I went in to twelve bookstores looking for Ulysses
Mother well led me to believe all my questions would be answered
Now I have it here, sitting on the table
Another word for the universe
Loose green tea and a bonsai tree, underground apartment
Check my email and wash my clothes while my rice is cooking
Oh Jesus Christ how I hate making phone calls
So I lead a lonely life
A waterfall from a higher place told me all about you
The funeral of the man I was told not to doubt you
Oh what we could do with your dress up round your shoulders
We could leave all our fears behind
I went in to the liquor store looking for a bottle
Of my favorite Bombay gin, the answer to my problems
But to my delight, the bottles were all taken
Ah yeah, another hero's night
Mother well led me to believe all my questions would be answered
Now I have it here, sitting on the table
Another word for the universe
Loose green tea and a bonsai tree, underground apartment
Check my email and wash my clothes while my rice is cooking
Oh Jesus Christ how I hate making phone calls
So I lead a lonely life
A waterfall from a higher place told me all about you
The funeral of the man I was told not to doubt you
Oh what we could do with your dress up round your shoulders
We could leave all our fears behind
I went in to the liquor store looking for a bottle
Of my favorite Bombay gin, the answer to my problems
But to my delight, the bottles were all taken
Ah yeah, another hero's night
Lyrics submitted by clasicrock
Ulysses Lyrics as written by Mason Stewart Jennings
Lyrics © Downtown Music Publishing
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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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.
is the second line "mother well led me to believe" as in his mom.... or is it Motherwell led me to believe all my questions would be answered... as in Robert Motherwell the abstract artist. I thought the actual person made a bit more sense than his mom telling him Ulyses would answer all his questions...though i could be wrong.
No, I think it has a better chance of being Motherwell the painter. One of Motherwell's most famous paintings is titled "Ulysses." Although, the double meaning is quite poetic.
Robert Motherwell was "obsessed" with James Joyce. It's definitely not "Mother well"< but rather "Motherwell led me to believe..."
I think this song is about buddhism, or him giving up his previous religion... green tea, underground apartment, and rice are references to asians... it makes sense since the last lines consist of repeating Buddha
If you aren't listening to this right now you should probably punch yourself in the face. I don't think Mason is a Buddhist or anything, he's just chill and respects things as they come. Also note that the title is "Ulysses", which is quite possibly the hardest to read, stream-of-consciousness book in the entire world, so it should come as no surprise that the song comes across as wonderfuly jumbled.
This is a song about feeling lost and alone in life, and losing to one's fears. He looks for answers in an old book of wisdom, in his desire for a girl, and ultimately in gin. The book doesn't teach him anything, the girl is only a fantasy, and he's not even able to buy his drink of choice. Sarcastically he compares himself to Ulysses at the end because he "heroically" avoided getting drunk.
I remember him talking at various concerts in the early days about a time in his life when he got mono for like 6 months. He talked about how he tried to read Ulysses during this time, never finished it, and said "I like magazines." A lot of these lyrics conjure up images from his life at this point. This was when his first album was out and was a hit, they tried to record a follow up with his original band, and he got mono and the band sort of fell apart for awhile. When he came out of his sickness, the Mason Jennings Band had become Mason Jennings, the original drummer was gone and the band suddenly had a saxophone. Anyway, the time between the first and second album, when he had mono is the time of his life alot of these lyrics seem to refer to.
I think his chours says it all eh?
"buddha...buddha...buddha...buddha...buddha"
;)
Just my opinion, but I see each verse as being a Zen Koan, a story to help Zen students reach enlightenment. In each verse he acknowledges some attachment: meaning of life, loneliness and anxiety, desire, and finally an attempt to surrender to drunkenness. In each verse he also hints at how he deals with each of those attachments: the journey to find Ulysses and now it's sitting on the table, his daily routine despite loneliness, "we could leave all our fear behind", and finally his "delight" that the "bottles were all taken". Each of these mundane details, paradoxical reactions, and truly equanimous reactions are exactly what you would find in a Zen story.