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.
You must understand though the touch of your hand
Makes my pulse react
That it's only the thrill of boy meeting girl
Opposites attract
It's physical
Only logical
You must try to ignore that it means more than that
Oh, what's love got to do, got to do with it?
What's love but a second-hand emotion?
What's love got to do, got to do with it?
Who needs a heart, when a heart can be broken?
Oh, what's love got to do, got to do with it?
What's love but a second-hand emo-
Oh, what's love got to do, got to do with it?
Who needs a heart, when a heart can be broken?
Oh, what's love got to do, got to do with it?
What's love but a second-hand emo-
Oh, what's love got to do, got to do with it?
Who needs a heart, when a heart can be broken?
It may seem to you that I'm acting confused
When you're close to me
If I tend to look dazed I've read it someplace
I've got cause to be
There's a name for it
There's a phrase that fits
But whatever the reason you do it for me
Oh, what's love got to do, got to do with it?
What's love but a second-hand emotion?
What's love got to do, got to do with it?
Who needs a heart, when a heart can be broken?
Oh, what's love got to do, got to do with it?
What's love but a second-hand emotion
What's love got to do, got to do with it?
Who needs a heart, when a heart can be broken?
What's love got to do, got to do with it?
What's love but a second-hand emo-
Oh, what's love got to do, got to do with it?
Who needs a heart, when a heart can be broken?
Oh
Oh, what's love?
What's love?
Makes my pulse react
That it's only the thrill of boy meeting girl
Opposites attract
It's physical
Only logical
You must try to ignore that it means more than that
Oh, what's love got to do, got to do with it?
What's love but a second-hand emotion?
What's love got to do, got to do with it?
Who needs a heart, when a heart can be broken?
Oh, what's love got to do, got to do with it?
What's love but a second-hand emo-
Oh, what's love got to do, got to do with it?
Who needs a heart, when a heart can be broken?
Oh, what's love got to do, got to do with it?
What's love but a second-hand emo-
Oh, what's love got to do, got to do with it?
Who needs a heart, when a heart can be broken?
It may seem to you that I'm acting confused
When you're close to me
If I tend to look dazed I've read it someplace
I've got cause to be
There's a name for it
There's a phrase that fits
But whatever the reason you do it for me
Oh, what's love got to do, got to do with it?
What's love but a second-hand emotion?
What's love got to do, got to do with it?
Who needs a heart, when a heart can be broken?
Oh, what's love got to do, got to do with it?
What's love but a second-hand emotion
What's love got to do, got to do with it?
Who needs a heart, when a heart can be broken?
What's love got to do, got to do with it?
What's love but a second-hand emo-
Oh, what's love got to do, got to do with it?
Who needs a heart, when a heart can be broken?
Oh
Oh, what's love?
What's love?
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More Featured Meanings
Love in a Vacuum
'Til Tuesday
'Til Tuesday
The Spy
Doors, The
Doors, The
Like a lot of the other comments are saying, I think this mainly about voyeurism. If the song was about his girlfriend, then why would he use the word spy. If you are a spy it means you shouldn't be caught, that is kind of the whole point, and if you are a voyeur, the whole point of the pleasure you get from it, is the fact that the other people don't know you are watching them. See a bit of a connection there?
Battle Royale
Word Alive, The
Word Alive, The
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.
The Night We Met
Lord Huron
Lord Huron
This is a hauntingly beautiful song about introspection, specifically about looking back at a relationship that started bad and ended so poorly, that the narrator wants to go back to the very beginning and tell himself to not even travel down that road. I believe that the relationship started poorly because of the lines:
"Take me back to the night we met:When the night was full of terrors: And your eyes were filled with tears: When you had not touched me yet"
So, the first night was not a great start, but the narrator pursued the relationship and eventually both overcame the rough start to fall in love with each other:
"I had all and then most of you"
Like many relationships that turn sour, it was not a quick decline, but a gradual one where the narrator and their partner fall out of love and gradually grow apart
"Some and now none of you"
Losing someone who was once everything in your world, who you could confide in, tell your secrets to, share all the most intimate parts of your life, to being strangers with that person is probably one of the most painful experiences a person can go through. So Painful, the narrator wants to go back in time and tell himself to not even pursue the relationship.
This was the perfect song for "13 Reasons Why"
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."
One of the greatest songs ever.My favorite line of this song is "What's love but a secondhand emotion,who needs a heart when a heart can be broken".As for the meaning of the song,i think it's simply about how the word love is just thrown around in a relationship,without any real thought,I saying you love someone,doesn't mean anything if you continue to hurt them,and the guy in the song is just using the word love to make up for all the hurt,which is just unacceptable to the woman.Now i'm a guy but I agree with this song because I feel that also if a girl hurts a guy and tries to make up for the hurt by using the word love,it's meaningless and unacceptable.
My dad says that this song is about Tina's husband who was very abusive. It does fit quite nicely. What's love got to do with all the pain that you've caused me? Why is love supposed to explain why my heart keeps breaking? But honestly, if he keeps hurting her, if he was so abusive, why did she stay with him for like...25 years? The mind works in mysterious ways. I don't want to judge her because I am not her, I don't know what she was thinking and honestly, I can relate to this sort of situation. It's really difficult to leave someone you love.
We love you Tina, thank you for your words. =]
"But honestly, if he keeps hurting her, if he was so abusive, why did she stay with him for like...25 years?" <br /> <br /> My mother was in an abusive relationship with my father for 19 years. Through many stories I began to understand... the abuse was a gradual build. When you’re with the man you love and he does something that hurts you, not everybody has the immediate reaction of - "that's abuse" but rather minimalise into simply, a horrible fight which follows with a great deal of sympathy and remorse by the abuser. When my mother also wanted to finally leave she had us as her children to also worry about, and the now extreme physical distance to figure out how to return to her family. She had savings she had hidden under her mattress which were found and burned by my father, constant hospital trips if he ever got wind of what was happening, etc. I believe I also came across a documentary about Tina Turner’s marriage which also explains her personal story of domestic abuse. There are many reasons why it’s much harder than to just pack a bag and go, and many reasons for women to be supported regardless.
Geez. You are so judgmental. At least she eventually left.
Geez. You are so judgmental. At least she eventually left. It's also not easy to leave when you have children.
The song isn't about Ike Turner, although it's true that he abused her. It was written by a pair of songwriters for the singer Cliff Richard, and Tina wound up recording it instead of him.
Hey guys! I'm the original poster and I'd like to say that my parents are in an abusive relationship and have been for over 20 years. What I said, I said because it meant something deeper to me, sorry for sounding insensitive. Also, at the time I posted this, I was freshly 16 so don't judge too harshly!
I think that this song is about a woman who doesn't want to fall in love again with an obviously attractive man due to a bad relationship experience in the past.
This man is obviously (sexually) very attractive (his touch makes her "pulse react") but for her own "protection" she says to him 'nope sir', a guy won't cause me a "broken heart" (again).
In the refrain she just asks a general question about the value of love at all, she concludes that love in real life is not what it is suppopsed to be according to ones imagination and /or dreams. At first you fall in love with an attractive man but than your heart will be broken (he will cheat or misstreat you).
But she also states that she isn't all happy about her beeing reluctant to love because she actually doesn't really want to spend her life alone. "But I have to say... It scares me to feel this way" because even though she has made bad experience in the past, she still has hope that she will find the right one finally.
On the other hand it might be interpreted as a song about a woman who uses to have sex with the guys but doesn't wand to start deeper relationships with them because real love can turn out painful. (She likes to have a 'higher pulse rate' but doesn't want to have a 'broken heart')
chears
"But whatever the reason you do it for me". :) ;) :)
@redshiftdazzler Of course, because she loves him, but she\'s afraid.
AISH! I can't believe this wasn't on here!! This is one of her most famous songs, if not THE most famous!!! i've known every single word to this song since i was like 4 lol it's a AWESOME song!
i think it's about couple where basiclly their just 'benifiting' that they are just using eachother for sex but they both really like eachother. like maybe the guy came forward and said he loved the girl but the girl is trying to deny it...
yeah lol
Love is a secondhand emotion because it's given to so many people. Like, the guy she's referring to in the song has probably "been in love" before so it's not like getting something new. Does that make sense?
I think the song starts out as I-won't-fall-in-love but then in the second verse she's in denial. "There's a name for it; There's a phrase that fits; But whatever the reason you do it for me..."--That phrase? "In love."
"I've been thinking about my own protection It scares me to feel this way."
She's been trying to protect herself from getting hurt, so she's scared to feel like she might be falling in love.
I just went to pick up a coney dog and chilly cheeze fry and was cruisin down the road. I always liked this song and never really thought about what it meant before. So what does love have to do with it? I think everything and nothing and no inbetween. Anywho, I had a smile on my face so that's a good thing.
This song is very underrated. Very catchy, unforgettable, and yet simple. Tina's best!
I've always taken it to mean that she LOVES the guy, but she doesn't want to admit it. Sounds like her lover is in love with her already and she's afraid to love him because she doesn't want to be hurt again. it's a tongue-in-cheek comment
@My Interpretation Yes, this! Finally! She has feelings for a guy but for whatever reason she is afraid to get emotionally close. She isnt singing to the guy, but singing to herself, maybe rationalizing in her mind.
@edenroseYes! I completely agree. I think you are spot on. Or maybe she knows she loves him, but for whatever reasons she is afraid to take the plunge, and the song is her talking to herself and rationalizing.
It’s not, “I’ve been thinking about my own proJection”?
Sure has always sounded like that to me but it could be proTection too.
@force263 Its definitely protection