In regards to the meaning of this song:
Before a live performance on the EP Five Stories Falling, Geoff states “It’s about the last time I went to visit my grandmother in Columbus, and I saw that she was dying and it was the last time I was going to see her. It is about realizing how young you are, but how quickly you can go.”
That’s the thing about Geoff and his sublime poetry, you think it’s about one thing, but really it’s about something entirely different. But the lyrics are still universal and omnipresent, ubiquitous, even. So relatable. That’s one thing I love about this band. I also love their live performances, raw energy and Geoff’s beautiful, imperfectly perfect vocals. His voice soothes my aching soul.
There was a time when there was nothing at al
Nothing at all, just a distant hum
There was a being and he lived on his own
He had no one to talk to, and nothing to do
He drew up the plans,
learnt to work with his hands
A million years passed by and his work was done
And his words were these...
Hope you find it in everything,
everything that you see
Hope you find it in everything,
everything that you see
Hope you find it, hope you find it
Hope you find me in you
So she had built her elaborate home
With it's ups and it's downs,
its rains and its sun
She decided that her work was done,
time to have fun
and she found a game to play
Then as part of the game
She completely forgot where she'd hidden herself
And she spent the rest of her time
Trying to find the parts
Hope you find it in everything,
everything that you see
Hope you find it in everything,
everything that you see
Hope you find it, hope you find it
Hope you find me in you
There was a time when there was nothing at all, nothing at all
Just a distant hum
Nothing at all, just a distant hum
There was a being and he lived on his own
He had no one to talk to, and nothing to do
He drew up the plans,
learnt to work with his hands
A million years passed by and his work was done
And his words were these...
Hope you find it in everything,
everything that you see
Hope you find it in everything,
everything that you see
Hope you find it, hope you find it
Hope you find me in you
So she had built her elaborate home
With it's ups and it's downs,
its rains and its sun
She decided that her work was done,
time to have fun
and she found a game to play
Then as part of the game
She completely forgot where she'd hidden herself
And she spent the rest of her time
Trying to find the parts
Hope you find it in everything,
everything that you see
Hope you find it in everything,
everything that you see
Hope you find it, hope you find it
Hope you find me in you
There was a time when there was nothing at all, nothing at all
Just a distant hum
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"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."
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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,
No Surprises
Radiohead
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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.
Page
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There aren’t many things that’ll hurt more than giving love a chance against your better judgement only to have your heart crushed yet again. Ed Sheeran tells such a story on “Page.” On this track, he is devastated to have lost his lover and even more saddened by the feeling that he may never move on from this.
Saw Howard perform this last night and got to thinking about the lyrics. Back in the 80s, I thought the "being" in this song was some kind of God figure, with the "distant hum" being the background radiation of the Big Bang..but thanks to the Internet, I see now that Howard is a Nichiren Buddhist, so it actually might be about the Eastern cyclical nature of existence with the universe being created, destroyed and created anew. Although this may also be an early "eco" song, I think that the "game" she plays might not just be 'capitalism' but the bustle of civilization as a whole which divorces humanity from the quiet susurrus of nature and the universe.
I think it was impressive that songs like "Hide and Seek" and others that had deeper political and societal meaning regularly became part of New Wave canon and climbed the pop charts. I'm thinking especially of anti-nuke and anti-war songs such as Nena's "99 Luftballons," The Fixx's "Red Skies at Night", Paul Hardcastle's "19", Heaven 17's "Let's All Make a Bomb," Human League's "The Lebanon," Peter Gabriel's "Games Without Frontiers," Industry's "State of the Nation," Alphaville's "Forever Young", and many more of that ilk. Songs about the collapse of industry like Big Country's "Steel Town" and China Crisis' "Working With the Fire and Steel". You don't see that any more, really.
The song is about the origin of the Universe, but whereas many here have "Christianicized" it, it is actually about the origin of the Universe, from the Buddhist and Advaita Vedanta (Hinduism) perspective. The "She" is not humanity. Both the "He" and the "She" are the same original being (pure consciousness, Brahman). He uses He in the first verse and She in the second verse to defeat the duality of gender. The point of the song is that everything is Brahman; everything is the original being. If you want to put it into Christian language, "everything is God" and "God is in everything" and everything is "made of God" - there is no other substance in existance. Seperation is an illusion; the illusion of the game, or of creation. So the original being makes his/her creation and then "loses herself in it". She extends her consciousness into finite objects (all living things) that forget their true nature. The meaning of life is to remember who one is; not a seperate 'person', ego, or soul, but the one. At the time of writing, Jones was (and still is) exploring and practicing Buddhism. This story is the root of Buddhism. We are all inter-dependent and connected, because we are all "it". I recently visited a Nichiren Buddhist meeting in Durham, and Jones had been in attendance there just one week prior (he is friends with the group leader, through the SGI UK organisation). Nichiren Buddhist - like every form of Buddhism has non-duality at it's heart. Seperation is an illusion. We are all aspects or viewpoints (where the word 'ego comes from), of the original being in this song. Nichiren is just a way of practicing, that works with the law of cause and effect. Other forms of Buddhism; Zen, Theravada, Mahayana, etc, have alternative practices and emphases, but all are rooted in the non-duality that is the basis of this beautiful song.
Can't believe nobody has commented on this song! As a 15 year old I wa well into this sort of stuff, still makes me smile when I hear it now. I'm guessing it's an early eco protest song. Not sure if Jones is religious, but I think it's about god creating the earth and leaving us to it for a million years - his 'hoping we find it' is meant to be love, peace and a 'heaven on earth'. Instead 'she', meaning us, built our elaborate homes (referring to the industrial revolution) and found a game to play (capitalism). As 'part of the game, she completely forgot where she hidden herself and spent the rest of the time trying to find the parts' - basically, we've f*cked the planet up to such a degree that there's no turning back now, it's too late. This in 1984 as well...scary. The final line to me is about God coming back, seeing what's happened and deciding to wipe the slate clean. I'm not religious, so I'm not preaching here, but I can certainly empathise with what Jones is saying here. Oh, and by the way, a beautiful, moving piece of music, stirs the soul and I would never, ever try to hit those high notes in company!
You are wise as you are sharp, friend, wow im 45 an eighties kid, and you? the eighties rule totally, theres nothing like them, from early cool music decades ago the eighties brought it all to fruition, theres remnants in the nineties and throughout the two thousands today, but sparse, weak, lacking and copying from the past, just rehashing it etc those assholes, that stuff is sacred, you cant touch the eighties, if any fuck was to ever try to make a 'breakfast club 2' id personally desire to kill them with my bare hands, tv, movies, music-EVERYTHING was the BEST, in the eighties, and its all timeless, relevant to today and always, despite the total fuckup times we live in now, howard jones like all eighties, is deep woven with simple at the same time, you explained this song very well, you're a very insightful person, and I appreciate it so much, 80s everything is so simple woven with deep and profound that to understand the profound you have to understand the simple and vice versa, they beautifully intertwine in everything eighties-music-tv-movies-a piece of shit on the ground - if it happened in the eighties, it is simple and profound at the same time, something the sheeple of today cant and dont understand if it was carved on their heart-you can't make anyone 'get it' either they do or they dont, and true eighties people got it all, while today's sheeple call good evil and evil good-this rank crass shit of today -tv, life, movies, so called music - EVERYTHING is SURREAL and nothing short of living in hell day after day, after living in the incredible eighties, its...theres not words for how fucked up it is today and been since then, since cool music's inception throughout history the eighties pretty much ended it-cept the assholes today are straining, gasping at anything to try to 'force the music' that is the ultimate taboo and damnation not only in music but anything really, you can't manufacture anything, it either is natural or its not. Today its the total complete opposite and thats why the majority of these 'people' are robots-no creativity, no nothing. Well, I can relate to this song and to howard jones, i have for years like most eighties TRUE ARTISTS, he seems like a christian but says it without directly saying it-like so many fake 'christians' do.....sure, you can share Jesus directly, its fine if done in love, sincerity, but thats rare what with all the major bullshit posing as 'christian' today, Jesus will just save somebody or he wont, I'm a born again believer in Jesus since age 6 or 7 and im 45 now, and God has been incredible throughout my entire life til now and i know he will continue to be-he has shown me how he works so incredibly through ways people can never fathom, imagine-he is so far beyond man's ways, it truly is deep deception and arrogance for men to think they know the ways of God, which brings me to howard jones, he can say something som powerful in his music without ever uttering a word, this is what people dont understand, Jesus reaches; touches people in so many different ways-there's no set formula-like men think-and I think Jesus must have touched you in some way to see the beauty of this song and explain it the way you did-you know-its not far off at all from the biblical account, see, the bible says the 'letter' kills, its the Spirit that gives life-example: some boring lecture by someone as opposed to giving hugging loving sharing with people-love is love in action or it is not love at all, but just boasting in oneself. Lastly dear friend, after all you explained, believe it or not, I still am puzzled after all this, why would howard jones name this song 'Hide and Seek'? whats your take on that as applied to your explanation of this song?<br /> Thank you so much and I hope Jesus reveals himself to you as the only way hope truth and life and that you repent of your sins and receive Jesus into your heart and become new in him! <br /> Love in Jesus,<br /> David cz<br /> at: emailforyou11@gmail.com
@Bazob1 - I am afraid you are quite far off the mark here with your explanation. The song is about the origin of the Universe, but whereas you have "Christianicized" it, it is actually about the origin of the Universe, from the Buddhist and Advaita Vedanta (Hinduism) perspective. The "She" is not humanity. Both the "He" and the "She" are the same original being (pure consciousness, Brahman). He uses He in the first verse and She in the second verse to defeat the duality of gender. The point of the song is that everything is Brahman; everything is the original. If you want to put it into Christian language, "everything is God" and "God is in everything" and everything is "made of God" - there is no other substance in existance. So the original being makes his/her creation and then "loses herself in it". She extends her consciousness into finite objects (all living things) that forget their true nature. The meaning of life is to remember who one is; not a seperate 'person', ego, or soul, but the one. At the time of writing, Jones was (and still is) exploring and practicing Buddhism. This story is the root of Buddhism. We are all inter-dependent and connected, because we are all "it".
@Bazob1 Yes I think we're on the right track @Davidqyp it's always best to control one's ego and avoid being a religious zealot. Not a good look.<br /> It might be true that Howard Jones had Buddhist thoughts in his heart in 1986 but according to this interview in 2022 he only embraced it thoroughly in 1996. unlockingconnecticut.com/2022/02/12-questions-with-howard-jones/
Replace "He" with God "She" with Mother Nature and "It" with Love
Thank You Howard Jones