class are sometimes referred to as "blue bloods". "Greener" refers to accumulated wealth. So to be "clean" (i.e. not engaged in illegal activities) you either have to be born rich or have gotten wealthy some other way.<br /> <br /> I think the "blood you gave gives you away" is a reference to leaving blood evidence during the commission of a crime (i.e. robbery or murder); evidence that is used to discover and convict you.
This song has obvious connections to the moonshine trade in TN and AL. Many people in the '20s and '30s spend significant time away from their families in the hills distilling alcohol in small still camps. It seems this song illstates the hardships on families and the difficult life moonshines often engaged in to produce a product in seclusion. As the feds increased their crackdowns of still, the business became more diffcult and often times more violent. I just as confused about the "blood" line in the lyric posted above. Blue or greener...I'm confused.
Sounds like the prohibition or marijuana now days
The blood line is probably referring to the fact that good moonshine is supposed to burn clear blue. Some of the blues probably look green also. So, the only shine thats any better is the pure stuff basicly. And maybe, "Without either you just get meaner and the blood you gave gives you away" If its not pure, the time you spent making it is wasted, so you will be pissed off with a bad product, that people wont want.
The blood line comes right after a line about race. I like the allusion to color of burning alcohol because it goes right back to the message at the beginning of the song. Social status, money, race ....don't mean nothing because we all have our vices.
Thanks for the history about the blue/green flame. I didn't understand that, either.
I had a thought about the next line "Without either you just get meaner and the blood you gave gives you away".
I was thinking that, and the lines "This rotgut moonshine is making me sick, Your Mama called the law and they're gonna take me away" might be connected. If maybe someone who had gotten sick on bad moonshine had maybe alerted the wife, and she got angry. It may also play as a nod to the women's movement in general, who made Prohibition their biggest platform.
Anyway, just a thought.
Crap...I logged in to say...without considering she called the law...I've only heard this song a million times or so...that seems unthinkable..I mean who had phones...but more importantly I was just thinking "oh she knew, that was the main if not only source of income." And I can't imagnie this scene playing out that the 8-12 year old son wasn't actively helping with the still. Altho in movies I've never saw a kid at the still but..that just seems odd really from the last generation telling me how things went around here in southern appalachia anyways. How dare she!!! But yah..those molly hatchets. I remember reading about her in school and being just so pissed that those old timer salooners were all "don't hit old women" or whatever they were thinking. Maybe just outnumbered and didn't wanna shoot em. But hell the patrons shouldn't have allowed that senile something something horrible to go around busting things up. They drink there! And she was...just..OUT OF CONTROL. Damn her to this day.
I always relate this song to another reportedly about prohibition "Powderfinger" by Neil Young.
Actually if you play this song followed by Powderfinger it almost tells a linking story of what happened to the son and the bootleg camp after Mama called the Law.
Just a coincidence