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.
Happy new year everybody
Happy birthday country joe
I resolve to do like I always do
There's an overweight man with an overweight woman on a sofa just watching tv
Hes yelling his opinion at the television she looks up from her food and agrees
They got two bumper stickers on there pick up truck
They keep the pick up parked outside
One sticker says "what would Jesus do?"
The other bumper sticker says "power of pride"
I was thumbing through the stations on my own television
When I came across a guy on the religious station
Singing "somebody's coming" sounding whiter than me somehow
Wow
It took me back in time through dwindling joy
To when I was such a guilt ridden catholic boy
I'm evangelical agnostic now
I don't know what we're doing here
You don't "KNOW" what were doing here
Now Christians don't walk out on me just yet
You know whose name I'm yelling as I'm clutching my chest
The one my dad told me to and his told him to
And I probably pray as much or more than you do
Believe? shit, every word I sing
But believing and knowing, those are two different things
And if your trying to change the way a strangers life will have to go
I believe this is where I wanna stick to what I know
Which is nothing you know, nothing for sure so
Just chill til the next episode
Now back to the lecture at hand
Seems like my neighbor wants to kill what he cant understand
I say we cant just kill what we dont understand
But I turn on my tv and see that oh yes we can
We can and we have since then dawn of man
For countless gods whose only real seeming plan
Was to see to it that clinging to life was our fate
And you gotta admit that life's pretty great
But
Can we deny that its killing us?
Ill be here all week
Happy new year everybody
Happy birthday country Joe
I resolve to do like I always do
I ain't hurtin' you
If life is anything its embarrassing
A rusty nail through a careless shoe
You cant help but sit around and wonder sometimes
Why there's never anything the poor nail can do
Or think about how unfair it is
That the shoe is only going where it has to too
If you ain't the dumb kid out running around
You kinda gotta do what your born to do
Hey
Happy new year everybody
Specifically happy birthday to you country joe
I resolve to do like I always do
And I only ever make it a day or two
Happy birthday country joe
I resolve to do like I always do
There's an overweight man with an overweight woman on a sofa just watching tv
Hes yelling his opinion at the television she looks up from her food and agrees
They got two bumper stickers on there pick up truck
They keep the pick up parked outside
One sticker says "what would Jesus do?"
The other bumper sticker says "power of pride"
I was thumbing through the stations on my own television
When I came across a guy on the religious station
Singing "somebody's coming" sounding whiter than me somehow
Wow
It took me back in time through dwindling joy
To when I was such a guilt ridden catholic boy
I'm evangelical agnostic now
I don't know what we're doing here
You don't "KNOW" what were doing here
Now Christians don't walk out on me just yet
You know whose name I'm yelling as I'm clutching my chest
The one my dad told me to and his told him to
And I probably pray as much or more than you do
Believe? shit, every word I sing
But believing and knowing, those are two different things
And if your trying to change the way a strangers life will have to go
I believe this is where I wanna stick to what I know
Which is nothing you know, nothing for sure so
Just chill til the next episode
Now back to the lecture at hand
Seems like my neighbor wants to kill what he cant understand
I say we cant just kill what we dont understand
But I turn on my tv and see that oh yes we can
We can and we have since then dawn of man
For countless gods whose only real seeming plan
Was to see to it that clinging to life was our fate
And you gotta admit that life's pretty great
But
Can we deny that its killing us?
Ill be here all week
Happy new year everybody
Happy birthday country Joe
I resolve to do like I always do
I ain't hurtin' you
If life is anything its embarrassing
A rusty nail through a careless shoe
You cant help but sit around and wonder sometimes
Why there's never anything the poor nail can do
Or think about how unfair it is
That the shoe is only going where it has to too
If you ain't the dumb kid out running around
You kinda gotta do what your born to do
Hey
Happy new year everybody
Specifically happy birthday to you country joe
I resolve to do like I always do
And I only ever make it a day or two
Lyrics submitted by ADimeADexter
Happy New Year Lyrics as written by Todd Daniel Snider
Lyrics © Wixen Music Publishing
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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